Valentino Rossi says work needs to be done to get to the bottom of the issues which slowed him down in the first day of MotoGP free practice at Valencia, as his Movistar Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo topped the timesheets in both sessions.

The Doctor had a tough afternoon as he struggled to find the grip he needed on hard or soft tyres, and had to make do with just the eighth quickest time at the end of free practice two.

The Italian admits he isn’t happy and says he and the team now need to find out where it’s going wrong, and why, in his words, he’s just not strong enough so far this weekend.

“We start this morning in quite a good way,” he explained. “FP1 was quite positive especially at the end. I put the hard rear on, it was a bit colder but I’m feeling very comfortable with the tyre and with the bike and at the end I finish in second place.

“We continue in the afternoon with the tyre and we try also the hard front but for some reason in the afternoon was a lot more difficult, especially with the rear. It doesn’t provide enough grip, enough feel and after two of the lap my rhythm was not fantastic.

“It looks like also a lot of other riders have some lack of grip with the hard so at the end we put the soft on and we change also the front because I don’t feel comfortable.

“I improve my lap, I improve my pace but it’s not enough because I am not happy about the setting, about the balance of the bike because in a lot of corner I struggle too much and I am not strong enough.

“Now we check the data, we try to work and we try to improve the balance for tomorrow.”