Rossi: It'll be difficult.

Valentino Rossi faces the unusual scenario of starting Saturday's inaugural Qatar Grand Prix from the third row of the grid, after finishing today's final qualifying session at Losail just eighth fastest.

Unfortunately for the Italian, the dusty nature of the desert circuit means it's expected to be one of the most difficult race tracks to pass on - with only a slim racing line separating grip from no grip.

"I'm happy because we set the bike up well today and we had a good rhythm with the race tyre," claimed Rossi, who has run off track in every session so far. "Unfortunately I finished eighth because I had a problem to use the qualifying tyre. I also went straight on in the last corner towards the end of the session and so lost about five minutes as I had to go back to the garage.

"It's a shame because starting from the third row will make life difficult tomorrow as it will be hard to overtake," he conceded. "We have about one-and-a-half metres where there is a clean line and outside that there is no grip because of the sand. We're probably going to make some small modifications tomorrow morning, but it is going to be a difficult race for us."

"Despite the fact that (Rossi) was the fastest rider out there on race tyres he ended up on the third row in the final melee. Tomorrow he'll need all his ability to get a good result," added team manager Davide Brivio. "It will be a hard race because of the hot conditions but also because of the nature of the track where it's easy to make mistakes.

"The result is very unpredictable but with Valentino we need to think of the championship and try to score as many points as possible," concluded Brivio, pointing out that Rossi's 39-point championship lead over Sete Gibernau means he doesn't need to win every race.