  The surface of a crystal made of roughly spherical molecules exposes, above
its bulk rotational phase transition at T= T$_r$, a carpet of freely rotating
molecules, possibly functioning as "nanobearings" in sliding friction. We
explored by extensive molecular dynamics simulations the frictional and
adhesion changes experienced by a sliding C$_{60}$ flake on the surface of the
prototype system C$_{60}$ fullerite. At fixed flake orientation both quantities
exhibit only a modest frictional drop of order 20% across the transition.
However, adhesion and friction drop by a factor of $\sim$ 2 as the flake breaks
its perfect angular alignment with the C$_{60}$ surface lattice suggesting an
entropy-driven aligned-misaligned switch during pull-off at T$_r$. The results
can be of relevance for sliding Kr islands, where very little frictional
differences were observed at T$_r$, but also to the sliding of C$_{60}$ -coated
tip, where a remarkable factor $\sim$ 2 drop has been reported.
