Rossi: I expected to be stronger

Valentino Rossi is counting the cost of a broken chain midway through the opening practice session at Le Mans which messed up his programme, with the knock-on effect denying him a sustained shot at a late time attack to reach the top 10 in FP2 at the French MotoGP.

The Monster Yamaha rider was forced out of action halfway through FP1 when his chain broke on his YZR-M1, forcing him into a quick dash back to the garage for his second bike.

Having lost key track time, Rossi concedes his programme was expanded in the second session to make up for missed laps from FP1, leaving him just the single lap on new soft tyres to reach the provisional Q2 spots in the top 10 in the closing stages of FP2.

But the nine-time world champion could only produce a 1m 32.320s on his all-important lap which left him 14^th on the combined times. With rain forecast for Saturday morning’s FP3, Rossi accepts his hopes of reaching the automatic Q2 spots ultimately rely on how track conditions are tomorrow morning.

“We had some problems during the day and, sincerely, I expected to be stronger,” Rossi said. “But unfortunately I wasn’t very fast, so we have to work this evening to try to find something better.

“In the end I did just one lap with the soft tyre and I’m outside the top 10, so now we have to hope that tomorrow morning I can ride in dry conditions to try to improve, and we have to try to work on the bike to have better pace.”

Rossi found himself outside the top 10 and automatic Q2 spots last time out at the Spanish MotoGP, leading to his lowly 13^th place on the starting grid, meaning despite his best efforts in the race he could only reach sixth place at the finish.

Monster Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales topped Friday practice at Le Mans, 0.892s faster than Rossi, while both Petronas Yamaha riders Fabio Quartararo (third) and Franco Morbidelli (11^th) also ended the day ahead of the Italian rider.