Valentino Rossi worried about Barcelona MotoGP race chances

The Italian jumped up from ninth to fifth at the very end of qualifying on Saturday, but wound up 0.735 seconds off the pace of polesitter Marc Marquez.

Earlier on Saturday, following the overnight change to use Barcelona's Formula 1 layout, Rossi also left it late to secure a guaranteed place in the the second phase of qualifying, having sat outside the top 10 for the bulk of the third practice session.

While Rossi's margin to team-mate Jorge Lorenzo in second is a less imposing three tenths, he feels he is in a "difficult situation".

"A difficult day today," Rossi said.

"Yesterday was not so bad. Usually our bike is very competitive on this track, but with the modifying of the layout we suffered a lot - more than what we expected.

"The bigger problem for us is the medium tyre gives us quite good pace, like the other guys, but after seven or eight laps the tyre is very damaged and the tyre gives up.

"The hard tyre can resist for all the race, but unfortunately it's very tough to ride and it's impossible to go fast. We are a 1.5 seconds minimum slower.

"In the end I was in fifth position in qualifying, that is not so bad, but we are very worried for the race tomorrow.

"We are in a difficult, difficult situation."

World champion Lorenzo qualified on the front row of the grid for the sixth time in seven grands prix this year, but had already expressed his view that tyre selection on Sunday would be "complicated".

While in favour of the layout change on safety grounds, he feels the slower, first-gear corners later in the lap - particularly the chicane complex in the final sector - has taken away one of Yamaha's strengths.

"I think the pace was not bad," he said.

"Obviously yesterday T4 was the sector I had the most advantage over the others but now it doesn't exist. But the race is very long, anything can happen.

"With these conditions we have to manage to get the best result possible tomorrow, obviously it's not simple for us, because the first-gear corners for our bike are not the best ones.

"This has much more benefit for Honda, but I think the safety is very important."