Nine-time world champion Valentino Rossi admits that he and the Ducati Marlboro Team have more work to do if they’re to challenge the might that is Honda and Yamaha in MotoGP 2011.

Rossi was left behind on the start and found himself in 12th place at the end of lap one at Mugello on Sunday, and motivated by the enthusiastic crowd, he caught the group of riders in front of him and climbed to sixth place.

The Italian had a better pace in the race than he had all weekend, thanks to a setup change that his technicians made before the warm-up.

“We have a bike that is different in many aspects from the one we started the season with,” Rossi explained. “We’re aware that it needs to undergo further development from a technical point of view, but even at this stage it has shown that it has a good margin of improvement just with setup.

“The weather didn’t help us at Assen, and the same was true here. We had limited time to work this weekend, so once again we made a significant setup change on Sunday morning. We think it’s a good direction to try in the future with our setup.

“I lost some time on the start because the clutch slipped, and I was almost last into the first turn, with a lot of ground to make up. It’s a shame because I’ve always managed to do well on the starts with the Ducati this year.

“Still, I’m not sure how long I would have been able to stay with [Ben] Spies and [Marco] Simoncelli even if I had started better. The gap on lap times was less than at Assen, which is positive, but it’s still quite large, about eight tenths.

“We have to keep working in order to stay with the Hondas and Yamahas. We’re all doing all we can, both us at the track and the guys at Ducati.

“It’s certainly a difficult situation, but to come here to Mugello and see all these flags and fans cheering always provides a big thrill and gives us motivation to return to the front.”

Despite such a difficult start to the season with Ducati, Rossi now sits fourth in the standings.