Valentino Rossi has said that he is happy with his first days work in Mugello, despite only ending the first day seventh overall.

The Italian, competing in his 22nd Grand Prix at Mugello arrived on the back of a podium last time out in Le Mans and despite ending only seventh, Rossi said that traffic on during the closing moments of the afternoon session prevented him challenging at the top of the timing sheets, even if issues of spinning issues with his rear tyre continued to hamper him.

“It was a good day because I have a good feeling with the bike and I was quite competitive in the morning and then in the afternoon it was not so bad,” said the nine-times World Champion who ended the day seven tenths off Andrea Iannone’s time.

“I feel good with the bike and I can ride in a good way. I have too much spin in acceleration so it will be important to try to improve. It will also be important on the tyre choice because the front and rear on both sides is very, very open so it will be very important to find the right tyre for the bike and for the style.

“It was not so bad, the first contact was not so bad and in the end at the time attack unfortunately I had some traffic and lost out a bit but it will be important to make the ride modifications for tomorrow morning and in FP3 we will try to stay in the top ten as it will be very important for Q2.”

After having a days testing in Barcelona in between Le Mans and Mugello, Rossi said that whilst he hasn’t made as many changes as his team-mate on the results of that test, the progress made in that test has made him faster, even if there is still work to be done to get the excessive spinning rear tyre issue fixed with electronics.

“Compared to the test I was not so fast but today we used a different setting, more like Le Mans, and it is a balance of the bike that I like more and in fact I am faster,” he said.

“In Barcelona we used more or less this and it was not too bad. Now, track-by-track we will improve the balance to support the tyres in the right way. This is the very important work for tomorrow.”