Lorenzo to fight for victory, says Rossi

Rossi, who switched to Bridgestone tyres this year, qualified down in seventh place, while the other Yamahas on Michelin rubber swept the front row. The top Bridgestone runner is reigning champion Casey Stoner on Ducati Marlboro in fourth spot.

"No, I think Lorenzo can fight for it too," Rossi told Italia1 television when asked if tomorrow's race will be a fight between just himself and Stoner.

"He's going really fast, and he seems to have the quickest pace. He's doing extremely well and he's gone immediately quick. He's showing to be a great talent.

"As for Stoner, he has been better than me, he was a few tenths faster than me in qualifying but then he knows the tyres better, so he managed to extract more from them. However, he struggled too, so there's work to do for him as well."

The Bridgestone race tyres are expected to have the upper hand over the Michelins, especially on the initial laps of the race.

"Yes, we are quick from the start," confirmed Rossi. "So that's an important card to play tomorrow in order to overtake the guys in front of me who go slower than me.

"We knew we had to struggle a bit with the qualifying tyres. We are working, but unfortunately we are not ready yet, so I'll have to start from behind.

"However I feel well with the bike, I'm riding not bad. Today we've improved a lot with the set up and my pace on race tyres ain't bad. I'm rather quick.

"Unfortunately I'll have to start in seventh, so it'll be a bit hard, but we're ready for tomorrow and I expect to be able to do a good race.

"Last year I started almost always on the first row, but the problem was that I couldn't finish the races."

Tomorrow will be the first-ever MotoGP race to be run at night, with the flood-lit Losail circuit being affected by the cooler temperatures

"Unfortunately we struggle a bit too much after 11pm, which is the time the race starts. It's a matter of temperature. But it's not bad, it's good experience for next year. As for the circuit lighting, I've already said it's fine." concluded Rossi.