Ducati's Valentino Rossi has described his pace during the opening ✱day of practice at Assen for Saturday's Dutch TT as a 'decent step forward'.

Rossi ended the day just ninth fastest on combined times, but the Italian superstar was only four tenths o🍌f a second behind Ben Spies at the top of the times.

The nine-times world champion managed his best time on the harder compound rear tyre - albeit whilst followiꦇng Dani Pedrosa - p𓆏utting him as high as fourth, before he ended the afternoon with the eighth quickest time.

Rossi, w🔥hose team-mate Nicky Hayden set the third fastest tim♉e on a soft compound rear in the afternoon heat, said:

"Today went pretty well, espꦉecially in the afternoon. I'm eighth, but the gap to the front is only fo﷽ur tenths, which is a decent step forward for us.

"Now𝕴 the bike works well with new tyres, but we have to keep working on our race pace," he added.

"Both Nicky and I start sliding a lot when the t🎶yre is worn, so we have to slow down too much compared to the others.

"Tomorrow, in order to be more consistent and improve the pace,🐭 we must try to improve rear grip without losing it at the front. Anyway, today wasn't a bad start."