Rossi expects to improve in race

Although former champion Rossi was frustrated not to qualify higher, he believes he has a more competitive race set-up than most of those ahead of him.

"In the end I'm seventh unfortunately," he told Italia1 television. "I was also beaten by riders who go slower than me on race tyres. With the last tyre I could have made the front row, but we had a small problem so I will have to start as low as the third row.

"However I'm happy anyway, because this afternoon we've found a very good set-up, and with the race tyres only (Casey) Stoner is a bit quicker than me, so I'm fine.

"The problem is on Fridays, because Ducati must be running with something else, since they always go one second quicker than they do on Saturdays. But on Saturday, where we should all be on race configuration, we aren't too far off.

"There are two or three places where I still lose time, but we'll try to do a bit better tomorrow and to make up some more time."

By contrast, although the resurgent Lorenzo claimed his best grid slot since Le Mans, the Spanish rookie believes he will fall back on race day.

"Our race set-up is a bit of a disaster: we lack rhythm and confidence," Lorenzo said.

"We struggle a lot, I can't be happy. I'm angry. Let's hope that if the result doesn't come tomorrow, it will at the next race."