Rossi: I was fast enough to win

Yamaha had a terrible time on Friday and Saturday, and the former champion lined up only ninth on the Sepang grid.

But he was able to charge through to fifth in the race, 4.7 seconds behind the victorious Casey Stoner, and set the second-fastest race lap - only a tenth off the Ducati's pace.

"From one point of view, I'm happy with my race because the rhythm was right for trying to win," Rossi said.

"The problem was yesterday, unfortunately. We suffered a lot with the change of temperature and the change of surface.

"Yesterday I was very slow and I didn't have any grip. My rhythm was 2:04.5, so two seconds slower than today. We worked on the bike this morning in the warm-up and especially after the warm-up.

"In the race I took the first lap to understand the new setting, but after I understood I had good potential."

Although Rossi has come from lowly positions to win many times in his career - including at Assen in June - he said the electronics on modern bikes were making it harder to make up ground in the races.

"My rhythm was very good, but at the end of the first lap I was tenth, with a lot of riders to overtake," he said.

"Now if you want to win, you have to start in front. When you are already 2.5 seconds behind after one lap and you have nine riders to overtake, it's difficult, because nowadays the difference between the best lap and the worst lap is not so big.

"The bikes are more easy to ride, and the electronics have helped everybody a lot. It's normal that the rhythm is faster and the tyres more constant.

"We'll try at the next race in Valencia to work well from Friday morning and try to start in front and have a good battle."