Valentin♏o Ro༒ssi maintained his third place in Friday practice during the opening Saturday session at the French MotoGP.

But the Italian, like fellow Movistar Yamaha rider Maverick Vinales, slipped down the order in the hotter afternoon sessions and will start Sunday's race in ninth, just behind hi𓄧s team-mate.

"For sure I expected a little bit more from the qualifying bec﷽ause yesterday and ♛also this morning I was quite strong," Rossi said.

The Doctor felt he could have been two tenths faster, but that would only have put him se🌸venth o💟n the grid.

"In the lap with the soft tyre I don’t ride at the maximum, I did s🌜ome small mistakes, so I can do better," Rossi said. "I think my potential can be '31.6-'31.7, so I can go two tenths faster. It is not a big difference. The problem is the others are faster.

"We trie🔯d different things. Unfortunately I did a mistake in the FP4 and crashed, but anyway my pace is not so bad. Nothing special, but not so bad.

♋"The problem is we have four, five, six riders with a pace very similar so will be hard. Starting from the third row is always difficult, so it will be important the start and first laps and after we see how much is my pace for the race."

Once again, Rossi and Vinales were left down the order while Monster Yamaha Tech3 Johannಌ Zarco featured at the front of the field, taking p🍒ole position for his home race on the satellite M1.

"Zarco was fast today, also in the other races. He rides very well and is also very fast in the race 𒁃pace," Rossi sa൩id. "We don’t know exactly [why], but we know he's faster than us!"