Rossi: Fall, slick gamble follows 'good morning'

After a miserable opening day at the Japanese MotoGP, a 'happy' Valentino Rossi jumped up the timing screens from twelfth to second place, as wet conditions continued on Saturday morning.

But the Movistar Yamaha rider's fortunes took a knock, literally, with an accident in final practice, which robbed him of his number one bike, plus a recurrence of rear-grip issues as the track began to dry.

Those grip problems helped prompt Rossi to take a slick-tyre gamble for the start of qualifying, which backfired.

All of which put the Italian back to where he had been on Friday; twelfth.

Rossi's FP4 fall, a highside at Turn 8, was his first since returning from a broken leg. But fears of further injury soon evaporated as the nine-time champion climbed to his feet and tried bump-starting his M1.

"I was lucky because it was a highside but fortunately the bike rotated below me," explained Rossi, speaking in the Motegi paddock on Saturday evening. "I have some more pain now but it's okay, I didn't hit the leg a lot. A finger [Rossi has a small bandage on finger] as always! But it was good because it was quite a big crash."

Rossi made multiple attempts to restart his bike with the help of marshals, but although he eventually got the machine back to the pits his efforts were for nothing.

"It was my race bike with the best setting and so it was important to have for the qualifying," he said. "But unfortunately there was too much damage, so I made a lot of effort for nothing!"

The clear highlight of Rossi's day was the improvement in rear grip during FP3 - both Rossi and team-mate Maverick Vinales having openly questioned what more they could try after struggling with the season-long issue again on Friday.

"We started well this morning, because in the full wet we improve a lot the setting and I was - I don't want to say surprised - but I was happy because I did some good lap times," Rossi said.

The improvement did not come from the electronics, but "Setting. Rear setting especially. Electronics you always work on from Friday to Saturday and Saturday to Sunday, because the more numbers you have, the more precise the settings.

"But the biggest step was the balance and the modifications to the setting at the rear."

However those improvements did not work when the track began to dry at lunchtime.

"Unfortunately in FP4, we don't change anything, but we suffer very much in the conditions. When we don't have enough water, we suffer as always with the rear grip.

"So also a little bit for this reason we try to take a risk [on slicks in Qualifying 2] because have already some dry line."

Rossi was the only rider to take such a slick gamble at the start of qualifying, although Marc Marquez did so later in the session, after already posting a quick time on wets.

"Unfortunately it was still too wet and also the track didn't dry quick enough," said Rossi.

"So you have to go very slow, and when you go very slow the problem is that the temperature of the tyre goes down a lot and after that it is very difficult to come back to a normal grip. So no way.

"Anyway, because it's cold the track is drying very slow. Half an hour after qualifying the track still remained similar."

All of which means Rossi is now pinning his hopes on a fully wet race, as is currently forecast.

"Starting from twelfth will be very difficult tomorrow, but for me the most important for us will be the conditions. If it's full wet, I think that our pace is not so bad. With less water, no."

Meanwhile, Johann Zarco and the 2016 Yamaha will start on pole.

"He was very good because he put the super soft [wet] at the end and did one lap. I think he made the difference and also we know that that bike in the wet is better. So these things together.

"But this morning I was good. I don’t know if I had made a normal practice like [Zarco] and then put the super soft at the end, what my potential would have been. But I don't think a '53 was possible for me."

Title contender Vinales, who continued to struggle throughout the day, will start just 14th after failing to progress through Qualifying 1.