Valentino Rossi described his third position start in tomorrow’s Assen MotoGP as perfect, with the Italian brushing off a crash in FP4 to secure a front row start.

The Italian suffered a fast crash in FP4 after losing the front end of his factory Yamaha M1. Coming back in qualifying Rossi saved his best for last, securing a third place start with a time just 0.059 seconds off of Marc Marquez pole time.

“The front row is always a good result and also more for me, because in FP4 I suffered a bit and I was quite slow, I expected to be a bit stronger,” admitted the 39-year-old.

“After, I did a small mistake in the fast corner and I maybe entered a little bit too fast and I lost the front. I still had 12 minutes, but unfortunately I didn’t have the right tyre so I had to go with the hard front, so I tried to do some laps just to understand.

“Afterwards, in qualifying, I think we worked well because with the first tyre I tried to recover my feeling and the pace, the line, and I know that everything would be decided by the second one. The second one was very exciting because everybody was waiting, and you know that you have just one lap. I knew that I was in the right position and I was able to ride in a good way without making mistakes and the front row is perfect.”

Tyres have been a topic of conversation all weekend and whilst Rossi hasn’t decided what tyre he will use in tomorrows race just yet, he has said that he believes you could use any of the three compounds of rear tyre for the race.

“In this weekend it looks like all the three tyres are not so bad for the race, so we try to concentrate like everybody to have a more clear idea on choice, but it’s still very open,” he said. “We will decide tomorrow an hour before the start.”