Rossi concerned about poor Qatar pace

The 2008 championship gets underway at the Qatar track next weekend, but Rossi ended this week's test only 10th fastest.

The former champion, who has switched from Michelin to Bridgestone tyres on his Fiat Yamaha this season, said he was surprised by his lack of pace in Qatar.

"After the results in Sepang and Jerez I expected to also be quite fast here, but we have some problems," Rossi told the official MotoGP website.

"In the corners I'm not so fast. We have to improve the setting of the bike because we lose too much time on the edge of the tyre."

But Rossi is optimistic that Yamaha can find a solution during the practice sessions next weekend.

"The first race is close and it will be a hard battle," he said. "But we have some different settings to try on the race weekend, so we'll see."

Rossi's new teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who has retained Michelin tyres on his bike, was fastest in last night's final session, beating his team leader by 1.7 seconds.