Rossi will race new Yamaha MotoGP chassis at Assen

The seven-time premier class champion finished the day sixth-fastest, lapping exactly seven tenths off the pace of teammate Maverick Vinales in the afternoon’s second session. 

Rossi was able to gain more experience on the new chassis he originally tried out in post-Barcelona testing, having felt then that it suited his style better than the old type.

He confirmed on Friday that his plan is to use it for the race, even though he only has one new frame available to him for the remainder of the weekend.

“I’m quite satisfied for today, especially because we had two dry practice with quite good conditions, which here in Assen is never easy,” said Rossi.

“So we could work more on the new chassis, and I confirmed the good feeling that I had in Barcelona, I can be a bit more competitive.

“For sure we have a lot of work to do, the balance of the bike is still not 100 percent, I have some chattering, and especially in the fast corners I’m not fantastic.

“But this afternoon I finished P6, that’s very important because looks like tomorrow it can rain and also [to get through to] Q2 it was crucial this afternoon to stay in the top 10.”

He added: “Also in the [race] pace I’m not so bad but not strong enough to fight for the podium, so we need to improve. But for a Friday it’s not so bad.”

Asked if he planned to use the new chassis in the race, Rossi replied: “Yes. Unfortunately we have just one, so we have to manage between the two bikes, but I prefer the new one.”

Satellite Tech 3 rider Jonas Folger was Vinales’ closest challenger in second practice, ending up 0.362s off the pace and roughly the same margin ahead of Rossi on his 2016 bike.

But Rossi underlined his commitment to improving the 2017 bike going forward, even though he admitted the thought of reverting the older-spec M1 had crossed his mind.

“I try, but was very difficult to manage also with Yamaha, it become difficult,” Rossi admitted when asked about the possibility of trying the 2016 bike.

“Anyway the ’17 bike has some good things, we have to continue to work to try to go forward and try to improve this chassis.”

Additional reporting by Casper Ferwerda