Rossi tops Thursday test times in Sepang

Twenty days after the previous MotoGP test at Sepang, the MotoGP teams picked up where it left off at the Malaysian circuit and continued their preparations for the upcoming season.

Valentino Rossi continued from where he left off at the last test in Malaysia today, setting the fastest time once again on the first day of the second pre-season outing at Sepang. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo is not in action at this test as he is currently recovering at home in Spain from a hand injury.

It was a dry day in Sepang with temperatures reaching 37 degrees and 31-year-old Rossi made the most of it, completing 47 laps. He and his crew continued to work on the development of the 2010 YZR-M1 prototype, checking different settings and trying some new electronic maps. The Italian’s best time of the day was 2’01.068, just a fraction off his best time at the last test and 0.151 ahead of Casey Stoner in second place.

Valentino Rossi – Position: 1st Time: 2'01.068 Laps: 47
“We started well today and we’re already very fast, so we’re quite happy about this. We’ve confirmed that the work we did at the last test was good and it’s clear we’re in good shape at this track. We worked on two or three different settings and today we’ve more or less made a decision about the right way to go with balance, suspension etc so this is good progress. We also tried some new electronic maps, to try to improve acceleration, but we need to do more work on this again tomorrow. It’s good to be fast at this stage and now we’re really just waiting to go to another track, to see how this new M1 will perform there. Tomorrow we will do a long run, maybe not race distance but just quite a few laps together, which will be the final part of our work at this track."

Official lap times

V. Rossi Fiat Yamaha 2:01.068
C. Stoner Marlboro Ducati 2:01.219
A. Dovizioso Repsol Honda 2:01.631
L. Capirossi Rizla Suzuki 2:01.687
B. Spies Yamaha Tech3 2:01.843
C. Edwards Yamaha Tech3 2:01.897
D. Pedrosa Repsol Honda 2:02.036
M. Kallio Pramac Ducati 2:02.038
A. Bautista Rizla Suzuki 2.02.078
M. Melandri San Carlo Honda 2:02.086
N. Hayden Marlboro Ducati 2:02.221
H. Aoyama Interwetten Honda 2:02.419
A. Espargaro Pramac Ducati 2:02.447
H. Barbera Aspar MotoGP team 2:02.485
R. De Puniet LRC Honda 2:02.535
M. Simoncelli San Carlo Honda 2:03.254