Italy’s nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi says he’s satisfied with fourth on debut with Ducati’s Desmosedici GP11.1 at Assen on the weekend.

Rossi quickly advanced from eleventh position on the grid to fourth thanks to a strong start and a good feeling with his bike, remaining on that position throughout the crash-marred race.

“We’re pretty satisfied with this result because compared to practice, we made a big improvement in the race,” Rossi said. “It would have been nice had we found the right direction more quickly, but this is a new bike that we’re still learning to work with, so obviously it takes some experience to get it right.

“In the end, we managed to find a setup that allowed me to ride pretty well but, not having tried it before, I approached the first laps very carefully. To be honest, we were also a little unlucky, because the rain during the warm-up prevented us from trying the changes.

“Anyway, the weekend was positive overall, because we got confirmation that this bike is better in many ways, especially with regard to the rear end, which is now much more stable.

“On the other hand, we also know that we must keep working because we still have a gap to the competition to make up. It’s not as big as the time we lost today in terms of seconds, but it’s still there. Still, we’re all trying really hard, and we must continue to do so.”

Rossi will now head to his home round of the MotoGP series at Mugello this weekend, the circuit that mark’s Ducati’s official test track.