Rossi satisfied but with improvements still to make

In search of GP victory 101 this weekend in California the sensational winner of last year’s Laguna Seca race Valentino Rossi was the fastest man at the track on Friday as the round eight action got started.

Topping the FP1 timesheet ahead of his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Ducati’s Casey Stoner by 0.112s and 0.189s respectively, with a 1’21.981 lap, Rossi knows he needs to stay on the pace and to improve his setting on Saturday in order to keep in front of his young rivals.

“It was a good first practice because I’m in first place and also because we worked well on the bike,” said the iconic Italian rider. “We checked some interesting things, we tried to improve the feeling with the bike and we gathered important data in order to improve on Saturday.”

The 30 year-old continued, “Already the lap time is not too bad. We are very close together again with Stoner and Lorenzo but it looks like we are competitive and our Yamaha is good here at this track.”

Asked about the specifics as to where he will focus on Saturday, Rossi replied, “We have to improve the setting still, because on certain corners it is possible to make it better. We are also working a lot on the electronics so that we control the ‘wheelies’ because on this track there are lots of bumps and jumps, so tomorrow we will continue to work in this way.”