Rossi: Race pace is a concern for tomorrow

Yet again in 2015 Valentino Rossi has left himself plenty of work to do in Sunday’s race. The championship leader has done a fantastic job of fighting through the pack this year but with Marc Marquez and Jorge Lorenzo enjoying such a strong pace this weekend it’s going to be a major challenge for Rossi to finish in the top two.

“Today was a little bit more difficult for me compared to yesterday,” said the Italian. “This morning we started well, we made some improvement in the setting and I was quite fast with the pace. Also with the lap with the new tyre was not so bad. But unfortunately in the afternoon, for me was more difficult. When the temperature raise, with more hot in the afternoon, I coming a bit of trouble with the tyres. Because in the morning with less degrees I was able to keep a good rhythm, but in the afternoon I suffer more. I have too much degradation also with the front but mainly in the rear.”

While his one lap pace has been an issue all year race pace has been Rossi’s strength. This weekend however he needs to find an improvement in the morning warmup if he is to feel confident on the grid. 

“The thing that I’m more worried about is my rhythm, my pace, because I am half-a-second slower than the top three in the pace. So we need to find something for tomorrow to improve and now we will try to work with the team and try to improve in the warm-up. For me the warm-up will be important to understand if we can make an improvement.”