Rossi: we are a long way behind

The Italian could manage no better than 14th, having suffered an engine failure in second practice and being forced to take his spare bike. But with teammate Colin Edwards only three places further up the order, he is under no illusions about the task his team need to undertake if they are to turn things around.

"Today was very, very hot, much more than we expected," said Rossi. "We're a long way behind because unfortunately we were following different set-ups with my two bikes and the one that was working better had a technical problem. On my second bike, with the different setting, I wasn't able to improve and so here I am in 14th.

"The situation with the tyres is not so good and we have a lot of work to do, even if we know that Michelin can work here because they are in front with another rider. For us the situation isn't great at the moment and we need to find a way to turn this around.

"It's the first day and I know that if we can improve a few things then we can be in a better position. We have to do the maximum tomorrow and see where we get to."

Edwards said that the one glimmer of hope for the team was the fact that a tyre they tried out late on appeared to lift their performance by around one second per lap.

"This morning and early this afternoon things were not looking good at all," said the American. "We couldn't find the right setting or the right tyre and we were crossing our fingers that something was going to work out for us.

"Mid-way through the afternoon however we tried our last tyre and we were immediately one second faster, so at least there's no doubt now that's the right direction to follow.

"We've got a lot more work to do, both on setting and with the tyres, so we need to have a good look at the situation tonight to make sure we make the most of the time we've got left to us.

"We were two seconds off the pace and now we've closed that gap to one but that's still way too much and we're really going to have to pull out all the stops tomorrow."