Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi has said that conditions during free practice at today's opening MotoGP session at Indianapolis were dangerous and that he sat out the first 20 minutes to preserve his engine.

The Doctor ended up third fastest behind Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa after the tiny Spaniard put in an outstanding lap with only 20 minutes of the session gone which was never bettered.

“I sat out the first twenty minutes in order to save the engine mileage and by the time I went out it was very wet. Unfortunately the track wasn’t draining so well where there is new asphalt and in some corners it was quite dangerous with standing water and a risk of aquaplaning," sais The Doctor.

"This weather was unlucky but it wasn’t such a bad session and our pace and setting in the wet was quite good. We were able to improve the balance of the bike and if the conditions are like this again then we have some ideas to improve further. Luckily however it looks like the weather will be much better and so tomorrow we will start again from zero in the dry!”
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