Yamaha's Valentino Rossi conceded that the pace he had shown in Friday practice for the Japanese Grand Prix was "not strong enough" to fight for the top spots. Rossi, who has two premier-class race wins at Motegi, was fourth in FP1 and seventh in FP2, with teammate Jorge Lorenzo topping the latter session. "In the morning, not so bad, I felt quite good with the bike and I was quite strong. But in the afternoon, it was a difficult practice," Rossi admitted. "We tried the hard tyres, didn't work, and I lost also some feeling. I need a little bit to come back - in the last exit, the third exit, I was on the right tyres and I was not so bad, I improved a lot my laptime....
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