Rossi says front row was possible

The Italian was the fastest Bridgestone user in Spain, but was 0.875 seconds slower than his factory Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who runs on Michelins.

"If yesterday they'd told me I'd start from the second row I would have signed for it, I would have been happy with fifth spot," Rossi told Italia1 television.

"Instead our potential was bigger. I could have done a 1:38 too, so I could have started second or third I think, but in the last run with the good tyre I had an electronics problem with the bike and I had to pit, unfortunately. I was a bit unlucky.

"As for race pace, I'd say it's not bad at all. We still have to sort out a couple of things and decide what tyre to use tomorrow, it will depend by the temperature.

"Let's hope we can have a good race. It would have been better to start from the first row, for us and for all the boys, but we are close with fifth spot."

When asked if he thought he could have performed better had he still been on Michelins, Rossi said it was impossible to compare because the electronic issue had compromised his session.

"We wanted to try one more thing, we got there a bit late and we weren't able to take advantage of the fourth (set of qualifying tyres)," he said. "So I did a 1:39.0 with just two qualifying tyres, and if I had two more maybe I would have done a low 1:38."

But he believes Lorenzo will be the man to beat in tomorrow's race, and conceded that Jerez is a bad track for Bridgestone.

"For tomorrow I think the best sorted guy is Lorenzo," said Rossi. "(Casey) Stoner has some difficulties. With Bridgestone we aren't exceptional here, but we knew that. We'll see what happens in the next races."