Valentino Rossi produced his best FP3 performance of the season so far at Brno, where a fifth place on the 'unbelievab♚ly' cl♋ose timesheets allowed him to safely sail through to Qualifying 2.

The Monster Yamaha r♍ider had been only twelfth fastest on Friday and, despite improving early in FP3, was pushed back outside the top ten heading into the crucia🐬l closing minutes.

But having anticipated a big battle, Rossi had saved two new sof🌟t rear tyres for the end of the session. The tactic worked, with Rossi's last lap of the morning (after a late pit stop for the second soft rear) putting him just 0.113s from fastest man Franco Morbidelli.

"The FP3 iꦇs always a very important practice, because we have to stay in the top 10," said Rossi, who is continuing with his new style of set-up from▨ Andalucia. "This morning was good, because we improved the bike a lot. I have a better feeling and I have a good pace, also with the race tyres.

"The time attack at the end was good. The level of competit🌳ion is incredible, because the top 10 is covered by two tenths, so this is unbelievable. I did a good lap and finishing in P5 is good for this afternoo♐n, and we‘ll try to continue like this."

Team-mate Maverick Vinales' Saturday morning fortunes went in the other direct🐭ion, slipping from fifth on Friday to ninth after FP3 - but still enoug🌃h to head straight to Qualifying 2 this afternoon.

"My feelings aren‘t really the ones I wanted. I struggle with the bike, I have a lot of movement, especially from the rear tyre," explained the doubl🅺e Jerez runner-up, who was nonetheless only 0.245s from Morbidelli.

"We have to try something different in FP4. We have an idea that makes me feel veryꦫ positive. We have a good chance in qualifying, we need to be on the first row. But a⛄nyway, the rhythm is the most important, so in FP4 we‘re going to work on this.

"I think we have a good opportunity to be fast, and then we will see. I feel fantastic on the bike, I just ꧂don‘t have the feeling that I had in Jerez. We are trying to be there, we are trying to be fa🗹st, and we will try our maximum in FP4 and especially in Q2."

Petronas Yamaha's Morbidelli was fastest in FP3 with tea🧸m-mate and title lead Fabio Quartar✨aro in third behind Johann Zarco (Avintia Ducati).