Rossi rues poor track conditions

The Fiat Yamaha rider was third quickest in second free practice but was baffled by a lack of grip from tyres throughout the day.

And he thinks the state of the asphalt on the track may be the root cause of his problems.

"This morning we were struggling and we're not in perfect shape yet," said the Italian, who will celebrate his 200th Grand Prix start on Sunday. "Fortunately, however, this afternoon on the last run things improved a lot and we are now third.

"The main problem here is the asphalt because it doesn't have any grip any more and riding on it is very difficult. Of course the temperature was quite low, which didn't help, but in some parts of the track the asphalt is finished. It's a pity because this track is great, one of my favourites."

He added: "We have to hope that the weather stays dry because if it's wet it will be even worse. We have a couple of ideas to try tomorrow; we will try some different tyres and also some other solutions for the setting, in order to be faster in the direction changes.

"We had a very long meeting after the session in order to try to understand the problem, it's very strange because we used some tyres which are usually very good for us, but here they don't seem to work as they normally do. Third position is okay however, we're not so far from the top and tomorrow we will try to make some more steps forward."