Ducati's Valentino Ro꧅ssi has described his pace during the ope🦄ning day of practice at Assen for Saturday's Dutch TT as a 'decent step forward'.

Rossi 🍬ended the day just ninth fastest on combined t🉐imes, but the Italian superstar was only four tenths of a second behind Ben Spies at the top of the times.

The nine-times world champion managed his best time on the🌟 harder compound rear tyre - albeiꦿt whilst following Dani Pedrosa - putting him as high as fourth, before he ended the afternoon with the eighth quickest time.

Rossi, whose team-mate Nicky Hayden set the third fastꦬest time on a soft compound rear in the afternoon heat, said:

"Today went pretty well, especia෴lly in the afternoon. I'm eighth, but the gap to the front is only🐎 four tenths, which is a decent step forward for us.

"Now the bike works well🦩 with new tyres, but we have to keep working on our race pace," he added.

"Both Nicky an🐈d I start sliding a lot when the tyre is worn, so we have to slow down too much compared to the others.

"Tomorrow, in order to be more con🦄sistent and improve the pace, we must try to improve rear grip without losing it at the front. Anyway, today wasn't a bad start."