MotoGP news

Rossi happy with first day

The Fiat Yamaha Team began a two-day test in Jerez, southern Spain today and Valentino Rossi made a positive start to the second winter session, finishing the day second fastest behind Dani Pedrosa. With this being the final test for the team until February, these two days are especially important in order to gather as much information as possible for the Japanese engineers to work with over the next two months, as they continue to develop the 2009-spec M1.

Clear skies and a cold wind meant track temperatures were very cool in the morning and Rossi chose to wait until 1.30pm, when the newly-resurfaced track had warmed up slightly, to begin. As per the new single-tyre rule there are just two front and two rear specifications available for the test, with the riders supplied with two tyres of each specification, making eight in total. The world champion completed 20 laps on the 2008-spec bike and 20 on the new 2009 prototype M1, on which he set his fastest lap of the day in a time of 1'40.135, His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was 3rd with a best lap of 1'41.163.

"I am happy about this first day because my performance has been good from the beginning and I have been fast all day," said Rossi. "Unfortunately it's been quite cold and there was only three hours when it was possible to go fast, but we were able to get quite a lot of work done in this short space of time. We have tried some different things on the old 2008 bike and we were able to make some improvements and then we also tested several new things on the prototype bike, and I am happy because I did my fastest lap with this bike. Bridgestone have brought good tyres here; so far I don't see any problems with the new rule and it seems they're doing a good job. They have resurfaced the track and it has made a big difference; they have got rid of all the bumps and like this it's great fun to ride around. I think we will be able to go faster now. Today was very cold, especially with the wind so now I hope it's a bit better tomorrow and that it doesn't rain because we have a lot more work to do and I would like to improve my lap time a bit more."

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