Rossi looking for strong result

Rossi set the second-fastest time in this morning's opening session but didn't fare as well in the rain-affected afternoon session, ending it over two seconds behind Nicky Hayden's session best.

"Today we are back to work after the championship victory but I can say that my motivation is still very high and I really want to have a good result here," said the Italian.

"I am quite happy with this morning's session, second is not so bad and I managed to do some good laps and find a strong rhythm quite quickly.

Despite only being headed by Casey Stoner in the morning, the Fiat Yamaha rider wasn't 100 percent happy with his bike in dry conditions, with some work needed to reduce wheelspin: "It wasn't perfect however and we need to work a little bit on the tyres with Bridgestone.

"This track is very hard on tyres, especially the left side where there is a lot of stress and at the moment we have a bit too much rear spin.

Rossi also wasn't happy with the set-up in wet conditions, lacking feel on entry: "In the wet we were a bit slow and we lack some feel on the entry to the corner, so if it is wet again then we will need to work on this.

"Now we will have to wait and see what the weather does tomorrow in order to see what we have to focus on."