Valentino Rossi is confident he and the Movistar Yamaha team can deliver no matter what the weather throws at them in tomorrow’s MotoGP race at Sepang.

The Doctor will start from second on the grid after being pipped only by Ducati’s Andrea Dovizioso in today’s qualifying session.

And although he was quick to point out that today isn’t important and that it’s race day that matters, the Italian seems confident he can capitalise on his front row start and make a push for the front in the race.

“The race is tomorrow, today is not very important,” he said. “But to start from the front row is always a good feeling and especially is important for the race

“Today was a good day I can ride well, I feel good on the bike in both conditions also this morning, I was good from the beginning and I think that everybody hope for a dry race tomorrow because we can see a good fight.”

Rossi said he felt the new asphalt recently laid at the Malaysian track had gone some way to influencing the outcome today, and is convinced tomorrow could be a close scrap between himself, Dovizioso, team-mate Jorge Lorenzo and Marc Marquez who starts from fourth.

“This morning we were really fast, and also the first four are very close and the pace is very similar,” he said.

“But anything can happen because unfortunately, although the asphalt is very good, it have a good grip and less bumps, something wrong happened because need a lot of time for drying up so it’s not the normal condition. Also, you can push but you always try to stay concentrate.

“I was not so bad also in the wet, and for full wet or full dry we can be quite strong.”