Valentino Ros♏si has admitted that he expected more from Saturday’s MotoGP qualifying session at Mote🉐gi, where he was only able to set the tenth fastest time.

On another strong day for Yamaha, in whꦕich three of the top four positions were occup🙈ied by M1s, 40-year old Rossi was further adrift and never in the reckoning for the leading positions.

During a weekend when he is working on a new braking technique with his right hand on the front🌟 brake lever, Rossi said he♋ is “not fantastic” in that area.

But he was far from without hope; the nine-time world champion believes the grid is “very close” ๊in terms of pa🔯ce, and believes Sunday’s dry forecast should play into his hands.

"We tried something a little bit different to improve the braking,” Rossi said, referencing his altered front brake technique. “It is a di🎐fficult job but we try. Today, I'm not fantastic in braking,💦 but apart from that in general for the setting, we are all very close.

“I expect more fr𝓀om the qualifying. Try to start a bit better, because in FP4 I was not so bad. But it's like this. We wait f🐼or tomorrow, for the conditions, because it looks like it will be completely dry.

“Yesterday in the dry my pace was not-so-bad, but we n💦ee🍒d for sure to work and improve."’

Rossi was🌺 fifth fastest at the end of Friday’s dry running and described 🔯the rest of the field’s pace as “very, very close.”

Sunday’s wa𝔍rm-up session will be essential in determining whether he has the necessary speed to mount a comeback from the fourth 🍷row, he said.

"We are very, very close and the pa♋ce yesterday in the dry was good. Today was quite dry but difficult conditions for everybody. So we need to understand if we can improve a little bit tomorrow and I have enough pace to recover."