Valentino Rossi admits he needs to “find something” if he is to have a chance of winning MotoGP’s Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island after qualifying seventh.
Rossi had to fight his way through Q1 on Saturday as he finished outside the top 10 across the first three practice sessions, and eventually ended up 0.817-seconds behind polesitter Marc Marquez.
While the Yamaha rider finished second at Phillip Island last year despite starting from 15th on the grid, Rossi reckons a similar recovery this year will be much more difficult.
“Last year was a great race [and] I enjoyed it a lot,” said Rossi, who is still recovering from the broken leg he suffered in late-August.
“But unfortunately this year, today, I am not fast like last year.
“We are not so far [off the pace] but at the same time I am not strong enough at this moment to make a good race to fight for the top position, so we need to find something.
“I am not in the first two rows, but anyway I am the first of the third [row] so I am not so far.”
Rossi was also not satisfied with the setup of his bike, saying: “I was able to arrive at quite a good laptime very early [in qualifying], but after it was too much limit at the [corner] entry.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t able to improve the last lap to be in the top five.
“I am not very happy about the setting of the bike – we have to try to make it better.”
“I was a bit too much at the limit with the front and also I had the soft front that helped me in Q1, but for the Q2 it was the limit, it was all damage.
“Two or three degrees makes a big difference.”
Rossi said he felt better in Saturday morning’s wet FP3 session than he did throughout last weekend’s rain-soaked Motegi round, but is nonetheless hoping for dry conditions in the Australian race.
“This morning in the rain when I went on full wet [tyres], I think I felt better compared to Motegi, I had a better feeling,” he said.
“But when the track started to dry, [it] looks like we were not comfortable with the bike.
“So [I’m] hoping for good weather, for [the race to be] dry. “We have to wait [to see] the weather, we hope that at four o’clock [tomorrow] it will be good like today.”