Ducati's Valentino Rossi has described his pace during the opening day of p💯ractice at Assen for Saturday'꧙s Dutch TT as a 'decent step forward'.

Rossi ended the day just ninth fastest on combined times, but the Italian superstar was only four tenths of a second behind Ben Spies at the top of 🦹the times.

The nine-times world c🦋hampion managed his best time on the harder compound rear tyre - albeit whilst following Dani Pedrosa - putting him as high as fourth, before he ended the afternoon with the eighth quickest time.

Rossi, wh♊ose team-mate Nicky Hayden set the third fastest time on a soft compound reꦉar in the afternoon heat, said:

"Today went pretty well, especially in the afternoon. I'm eig😼hth, but the gap to the front is only four tenths, which is a decent step forward for us.

"Now the bike works well wit♋h new tyres, but we have to keep working on our rac🎐e pace," he added.

"Bo♐th Nicky and I start sliding a lot when the tyre is worn, so we have to slow down too muཧch compared to the others.

"Tomorrow, in order to be more consistent and improve the pace, we must try to improve rear grip without losing it at the fro🌊nt. Anyway, today wasn't a bad start."