Rossi completes Malaysian test

From Yamaha Racing

SEPANG, MALAYSIA -- Valentino Rossi rounded off a successful three days in Malaysia with another impressive day's testing at the Sepang International Circuit today.

The high point of the Italian's day was his race simulation, when he lapped consistently under lap record pace and improved on his time from the January test, as well as on last year's race time. Rossi was pleased both with the performance of his 2008-spec M1 and with his Bridgestone tires, today's results indicating that he and his team are on target with their pre-season development.

His best time of 2:01.190 was set on a qualifying tire on his 23rd of 48 laps, putting him second in the standings behind teammate Jorge Lorenzo. The Fiat Yamaha Team will reconvene closer to home at Jerez in Spain on Feb. 16 for the three-day Official MotoGP Test, the penultimate test before the season kicks off in March.

"I'm really happy about today's race simulation and about the overall balance of this test," Rossi said. "Everything has gone well and the race-simulation was an improvement on the one from last time; this is the real test of where we are. We've worked on various different items in many different areas but we've had positive feedback throughout."

Lorenzo finished his second test of the year in positive fashion today with an impressive lap on qualifying tires. The young Fiat Yamaha Team rider had a somewhat difficult test overall and was unhappy not to improve in the way he had expected to.

Like his teammate Rossi, Lorenzo had planned to complete a race simulation but he abandoned it after a few laps when he found he was lacking pace, deciding instead to spend the remainder of the day working on set-up and tire testing with Michelin. His time of 2:00.705, set on the 72nd of 73 laps, was an improvement on his best qualifying time from the January test and good enough to leave him at the top of the day's time sheets.

Results
1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 2:00.705
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 2:01.190
3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda Gresini 2:02.135
4. Alex De Angelis (RSM) Honda Gresini 2:02.194
5. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 2:03.021
6. Tamaki Serizawa (JPN) Kawasaki Racing 2:03.623
Lap Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati) 2007, 2:02.108
Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2006, 2:00.605