Rossi 'competitive', riding style 'very different now'

Valentino Rossi's ability to morph his riding style around ever-changing MotoGP technology has kept him at the sharp end of the field for much of his 400 grand prix appearances.

And after a 'competitive' start to the Malaysian MotoGP weekend, the Italian explained how he's gone back to the drawing board in search of new ideas after struggling with rear tyre life for much of this season.

It all comes down to stressing the tyre less and is very much work in progress.

"It looks like the riding style of the top riders has modified a little bit. It's like with the new bikes, new electronics and different tyres you need to ride in another way to find the limit," Rossi said at Sepang on Friday.

"Very much in braking, so try to brake in another way. It looks like in the last period a lot of riders work from this point of view. I've tried a different front brake. Today it looks like Marquez tried a 'scooter' rear brake [on the handlebar]."

Rossi's team-mate Maverick Vinales said he uses both a foot and hand-operated rear brake: "Which I use depends on if the corner is to the right or left. Because before I was braking, including with the rear, and then I had to let go of the brake to turn in to the right-handers. So it was not ideal for the bike and we needed to change that, to have more smoothness on the right corners."

"In general, you have to try to be fast without stressing too much the rear tyre. This is the bigger target for everybody," Rossi added.

In that case, does Rossi think he is stressing the rear tyre more than the other Yamaha riders in braking or acceleration?

"Good question. In general, what we think is it's more in acceleration and less in corner entry. In acceleration you need to be smooth to pick up the bike, but the style compared to 2-3 years ago is very different now.

"But sincerely speaking a lot of time we don’t see in the data why I stress the rear tyre more compared to the others. So we need to find a way, also with some different work on the bike.

"But anyway, for the first day it's okay."

Rossi set the third fastest lap time on Friday afternoon in Malaysia and claimed fifth place on the combined timesheets, which were again led by Petronas Yamaha rookie Fabio Quartararo.

Rossi had been quick from the start of the morning session and is cautiously optimistic about his race pace, although tyre wear remains a worry after this season's difficulties.

"Already from this morning, from the second lap, I was fast and so it means we start with a good base," Rossi said.

"It was a good day because I was quite competitive, especially in the afternoon I had a good pace with the medium tyres.

"In the last part of the practice I put the soft tyre and I could do a good lap and I'm in P5 overall. So we are quite strong. I feel good with the bike. This is important and today I enjoy, yes.

"But now we have to find a way to improve, especially about the rear tyres. We are always very worried about the rear tyre degradation because I always suffer too much… And it's just Friday, also in other tracks I was strong on Friday."

Team-mate Maverick Vinales was fourth fastest.