Italian Valentino Rossi was third fastest on Friday during practice for the Spanish GP.

Valentino Rossi has shown his first real signs of improvement aboard the Ducato Desmosedici GP 11 at Jerez on Friday, setting the third quickest time ahead of this weekend’s Spanish Grand Prix.

Like the top seven in the results, he did it in the morning session, when conditions were slightly cooler and not as windy, and his best lap of 1:40.77 was just half a second off the pace of Aussie Casey Stoner.

“I’m happy because this morning I did the third fastest time, and in the afternoon, when the higher temperature hurt us a little, I was fifth,” the Italian former nine-time world champion said.

“Anyway, most of the riders went a bit slower in the second session. Apart from the two Hondas at the front, we’re closer to everyone else, which was our goal. It was a good day.

“There’s still work to do; we’re trying to find the right balance, and that’s why we’re trying two settings that are a little different from each other as we work on weight distribution.

“We have to improve the front feeling a little, the bike that I prefer still doesn’t turn like we want it to, which means we’ll have to find a compromise between the two setups.

“As for my shoulder, I don’t have much strength, but in terms of endurance, it’s a little better.”

Rossi finished third in the race at Jerez last season aboard the factory Yamaha in a race won by eventual world champion Jorge Lorenzo.