MotoGP Catalunya - Rossi to work on qualifying strategy

Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi is to work on his qualifying strategy at this weekend's Catalunya MotoGP round and says that nothing less than a second-row starting position will do for Sunday's race.

Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi is to work on his qualifying strategy at this weekend's Catalunya MotoGP round and says that nothing less than a second-row starting position will do for Sunday's race.

The nine-time world champion has struggled with the new, 15-minute session so far this year and reckons he needs to find another step forward in order to stop Jorge Lorenzo, Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez dominating the front row.

"We still have to go faster, especially on Saturday afternoon. I am not strong enough and the other rider are able to improve more the laptime. In Mugello, I had good pace in all the other practice but we need to do another step and to start from at least the second row," said The Doctor, speaking at Montmelo.

"This track can maybe the right place as I have some good result in the past. Usually, the M1 is very good here in Montmelo so we have to try. With just 15 minutes, it is very difficult to understand the right moment to go on the track and try to improve your laptime, but at the same moment you have to be careful there isn't other rider behind." 

By David Miller

Image by Bonnie Lane