Marlboro Ducati's Valentino Rossi is struggling to make progress on a slippery track at Sepang, finishing towards the back of the field after two free practice sessions in Malaysia today.
The Doctor made some rear suspension adjustments to his GP11.1 but is still unable to be fast through the quicker corners. He is planning to try the hard compound Bridgestone tyres as that is what he plans to race on but the track conditions may get in the way of that plan.
“The track conditions are very different, worse actually, than when we tested here during the winter, because the asphalt was very slippery today. It was really bad this morning, just a bit better in the afternoon. That makes it difficult to make a comparison between then and today, but we certainly weren’t as fast as we’d like to be," said the nine-time world champion.
"We changed something with the rear suspension at the end of the session that helped to improve the feeling with the bike, but we haven’t made enough progress in terms of lap times. Tomorrow we’ll see if we’re able to do better with a bit more grip. It wasn’t bad under braking today, but I’m not able to be fast in the corners, especially the fast ones. I really hope to be able to use the hard tyres because that would be the right choice for the race."
