The veteran has been out for the first set of practice runs in Qatar ahead of the 2018 campaign.
Rossi was pipped to first place by Ducati star Andrea Dovizioso during the first session on Friday.
And the Italian then narrowly beat his team-mate Danilo Petrucci later in the day.
But it is still very tight at the top of the leaderboard, something which has left Rossi astounded ahead of qualifying.
“There are four riders within 4 thousandths of one another," he told GpOne.
"I don’t think I have ever seen something like that before - it’s incredible."
Rossi finished fifth in the 2017 MotoGP standings after suffering a double leg break towards the business end of the campaign.
But the icon is confident he can return to his former glory.
“I maintained a good pace, around the 1’55” mark and I think that if I am able to maintain that pace in the race too, I’ll be able to battle for the top positions," he added.
“First of all, tomorrow morning it will be important to stay in the top 10 in order not to go through Q1.
"Then we’ll need to choose the front tyre carefully.
"The soft and medium are in play and I don’t know what to expect in the last 5 laps of the race.
"We still need to work on the balance of the bike in order to limit consumption.”
The first MotoGP race of the season gets underway at 4pm on Sunday.
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