The still recovering Valentino Rossi had an eventful start to the day, topping the third free practice session and combined time sheets as well as walking away from a late crash in FP4!
Thankfully, despite the fall, he was his cool and collected self at the start of Q2.
Riding with a special Mugello helmet that pays tribute to Nicky Hayden, Marco Simoncelli, and retiring Italian football captain Francesco Totti, the Doctor put his head down on his second flying lap and dropped a 1'47.539s to take provisional fifth place, before returning to the pits for fresh tyres with seven and half minutes to go.
He left the box almost three minutes later, giving the competition a head start to ensure clear space on track as he joined an intense battle for the front row.
Finding himself in eleventh place, he pushed hard to shave a big chunk off his time with his 1'46.814s third attempt, securing second position on the grid, next to his teammate.
“Today we did great work, carrying on from yesterday. My condition improved and we also improved the setting of the bike. This morning was the first practice that I ended in P1 this season, so I‘m very happy because I did a great lap time,” he said. “This afternoon I was also strong, but unfortunately I made a stupid mistake at the end of FP4 and I slid.”
“Fortunately it was no problem, also because it was with the second bike, I didn't damage the right bike. However, I lost a bit of feeling, so to make this second place was good, even better than normal, because when you start with a mistake, maybe you need it sometimes. I think the race will be very tough from every angle, because it looks like there are six other bikes with the same pace, so to start from the front row is very important.”
