MotoGP news

Rossi upbeat despite difficulty

The second night of the first ever MotoGP night test in Qatar saw Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi running into some unexpected problems, finishing the test tenth overall. Rossi and his crew spent the day working on Bridgestone tyre testing and set-up, but were unable to find time to complete a planned race simulation.

Despite a less than positive last day of preparation, Rossi remains confident that he will be in good shape for the first race, which will take place under the floodlights in ten day's time. His best lap 1'56.256 was set on his 69th of 83 laps. Team-mate Jorge Lorenzo topped the time sheets tonight, after an impressive lap of 1'54.552 on qualifying tyres.

"I cannot say I am happy with this test and speaking honestly I expected to be faster here," said Rossi. "Unfortunately we wasted some time working on the set-up of the bike to try to adapt it to some tyres that we then decided to abandon. Once we'd made this decision we worked with different tyres and things improved a bit, but the test was nearly over and we didn't have enough time to complete all the work we wanted to do. Because of this I did not do a race simulation, but I was able to make two good runs. Unfortunately however it wasn't enough time to improve as much as we could have and I am still lacking a couple of tenths. Generally speaking however all of the winter tests, barring this one, have been positive for us; I was fast in Sepang and fast in Jerez. It's a pity that I wasn't able to be fast here as well, but we have some good ideas for the next week and this does not dent my confidence."

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