Having been just 16th on Friday, Rossi provided hope of a recovery by setting the seventh fastest time in Saturday's final free practice session, only for his hopes to evaporate in the afternoon heat.

The Fiat Yamaha rider spent most of the hour-long session outside the top ten as he struggled for grip on race tyres, before briefly firing up to second place with a qualifying Michelin. But that became ninth by the end of the session and The Doctor sees little reason for optimism.

"This morning things were feeling better for us and we were a little bit more confident. Unfortunately this afternoon, with the higher temperatures, our tyres didn't work in the same way and we were much slower and sliding quite a lot," said Rossi. "With the qualifying tyre I was quite confident and they worked quite well, as they have all season, and I thought there was a chance for the front row. With the second one I thought we could improve again but I had a slide in the third section and lost some time, and so now we are on the third row.

"I am quite disappointed because our race pace is not good at the moment and we needed to be on the front row to give us the best chance possible for tomorrow. It will be difficult to use the warm-up to our advantage because the conditions are different to those we will probably have during the race, but anyway we will do what we can and try to make the best from the situation," he shrugged.

Team-mate Colin Edwards just 13th and, unusually for the Texan, was almost lost for words.

"There's really very little to say about today and I think it's better if I say 'no comment!' stated Colin. "We've got some big problems and it hasn't been fun. I want to say thanks to all my guys; they're working so hard to try and make a difference and find a way to improve things and I know they won't give up at any point. It's going to be a very hard race but it's not over till it's over so we'll just have to wait and see what we can improve before 3pm tomorrow and what happens after the lights go out."

"We're in quite a difficult position and now we have to try our hardest to find a better package for the race," confirmed team director Davide Brivio. "At the moment we just don't have enough grip and both riders are struggling to contend with this, so we are quite slow."