Valentino Rossi said he is happy with his continued progress over the weekend in Brno, although the Italian did admit winning his first MotoGP race in over a year would be a tough ask.

Topping the free practice sessions and starting from the middle of the front row, Rossi enjoyed a successful Saturday after ending day one in the Czech Republic seventh fastest overall. Despite this, Rossi said the work put in on the new tyres saw him enjoy a much better day.

“During the practice I struggled, I always struggle, because my pace unfortunately is not very strong,” conceded ‘the Doctor’.

“We tried to understand the different things of the bike, especially the different combination from the tyres, both the front and rear. So we did a lot of testing but in general, on the used tyre we are not very fast.

“Already from yesterday, but especially from this morning I knew that I have a good lap with the new tyres. So I tried to stay focus and stay concentrate to have the good moment and the good position, and then I’m happy because I was able.

“My lap time was good, a 54.9, I was able to improve on the lap time of last year and also the lap time of this morning. It was a very good lap, I rode on the limit without make any mistakes, so it’s good.”

Despite the positive vibe after a good day and qualifying session, Rossi said that his race pace is still lacking, but remained optimistic thanks to his second place start.

“The race pace we are not fantastic,” he said. “It is more important to start from the front row, because I’m in the middle from Dovi and Marc, they’re the two guys with the better pace. It will be very important to try stay with them at the beginning and see what happens during the race.”

Rossi didn’t put any laps on the harder tyre during Friday’s two free practice sessions, before working hard with the tyre today. He admitted he it was a mistake to not test the hard tyre on Friday with uncertainty to what his race pace would be like on it.

“For me it was a mistake to don’t try the hard yesterday,” said Rossi. “Because maybe with more laps we can understand better. Anyway this morning I tried, but the problem is that I am not very fast, I gamble but usually I am not very happy about a gamble.

“If you go with the soft, you’re faster at the beginning but for me difficult to arrive at the end. But we have to see, especially about the temperature, because if we are less than today then maybe it’s more easy. But we’ll check and I will decide tomorrow.”