Rossi continues strong form

From Yamaha Racing

SEPANG, MALAYSIA -- Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi continued his impressive form on the second day of testing in Sepang today, topping the time sheets again with another very quick lap on qualifying tires.

The Italian, who turns 29 in 10 days time, was also fast throughout the day on race tires, lapping consistently in the 2:01s.

Rossi had a busy day, continuing his tire testing programme with Bridgestone, working on suspension and electronic mapping as well as trying a new cowling and putting in some practice starts. His time of 2:00.472 was set on the penultimate lap of 70 and was a fraction slower than his time from yesterday, although still inside the existing circuit pole record, which he himself still holds from 2006.

"Today was another very good day and I had a good pace and rhythm all day," Rossi said. "We tested some different Bridgestone tires before again trying the one I prefer, which confirmed that this is the best one for us and so we will use it for the long run tomorrow.

"We worked a little bit on the suspension and also on the electronic mapping and we also tried a lot of practice starts, maybe as many as 10, and we need to improve a bit in this area."

Fiat Yamaha Team rookie Jorge Lorenzo ran into a few problems on the second day of the three-day Sepang test today, continuing to struggle with front-end feeling going into the hard braking areas. The 20-year-old and his crew dedicated most of the day to working on the problem but have yet to find the perfect solution, although Lorenzo was able to make a small improvement on his time from yesterday.

Results
1. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 2:00.472
2. Nicky Hayden - Repsol HRC 2:00.900
3. Shinya Nakano - Honda Gresini 2:02.049
4. Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha Team 2:02.396
5. Alex De Angelis - Honda Gresini 2:02.646
6. Olivier Jacque - Kawasaki Racing 2:03.513