Rossi expecting very hard race

The Italian had been fastest in the dry final practice session, but struggled with his set-up in wet qualifying and could only manage 11th on the grid. He had been as far down as 16th before switching to teammate Colin Edwards' settings for his final run.

"Like at Donington, today we had the worst weather forecast for us," Rossi said.

"I'm quite upset, because on the dry I was fast, I had a good speed and a good rhythm, so I think it was possible to start on the front row and to fight for the win.

"But unfortunately this afternoon we had the rain. We made some mistakes in the rear settings for the wet, that work in the dry but are slower in the wet.

"At the end I go more like Colin's settings, and the lap time was not bad. We need to improve also the front. I'm able to go a little bit faster, but with the set of tyres I had, I had a vibration problem. So I had to use another tyre and it had a little bit too much movement, so I'm 11th."

Although he has twice won Grands Prix from 11th in the past, Rossi thinks the current generation of tyres now make it harder to make up that much ground in the races.

"Starting from the fourth row is difficult," he said. "I had good experience in my career from 11th place, because I won a lot of races - it's a good number for me, a good position.

"I think tomorrow will be harder because before at the end the tyres slid a lot so you had to control the bike. Now the difference between the first lap and the last lap is a lot less, so it's more important to make a good start and make a good rhythm, but it will be difficult for sure - a hard race. We hope it's dry."

Rossi had been critical of the Donington Park surface in wet conditions last week, but was much happier with the Assen track.

"For me it was slippery, but normal," he said. "The amount of grip on this surface is a lot more than Donington, and I think it was quite good grip."