Rossi aiming to fill Lorenzo void

Valentino Rossi intends to dig deep at the Dutch TT at Assen this weekend as the Italian MotoGP legend flies the flag for Yamaha's Factory team following Jorge Lorenzo's practice spill.

Rossi was fourth quickest this morning in the dry, 0.6s down on Lorenzo, but clocked the second best time in the wet in FP2, only 0.25s down on Repsol Honda's Marc Marquez.

"Unfortunately Jorge had a big crash and an injury. It's a great pity for Yamaha, for the team and for him as he is fighting for the championship," said Rossi.

"I hope that he comes back as soon as possible, hopefully for the next race in Sachsenring.

"I hope to do a good result and there is some extra motivation and some extra pressure because I am now the only factory Yamaha.

"I will have to try and make a good result in front of the Hondas for the championship."

Rossi is experimenting with a new setting on the YZR-M1 that enables him to improve his braking and was set to try an 'important' change in the afternoon before the heavens opened.

"It's been a positive day for us because in the dry it was not so bad this morning, we continued to work with our new setting and the first impression was positive, although we still have to work to improve," he said.

"We had something important to try this afternoon in the dry but unfortunately it was wet.

"Anyway we continued our work in the wet and it was a good practice, we did a good job with our new setting and the bike was also very good in the wet.

"I improved lap by lap; I had good pace and I was in second position," added Rossi.

"We have to continue to work in both conditions, everybody knows here in Assen it can be wet or dry."