Rossi "not strong enough" to fight for Phillip Island win

After finishing outside the top 10 in Friday practice, Rossi had to fight his way through Q1 on Saturday and eventually took seventh in Q2, 0.817s behind poleman Marc Marquez.

While the Yamaha rider finished second at Phillip Island race last year from 15th on the grid, he said a similar recovery this year will be much more difficult.

"Last year was a great race I enjoyed it a lot," said Rossi. "But unfortunately this year, today I am not fast like last year.

"We are not so far but at the same time I am not strong enough at this moment to make a good race to fight for the top position, so we need to find something.

"I am not in the first two rows, but anyway I am the first of the third [row] so I am not so far."

Rossi was not satisfied with the setup of his bike: "I was able to arrive at quite a good laptime very early, but after it was too much limit at the entry.

"Unfortunately I wasn't able to improve the last lap to be in top five. I am not very happy about the setting of the bike we have to try to make better."

"I was a bit too much at the limit with the front and also I had the soft front that helped me in Q1 but for the Q2 it was the limit, it was all damage.

"Two or three degrees of difference already make a big difference."

Rossi said he felt better in a wet FP3 than throughout last weekend's rain-soaked Motegi round, but is nonetheless hoping for dry conditions in the race.

"This morning maybe in the rain when I went on full wet [tyres], I think I felt better compared to Motegi, I had a better feeling," he said.

"But when the track started to dry, looks like we were not comfortable with the bike. So hoping for good weather, for dry.

"We have to wait [to see] the weather, we hope that at 4 o'clock it will be good like today."

Additional reporting by Oriol Puigdemont