Rossi upbeat despite mixed practice

Although the Chinese MotoGP winner was third in the morning, he could only manage sixth place in the second session and failed to improve on his earlier time.

"This morning we started quite well, I had a good rhythm and I was able to be third fastest with a good time," Rossi said.

"This afternoon to begin with it was also okay but then we tried some different things and it wasn't so good; we tried a tyre I didn't like so much and also a setting that didn't feel so good so overall the result was not great.

"We weren't able to improve our time from the morning but we actually learned quite a lot, which I hope will help us, so now we just need to work hard to decide what is the best way for tomorrow.

"I am confident we can improve. It wasn't a perfect day but we know why we didn't improve so we're not too worried."

Conditions were overcast with occasional spots of rain in practice, and Rossi said he hoped conditions did not worsen as the weekend progressed.

"The weather isn't so good, with some spots of rain, but actually we expected worse for Le Mans, so if this is as bad as it gets I will be happy," he said.

"It may rain properly tomorrow in which case we will have different things to work on. I would prefer it to be dry of course but we will have to wait and see."