'Better day' for Rossi

After an unrepresentative 17th in Friday practice, Valentino Rossi duly enjoyed a better day two at the German MotoGP.

On Friday, the Italian laid the blame squarely on the same electronic-related acceleration problems he has highlighted since August 2017, lamenting that they are still waiting for upgrades from Yamaha.

Those are not expected until the post-race test at Brno in August, but set-up work on the balance of the M1 helped his situation on Saturday.

Rossi jumped to fourth (+0.281s) with new medium front-soft rear tyres in FP3. That secured direct access to Qualifying 2, where he claimed sixth on the grid (+0.262s) during another ultra-tight session. However, Rossi's pace on used tyres remains a question mark.

"Today was better for us compared to yesterday, because we worked on the balance of the bike, we improved, and also yesterday we tried something to improve the acceleration, but it didn't work," Rossi said.

"So today, I was a bit more competitive already from this morning, my pace is not too bad, also if it's not the best for sure," added The Doctor who was ninth quickest (+0.364s) when working on race pace in FP4. 

"But starting from the second row is very important for the race, because for sure the start and the first lap will be very very important. 

"And also, it will be very important to make the right tyre choice, because it's still very open. We still don't understand which rear tyre is the best. 

"So we have to work to check the data tomorrow morning, and I think the tyre choice will be crucial, because I think the second half of the race will be difficult for everybody. 

"The choice is between soft and medium, because the hard has a different casing. It's a safe tyre, but the performance is drastically less. It's one second per lap slower. It's a little bit like Moto2. 

"So if the choice is open, nobody will choose the hard, but we still don't understand if the soft or the medium [rear] is better for us."

Rossi also cited tyres as the reason for the lack of MotoGP falls at the fearsome Turn 11 corner so far this year.

"Because we have the right tyre," he said. "We need a very very soft tyre on the right, and with Bridgestone was always very critical, but also with Michelin, but this year they made another big step on the right, and now we have better grip, so it's less dangerous."

Rossi is currently second in the world championship but 41-points from Marc Marquez, who will start the race on pole position.

Team-mate Maverick Vinales will also start on row two, in fourth place.