Ducati's Valentino Rossi will study team-mate Nicky Hayden's data tonight in an effort to find out why the 2006 world champion was more than a second faster in today's MotoGP qualifying session at Losail while The Doctor languished at the back of the prototype field.

Rossi was more than a two seconds off the pace of fastest man Jorge Lorenzo after expecting a second-row start for the floodlit season opener and cites both front and rear grip problems as the cause of his woes.

"After the practice of yesterday afternoon, we expect a lot better and try to start on the second row but we are more back so I think for the race will be hard. We are very far from this target. it is very strange, we make some small modify but the feeling was a lot different and worse, and after we come back to the setting of yesterday we go a little better but no way to make a result," said a downbeat Rossi, speaking to bikesportnews.com this evening.

"I lose a lot in acceleration when I open the throttle but it is very difficult to turn the bike entering the corner. More or less all the problems before but bigger. So Nicky make a good practice, he made some other, different modifications and went faster so now we check from the data for tomorrow to modify something to follow him because he did a good soft tyre in the practice. It is pity because we expect to go more like him but we a lot more on the back."