Just five days after the race at the Mugello Circuit, Valentino Rossi was back on the asphalt on Friday for the first free practice sessions ahead of this weekend's Gran Premi Monster Energy de Catalunya.
Rossi was one of the few riders who took the risk of heading out on the damp track at the start of FP1.
He completed a number of laps to get familiarised with the new layout at turn 14-15, until the circuit slowly started to dry. He went out on slicks later in the session just to get a feel for the changing conditions and posted a best time of 1‘48.863s for 17th place on his final attempt.
Temperatures rose to a balmy 26 degrees, as the Doctor returned to work in the afternoon.
Completing a thorough set-up evaluation during his 17 laps of the Barcelona circuit, Rossi concluded the session in ninth position, both in the FP2 results and in the combined times, with a firm plan for Saturday‘s opening practice.
"For us it was a problem, because we didn‘t come here for the test. This means we need all the minutes of the practice sessions because we have a lot of work to do, but in the end the only real practice was this afternoon," he said. "Sincerely, this afternoon was nothing fantastic, but anyway my pace with the race tyre at the beginning was not so bad and we made some small modifications."
"There are a lot of riders with a good pace. At the end, whilst riding on the soft tyre, I thought I could do better, arrive in a better position and also improve the setting of the bike, but at the end I‘m just 10th*. I expected to do better, but it‘s also true that I‘m not far behind"
"It will be a very tight fight, especially tomorrow the main target is to try to stay inside the top10, that will be very important. We need to work because we need to improve and after we need to try the tyres."
