Despite having had just the morning to get used to his new tyres in the conditions, Rossi finished the qualifying session in second place to Stoner and 0.2secs in front of Honda's
Nicky Hayden, who was the top Michelin rider.
"Today the conditions made things quite difficult so we didn't have quite the day we hoped for!" began Rossi, who was overtaken by Stoner early in the session. "Anyway I'm quite happy with our performance in this weather; it's the first time for me with the Bridgestones in the wet and, although we can see that we have some more work to do with the set-up of our bike, we were not so slow.
"Of course we know we can be faster with more time, and so it would be good to have another chance in the rain tomorrow. The main problem is that we are lacking a bit of front grip and the balance of the bike is not at 100%, so I can't enter the corner exactly how I want, but we will improve this.
"The first test in the dry with
Bridgestone was quite hard but now, after three tests, things are good, so of course it's going to be the same in the wet. At the end we came second today after just one morning, so I think we can be quite content with our day's work," he insisted.
"The bad weather was welcomed by us this morning because we haven't had a chance yet to try the Bridgestones in the rain," claimed team manager Davide Brivio. "We could have done with more time in order to be ready for the qualifying this afternoon, but we learnt a lot all the same. To come second after just one morning for us is positive. Unlike most of the rest of the paddock now we hope we have another really wet day tomorrow, so we have the chance to further refine our setting!"
Testing at
Jerez concludes on Monday.
