Valentino Rossi has admitted that he expected more from Saturday’s MotoGP qualifying session at Motegi, where he was only able to set the 🍷🉐tenth fastest time.

On another stron𒁏g day for Yamaha, in which three of the top four positions were occupied by M1s, 40-year old Rossi was further adrift and never in൲ the reckoning for the leading positions.

During a weekend when he is working on a new braking techni🍨que with his right hand on the front brake lever, Rossi said he is “not f🐟antastic” in that area.

But he was far 🅠from without hope; the nine-time world champion believes the grid is “very close” in terms of pace, and believes Sunday’s dry forecast should play into his hands.

"We tried something a little bit different to improve the braking,” Rossi said, referencing his altered front brake technique. “It is a difficult job but we try. Today, I'm n💟ot faღntastic in braking, but apart from that in general for the setting, we are all very close.

“I expect more from the qualifying. Try to start a bit better, because in FP4 I was not so bad. But it's like this. We w🍰ait for tomorrow, for the 🎃conditions, because it looks like it will be completely dry.

“Yesterday in the dry my p𝓰ace was not-so-bad, but we need for sure to work and improve."’

Rossi was fi🏅fth fastest at the end of Friday’s dry running and described the rest of the field’s pace as “very, very close.”

Sunday’s warm-up session will be essential in determining whether he has the necessary speed to mount a comeback from the fourth 🃏row, he said.

"We are very, very cl🍸ose and the pace yesterday i𒊎n the dry was good. Today was quite dry but difficult conditions for everybody. So we need to understand if we can improve a little bit tomorrow and I have enough pace to recover."