"This morning I was able to be rather competitive. We just missed going through the Q2 by barely over a tenth and overall I am happy with our performance. In the afternoon during FP4, we worked on pace, turning some good laps with used tyres, but unfortunately I had a crash toward the end, making the bike unusable for the qualifiers. In Q1, I used the second bike and I did not have the same feeling, both in terms of grip and in terms of engine power output so, even pushing to the limit, I was unable to better my time. We are starting from the seventh row. It isn't an ideal position, but I am rather confident that I'll be able to ride a race similar to the one in Austin, recovering a lot of positions. Especially in the second half of the race: it will be hot, the tyres will be stressed and we know how gentle the RS-GP is on the rear tyre."

"Unfortunately, we were unable to improve as much as we would have liked once again today. We tried a few changes, but the right feeling with the RS-GP here at Mugello is still not there. Tomorrow the race will be hard, starting from way back, so all we can do is give it our very best effort and bring home the best possible result."