Rossi says Yamaha can go even faster

The reigning world champion led team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in a Yamaha one-two ahead of Ducati's Casey Stoner, mirroring the result of the last two races.

"I am happy with the session today, it was a good performance and at the end, with the harder tyre, we did an especially good job and I was able to make the best time," said Rossi.

"We need to work a bit to improve the front feeling because we can still make the bike a bit easier to ride in one or two corners and then we will also look at the electronics in order to control the wheelies, because there are a lot of bumps and jumps on this circuit."

But he does not think he will be able to dominate the weekend despite his strong practice times.

"Once again me, Lorenzo and Stoner are very close so we can expect another big fight this weekend, but we are confident that our M1 is working well," said Rossi.

Lorenzo was not concerned to be beaten to the top spot by Rossi in the final moments of the session, and thinks he is in particularly good shape for race day.

"I know that this is a very complicated circuit to get used to and that you have to make a lot of laps to learn it, but I did have some time on it last year and I feel great here now," he said.

"Today I stopped after a few laps and changed the tyre to the harder Bridgestone one and then I felt even better; I was having a lot of fun riding the bike and I was able to do more or less race distance with consistent lap times.

"We will work on further improving our setting tomorrow and I hope that I can continue in the same way again."