However, Rossi, ever the man to keep pressure on his employer, says he does not think it will be enough. Despite that, the highly paid Italian set fastest lap in the opening practice session at Motegi, and was under his 2009 pole time to boot.
The Yamaha YZR-M1 has consistently been slower than the Ducatis and Hondas this year. Lorenzo has been able to minimize the damage, but the Honda RC212V has got stronger as the season has progressed, mainly because Honda has finally come up with a chassis to harness its V4's prodigious power.
Rossi says Yamaha has assured him he will get the same equipment as Lorenzo as comes to the end of his six year career with the company.
The nine-time world champion, who's moving to Ducati next year, said that he'd been told "that my bike and the bike of Jorge is same to the end of the season and bring one each, the engine.
The interesting point is whether Yamaha will run out of engines. Lorenzo has already used five of the six engines allocated for the season, while Rossi, who missed three races due to injury, has used five.
The MotoGP rules currently mandate that any rider who uses more than six engines has to start the race where that engine is used from the pit lane, 10 seconds after the field...