Valentino Rossi 'very lucky' to qualify on MotoGP Germany front row

Rossi qualified third at the Sachsenring, finishing 0.412 seconds behind polesitter Marc Marquez, to secure his fifth front-row start of the year, equalling his entire 2015 tally.

After setting a 1m21.666s on his first run, he did not improve in the closing stages as Pramac Ducati rider Danilo Petrucci set an identical time, but Rossi's second-best lap was faster.

From Rossi in third, the balance of the top 10 was split by just 0.226s.

"I'm very lucky to remain in the front row because unfortunately I wasn't able to improve with the second tyre because I was stuck in traffic," he said.

"Usually one or two people improve with the second tyre and you finish [the session] seventh.

"But fortunately I was able to stay on the front row, it's a good place to start the race."

Rossi admitted Yamaha struggled in Friday's cooler conditions, and he finished the day 14th.

His fortunes improved with increased temperatures on Saturday, but he remains wary of different conditions on Sunday.

"In the right condition we are quite competitive, we can make a good race," he said.

"But it looks in practice that Marquez is a bit faster, so it will be difficult.

"But now the bigger question mark for everybody is the weather, because everybody is saying that tomorrow will be more similar to yesterday, and it seems to be very, very cold.

"We are in big, big trouble [if it's cold] because we are not able to ride the bike.

"If it is wet it's a big question mark for everybody because we start from zero and we don't know if we are competitive or not."

MARQUEZ WARY OF ROSSI THREAT

Marquez is undefeated at the Sachsenring in the MotoGP class, but he expects Rossi to be more of a threat in race trim than he was on Saturday.

"I did a good lap but honestly for tomorrow like I already said yesterday, Valentino is not far [off the pace]," said Marquez.

"Maybe on one lap he has four tenths [deficit] or something like this, but for the race pace we are very, very similar.

"We will try to manage the start well. If it's wet it's a question mark for everybody."