Rossi reassured about race tyres

The Yamaha rider was a lowly 18th quickest in the final free practice session this morning and was very concerned about his race prospects.

However, having tried an alternative Michelin race specification during qualifying, Rossi is now feeling more confident.

"I'm happy with how it went because this morning we suffered badly and we were a bit desperate," he told television station Italia1 after qualifying second.

"It's tough, we are trying to work the best we can with Michelin but we are struggling a bit.

"Fortunately as a last effort we had a last tyre to try out this afternoon and it seems to be going well: it seems to be the one with which I can best keep up the rhythm so it's not a bad situation."

Rossi's qualifying time was 1.1 seconds slower than he had managed in the televised shoot-out at last month's IRTA test at Jerez. He suggested that the more restrictive race weekend format and his own underperformance contributed to his comparatively slow time today.

"On qualifying tyres I managed to go one second faster a month ago with similar conditions here," he admitted.

"I could have done better (today), and on top of that we had four (sets of) tyres then so it was easier.

"So when I saw my lap time I thought it would be beaten. The important thing is to start from the front row, and then we'll see tomorrow."