The Italian superstar, second fastest behind title rival Casey Stoner by the end of Friday practice, was only eighth fastest in the cool Friday morning session but improved to within 0.346secs during the afternoon hour.

"This morning we had some problems when the temperature was lower, especially with the front tyre which takes a lot of stress around this track," explained the Fiat Yamaha rider, who will start Sunday's race a reduced 21 points behind Stoner after his victory last time out at Assen. "Towards the end we found a better front tyre but then it started to rain a bit so I couldn't go any faster.

"Anyway this afternoon was much better and I feel like we have the bike well balanced. The rear tyre feels very good and I'm happy with that, although we still have some issues to sort out with the front," he added. "Tomorrow it is going to be much hotter apparently but usually our bike works well in the heat so I am quite confident about this."

Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards found half a second between the morning and afternoon sessions - but still slipped from fourth to eighth, 0.876secs behind Stoner.

"I was half a second quicker this afternoon but somehow ended up twice as far down the order!" smiled the Texan. "Despite that though we improved a lot this afternoon and I definitely felt like I could have gone a bit faster at the end, but I slowed up a bit as I came pretty close to Hayden after he blew up. Tomorrow is just going to be a case of seeing what works best and fine tuning the setting before we put it on the front row!"