Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi has admitted he is in a little bit of pain after two MotoGP free practice sessions at Motegi and has struggled to find at rear grip in the wet conditions.
The Doctor, and team-mate Maverick Vinales, had hoped to make some progress with the wet setup and electronics on the factory M1 but the pair ended up in 11th and 12th places - outside Q2 should conditions be worse tomorrow - and a full 1.5s off the pace.
“I’m in some pain, but it’s not a big problem. Unfortunately we struggle, because today we had two complete practices in the full wet and we could work on the setting, but both sessions were not fantastic,” said Rossi.
“We are a bit in trouble, the bike is a bit difficult to ride and we don’t have enough rear grip, so it’s difficult. We hope that the conditions become better, or we try something tomorrow and we’ll see.
"Entry, exit, we don’t have grip. So we have to struggle with the bike. We try, but we don't fix the problem. We are quite worried because today we do a lot of modifications but at the end, no way. So we don’t have a lot more to do than this, this weekend, so we need to understand for next year.
"Already in corner entry I'm very slow. I don’t feel the rear and in acceleration we have a lot of spin."
