Rossi keen to 'change something' after poor practice

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Mugello (Italy), June 1: MotoGP great Valentino Rossi finished 18th in practice at the Italian Grand Prix and acknowledged he needed to find a solution heading into the weekend.

At his home event at Mugello, the seven-time MotoGP champion endured a difficult start to the week as he went 12th fastest in FP1 and then dropped further down the standings in FP2.

Rossi was 0.994 seconds off Pramac Racing's Francesco Bagnaia and he reflected on a tough day.

"It was a difficult day," he said. "I expected to be more competitive, but already from this morning, I wasn't very fast.

"I wasn't able to ride in a very good way and I am slower than last year. We are all very close and for this reason my position is very bad.

"This afternoon, we tried the hard tyres, but anyway the pace isn't fantastic. I am slow in the corner. I don't have the pace. I need to be faster.

"Today we suffered, so tomorrow we will try to change something. Now we will check all the data and see what we can do."

Rossi is fourth in the standings this year but is yet to record a race win in 2019.

(With Omnisport inputs)