Rossi: "With new tyres we're very good, but..."

Last year's podium finisher off to a good start at MotorLand but room to improve pace on used rubber

9-time world champion Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) was fourth fastest on Friday at MotorLand Aragon, but the Italian was also top Yamaha as Repsol Honda and LCR Honda locked out the top. With good pace on new tyres shown on the timesheets, the Italian is however preoccupied by rivals' seeming advantage on used rubber towards the end of the race, and will be working towards leveling the field for Sunday's race.

Valentino Rossi (P4): "In both practice sessions, in the morning and the afternoon, I was always quite strong but we have a lot of work to do, because we are good with the new tyres, the hard and the soft, after some laps. We are concentrating on this point of view, because it will be interesting for Sunday. From this first day we take some data and are quite happy. The first impression is this: with the new tyres we are very good, but after some laps our main rival suffers less with less stress on the tyres. This is quite worrisome for us and we have to get closer."