It may be rumoured that Valentino Rossi has made up his mind 🅠to retire at the end of the 2021 ཧMotoGP season, but his own comments continue to suggest the decision remains up in the air.

After a stronger Saturday in Catalunya, the nine-time world champion criticised how a 'normal' set-up mistake on Friday was used by some as evidence that he sꦆhould retire.

"We did a mistake on Friday. We foll♐owed a wrong way, but that happens in all weekends t♊o more-or-less all the riders!" Rossi said.

"The ♛🃏problem is that when it happens to me, it's 'Rossi is too old, you have to stop!' after one bad practice.

"But 💎it's normal; you work on the bike and we tried the wrong way."

"It's like this, but [MotoG༺P] is difficult for everybody," he added. "Thi♚s morning I was P10 and less than half-a-second from the top. Everybody is together."

The Italian boun✨ced back from a lowly 19th in Friday practice to enjoy perhaps his most competitive day of the season so far on Saturday, delighting the Petronas Yamaha team with direct access to Qualifying 2 and then seventh fastest in race trim during FP4.

"I'm 🌺very, very happy with the feeling that I had today because I was not so bad on the track and I enjoyed it," Rossi said.

"We modified the bike and I had a lot better feeling for entering the corners and turning the b🧸ike, already from FP3. I improved a lot my pace.🦹 And at the end I was able to go directly to Qualifying 2.

"FP4 was also a good practice beca𓂃use we tried the hard tyre and we make another step with the setting of the bike and my pace was not so bad, P7."

But the Itali💃an's momentum came to an abrupt stop, literally, when he fell in the early stages of Qualifying 2, while chasing team-mate Franco Morbidelli.

Arriving back in the garage on a scooter, Rossi returned to action on his spare bike and set a lap time 0.752s from Fabio Quartararo's pole positio🐲n, but in the ultra-close world of MotoGP 2021 that only mꦦeant eleventh on the grid.

"Unfortunately, with the first tyre I crashed and after that was difficult because I had to jump on the other bik🍬e and I finished P11. I think that I have a bit more potential but it's like thisꦐ," he said.

Nonetheless, Rossi was happy to give his beleaguered side of the SRT gaಌrage a welcome shot in the arm.

"I’m very happy with the behaviour of the team and the atmosphere i𓃲n the pi👍t because I have a genuine support," he said. "All the guys here understand that this challenge is difficult and everybody is very, very sad when my performance is bad, like Friday.

"T🐲hey know that we need a good result, that we can still do som🉐e good races and we can enjoy, but we need to be strong.

"In my box but also all the guys of the team support me very much and it was fun today. Entering the Q2 for us at this moment i♑s a good result. I don’t feel a particu෴lar pressure, more a genuine support.

"Now we wait for tomorrow, to understand the weather because we hop❀e it remains dry, also tonight."

Possible weather changes aside, Sunday's race is again exp🅷ected to see high levels of tyre consumption - just as last September, when the 𓃲Suzukis closed in on a fading Fabio Quartararo but ran out of laps.

"The tyre choice for the rear remains open, between medium and hard, and it’s true that t♒he degradation here is a big issue for everybody," Rossi sai🍌d.

"But I think that anyway it will be a ๊sprint race from the first corner. The first 2-3 laps already decide 85% of the MotoGP ra🐭ce and after starts another, longer phase where you have to decide the other 15%.

"I think t♓hat it will be like this also tomorrow. Everybody will push a lot ♛from the beginning."

Rossi, who says he will decide his MotoGP future during the summer break, hasn’t fough👍t at the front of a rac𝓀e since last September's Catalunya round, when he fell while chasing down Quartararo.