Valentino Rossi showed that he has lost none of his touch at Mugello upon arrival at his favourite circuit, beaten only by teammate Jorge Lorenzo in the opening practice session for the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice. The Italian is intent on keeping up at the top of the timesheets as the weekend progresses, with nothing less than victory on his list of goals for Sunday.

Thus, a lengthy debrief kept the reigning World Champion in the team garage for nearly an hour as initial problems were analysed and solutions brainstormed. Information picked up on Friday will form the basis for any eventual improvements to the 30 year-old’s times and pace.

“It was quite a good practice session today; we worked well and we are fast already. Today the conditions were fantastic, with good sunshine and good grip,” explained Rossi after the session. “It’s not so bad, but we have to try to fix some problems. I have some small details to improve, but today we collected some important data in order to do better on Saturday.”