Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi believes he has good race pace for tomorrow's Mugello MotoGP encounter but will have to slice his way through the pack after another poor qualifying performance which saw him down on row three.

The nine-time world champion experimented with two race settings before qualifying and found something he liked but in terms of qualifying, he struggled again as team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and title rival Dani Pedrosa vied for top spot.

"Today was a bit more difficult than yesterday, we have some trouble and we try to work on the bike but anyway, the practice are not so bad. The half an hour before qualifying, we try two different settings for the race and with one my pace for the race is quite good," said The Doctor, speaking at Mugello.

"Unfortunately, Lorenzo and Pedrosa have some tenths also in the pace better than me. In the qualifying, we suffer a bit more. Today was a bit better, my lap time is not so bad but is a pity as we are very close from the third row to the first, is only two tenths or something but I am in the seventh position."

Rossi is also still having trouble with understeer on the YZR-M1 and in particular at the final fast chicane. On the exit, he isn't able to put the bike where he wants it on track so more work with bike balance overnight will try to fix the issue,

"We have to improve the balance of the bike and do some modify for tomorrow. At the end of the third sector and into the fourth, the fast chicane, there is lose. I don't have enough agility to make the change of direction. I have a bit of understeer between then and when I open the throttle."