Rossi hopes for wet race

The weather has been appalling for most of the event, with Friday morning practice seeing only two flying laps due to the level of standing water, practice two and three both featuring a very wet track, and qualifying cancelled altogether.

Rossi will start third on a grid formed by combined practice times, and is confident that his Yamaha will be quick in the wet. He pointed out that while normally rain on race day would not be a preference, the field is well-prepared for a wet race in Portugal having had plenty of running in such conditions.

"If it's dry tomorrow we will have the warm-up, but at this moment maybe it's better if it continues to rain and makes it a wet race," Rossi said. "Everybody has more kilometres [in that weather], for sure.

"I have a good setting on the bike, we had some small modifications to try this afternoon and we have good potential in the wet.

"If it will be dry, we'll try anyway."

Second-place qualifier Nicky Hayden agreed that the riders were better set up for wet conditions tomorrow, but did not think there would be any major dramas if the track turned out to be dry.

"If we have a quick dry warm-up or just a dry race, it would be a little bit unpredictable and a bit strange, but we're all professionals, we've been riding these bikes all year and we have some information on this track," he said.

"It would definitely be a bit of a gamble if it is dry tomorrow. But even if it's wet, we've practiced in it and qualified in it so it might be a bit more of a 'legit' race.

"We'll just crack the curtains when you roll out of bed in the morning and see what you get."