Rossi's Michelin-shod Fiat Yamaha had struggled to adapt to the newly resurfaced Sepang racetrack during Friday and Saturday, leaving the Italian just ninth on the grid and without, he believed, anything like a decent race set-up.
But some last-minute alterations worked wonders and, despite dropping to eleventh at turn one, Rossi was able to consistently lap at the same pace as the race leaders. The Doctor went on to set the second fastest lap of the race, on the penultimate lap, before claiming fifth position at the chequered flag.
"Of course I'm disappointed with fifth place, but I am very happy with my race today," said Rossi. "It's a pity because we had great potential this afternoon and, if we had been able to start from the front row, I think we could have fought for the victory. We made some modifications today and luckily everything worked much better during the race than it had during practice. We were fast this afternoon, we had a great rhythm but unfortunately we really lost the race yesterday in qualifying!
"I took some time to find my rhythm at the start of the race but once I did I realised I had a great pace and that my bike and tyres were working very well. I tried to catch de Puniet [for fourth] but, even though I was a tiny bit faster than him, the difference was only one or two tenths and so it wasn't enough to be able to make up three seconds. My Michelin tyre worked very well to the end today so this is encouraging for Valencia, where we will be trying one more time to win before the end of the season," concluded Rossi, who is nonetheless rumoured to be switching to
Bridgestone tyres for 2008.
Team-mate
Colin Edwards was unable to replicate Rossi's advance, the Texan rising from 13th to 10th as he struggled to concentrate due to the after affects of an illness.
