Ducati's Valentino Rossi has hailed his performance in today's Catalan MotoGP round as his best dry performance of the year so far after he finished just 18 seconds behind winner Jorge Lorenzo after 25 laps of the Spanish track.

Rossi has managed to find a setting that has reduced the GP12's inherent understeer but The Doctor is still having to turn in using the rear tyre and, after catching Alvaro Bautista, found he had run out of grip from the soft-compound Bridgestone. He will again test the aluminium swingarm, which he didn't run today, tomorrow along with the current electronics.

"We are quite happy about the result. It is what we expect and at this moment, this is our potential in the dry. The race was not so bad because the distance from the winner is not a lot and especially the distance from Bautista and Crutchlow, I was not very far, so this is the best race of the dry, better than Portugal," said Rossi, speaking to bikesportnews.com this evening.

"It is just a seventh place so we have to work a lot and try to improve things for tomorrow. The electronics are positive, we need some more time for use at 100 per cent. Tomorrow we will try another time the (aluminium) swingarm as I think that can also be a help. The problem remain a little bit the understeer of the bike, the grip on the front.

"The front of the bike doesn't turn enough to make the corner so I have to turn with the rear in oversteer and I use more than the others the rear tyre. At the beginning I have some trouble with the front brake, a spongy feeling, but after it was better and I was also quite fast but when I arrive to Bautista I have big loss of the rear performance and I have to slow down.