Friday Free Practice: 4th place

After finishing FP2 in fourth — 0.866s back of pace setter Andrea Dovizioso, and 0.6s off Andrea Iannone — Rossi says that he is concentrating on Ducati slipstream and fuel.

We have to just give the maximum, try to fix all the small details to go a bit faster on the straight. But you know, is very difficult to go faster on the straight. You can try to exit faster from the corner, but on the straight, the level is what it is. But you never know. It’s just Friday, we have Saturday, and especially the race is always different. It depends very much if we are able to keep the slipstream of the Ducati. The Ducati have a lot of horsepower, but what they are able to do better compared to the Yamaha and Honda is less wheelie. For this reason, they are very fast in acceleration. Because it looks like the bike accelerates more with less wheelie on the front. So for this reason it’s very difficult. It’s too early to say if we can fight with Ducatis. For me, for sure is more more important [Jorge] Lorenzo and [Marc] Márquez than the Ducati, but I don’t want to start just for third place. It’s too early. We have to try to stay with them. Also because 28 laps are very long.