By Stephen EnglishValentino Rossi admitted that Friday practice at Valencia had been a wasted day for the
MotoGP field, with the difficult weather conditions offering little in the way of effective track time for most of the riders.
“Another day wasted by the weather,” said Rossi. “This season we have had a lot of practice that is quite useless because the conditions are half and half like today. This morning was full wet so it was important for understanding but I wasn't fast enough.”
Even so Rossi did comment that he felt that Ducati had found a solid set-up with which to use for the rest of the weekend. The Italian admitted that it was similar to that used at Le Mans, where he finished on the podium:
“This afternoon we tried a different setup, more similar to Le Mans, and straight away I had a good feeling with the bike in the first four or five laps. The feeling was not so bad and it will be important to understand our potential with the other setting tomorrow in the full wet conditions. I think that we can have good pace [in the wet] and also for the dry. At the end of FP2 my laps were quite good in the conditions.”
Wet weather has traditionally been the only opportunity for Rossi to shine aboard the Ducati and with the forecast continuing to be mixed for the rest of the weekend he could still have a chance of a strong finish to his disappointing time with Ducati.
Rossi will make his Yamaha return in Tuesday's post-race test.