Movistar Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi is worried by his pace on the extra-hard Bridgestone tyre in second MotoGP free practice at the Sachsenring today but was forced to use it as he has only three of the favoured hard tyres to use tomorrow in free practice and qualifying.

The Doctor ended up in tenth place in the afternoon because the tyre he used caused too much understeer and even a last-ditch effort to change the setup failed to cure the problem.

“This afternoon I am not very happy because at the beginning of the practice this morning, it was very good, I was happy because I have a good feeling, good laptime with used tyre and good position in third so I was optimistic for the afternoon but with more temperature I suffer because I change the front tyre, put the hardest front and I have a problem,” said Rossi, speaking at the track.

“We don’t have the right setting for use the extra-hard on the front so I have more problem and have to go more slow. At the end, we try something but we don’t fix the problem 100 per cent so I am a bit more behind. I am not happy to ride the bike at the limit so tomorrow we have to improve the setting, try to find the right balance to use the hard front and we will see. Is important to stay in the top ten and be ready for qualifying.

“The good tyre, which is the hard, we have only three, so we couldn’t use today. So I have to use the extra-hard and with the extra-hard I suffer very much with a lot of understeer. We have to work better as Jorge used the extra-hard and is faster than me.I’m a little bit worried, especially because for tomorrow morning we have to improve and understand the problem.”