MotoGP news

Solid start for Rossi

Valentino Rossi enjoyed his start of the US Grand Prix weekend on Friday as he completed the sixth fastest time of the day. The Italian got a good impression of the tyres and believes he should be able to fight in front of the pack this weekend.

"My first impressions after today are quite good," said Rossi after Friday's two free practice sessions. "The new surface is much, much better; quite smooth with only a few bumps and it seems almost like a different track! I'm very happy about this because last year it was really a nightmare and almost impossible to ride. Now we can have fun! I think the new 800s are better for this; you can use all of the track and the best lines.

"We've been quite fast from the start and our bike seems to be working well here. It seems that we have a good selection of tyres, we started with something quite soft and we'll need something a little bit harder for the race, but anyway I think the situation so far is quite good. It's a tricky track but I enjoyed today a lot. It's always great fun to race here, the fans are great and the weather is good! We have some more work to do tomorrow of course and we need to improve our pace in comparison to the leaders, but we have made a good start."

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