Rossi: Fall cost me top-six start

The early accident forced Rossi to switch to his spare Ducati, on which he was not able to do any better than 12th.

"I tried with the soft tyre but I wasn't fast enough to improve my position," he said. "It's a great pity because starting from 12th position will be very, very difficult.

"I think we had the potential for the second row today. That's what we expected with the other bike - and we had the potential to fight with the second group in the race.

"But now starting from 12th, first we have to understand the weather of tomorrow and for sure starting from the fourth row will be more difficult.

"But we'll put bike one together, wait for the warm-up, and we will see."

Rossi said the crash was purely a result of pushing too hard.

"I was 0.3s faster than my best lap on that lap," he admitted. "I was pushing a lot, perhaps a bit too much."

The race day forecast for Jerez suggests rain is possible, which Rossi said would not necessarily help him as he has never tried the Ducati on a wet track.

"If rain is likely we'll start from zero for everybody," he said.

"If it will be wet, I'd be happy for it to be wet from the warm-up. If it will be wet just for the race, it will be difficult."