Rossi says more pace needed to win

Stoner dominated practice in Holland and took his second consecutive pole position, while Rossi was pushed back to third on the grid when Dani Pedrosa improved on his last lap.

Rossi was only 0.139 seconds slower than Stoner's pole time, but thinks the Ducati rider will be tough to beat.

"To fight for victory tomorrow, especially with Casey, we have to improve a bit," said Rossi.

"We made some small modifications in practice and also another one before the last qualifying tyre, which worked well.

"So we hope to work on the race tyres too, but we have to wait to understand which type of tyre to take because the conditions here change a lot very fast so it's important to understand if it will be wet or dry and what the temperature will be before we decide the tyres."

Despite his concerns about Stoner's potential race pace, Rossi was content with the outcome of qualifying.

"I'm happy, because the first row is always my target for qualifying and we're very close," he said.

"Unfortunately I had some small problems with the last tyres, but the lap time is quite good and if it's dry tomorrow I hope to make a good start and a good race."