Valentino Rossi overcame a late brake issue with one of his Monste𝕴r Yamaha bike🌃s during the closing minutes of FP2 to start his final soft tyre run and secure a provisional Q2 spot ahead of the Japanese MotoGP.

After pitting in preparation for his final run, Rossi was held up outside of his garage when his first YZR-M1 suffered a brake problem meaning he had to switch back to his second bike with a different setup on fr൲esh soft tyres for his qu𝓀alifying-style run.

Despite being made to sweat, Ro𒐪ssi charged into the Q2 spots with fifth place thanks to a 1m 45.466s – albeit over seven-tenths of a second slower than pace-setter Fabio Quartararo.

“We tried to save a bit of time to do the time attack at the end, because the forecast for tomorrow is very bad,” Rossi said. “Unfortunately, we had a problem with the brakes on the first🍷 bike, so we had to take out the tyres and put them on the second bike, which was set up a bit different, but at the end I was able toﷺ start my second lap of run 4 with just 10s to spare.

“I did a good lap and I’m in the top 10,ꦺ that’s very important because it looks like tomorrow the w♐eather will be bad.”

Rossi has notched up consecutive eighth-place fini🅺shes at the past t💟wo races and is currently on his longest podium drought since his first year at Ducati back in 2011.

The nine-time world champion has reverted to the aluminium swingarm and single pipe exhaust on his M1, having used a carbon swingarm and Suzuki-style double pipe exhaust at recent races, as he looks to cure his recent tyre wear woes over a ra💯ce distance.

After a productive Friday practice at Motegi, the Italian rider is feeling optimistic with his progress as he looks to uncover why his fellow Yamaha rider🧸s have been able to solve t♔he tyre drop off problem.

“For the rest, it’s not🐠 sꦓo bad. My pace is quite good,” he said.

“As always, we need to understand the tyres, because a lot of riders also use the soft rear, which looks like it’s a bit faster. We’ll see. We have to kee🍃p 🥀working, but my pace is quite good, and the first day was quite positive.”

All four Yamaha riders ended Friday inside the top six at Motegওi, a circuit which hasn’t suited the Iwata factory in recent years, with the last Yamaha podi🅰um finish coming back in 2015.

While Quartararo topped the times, Rossi’s Monster Yamaha team-mate Maverick Vinales claimed second place with Franco 🥃Morbidelli (Petronas Yamaha) just behind Rossi in sixth place.