Rossi feels well placed after Misano start

Valentino Rossi closed the opening day at Misano in a positive frame of mind after going fourth fastest in practice, having found an immediately comfortable level on his factory M1 machine. The Italian was 0.767s off leader Dani Pedrosa but despite the gap to the Spaniard Rossi was pleased with the progress made on his bike.

"I'm quite happy because we did a good job during today's practice, especially towards the end when we made a big improvement to the setting of the bike and I was able to make some faster lap times,” said Rossi. “We have some more things to try, some electronics and some tyre settings, but I already feel confident so this has been a good way to start.”

Rossi, who has won for the past two years at Misano and will enjoy a strong home support this weekend, continued: “We're quite far from Pedrosa, who was very impressive today, but we're close to Dovizioso and Lorenzo. Tomorrow we will try to find some tenths and improve our time a bit.”

Commenting on his fitness, which he stated had been a big factor last weekend at Indianapolis, Rossi added: “My physical condition is okay, I don't have too much pain but this track has two or three hard braking sections to the right and I suffer a bit with my shoulder at those points."