Rossi says work needed to close gap

Stoner dominated both practice sessions on Friday, with Rossi second quickest but nearly half a second behind his Ducati rival.

Championship leader Rossi said his day was not as good as he was hoping for, but is still hopeful he will be able to close the gap to Stoner tomorrow.

"We made quite a good start today but not as good as we could have hoped, so we still have some work to do in order to close the gap to Casey," said Rossi.

"At the moment the main problem is T4, where I am quite slow and so we really need to look at the data and work out why.

"Anyway we're still second so we're close, but I hope tomorrow to be closer because it seems that everyone is quite competitive here so we're going to have to work hard. We have some ideas and we will see what we can do.

"It's great to be racing in the sunshine so close to my home, on the track which was the first one I ever rode on, and I really hope we can make it a fantastic weekend for all of the fans."