Rossi bosses testing again
- Sunday, February 7, 2010, 19:33
- MotoGP
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The first MotoGP test of 2010 finished with reigning seven-times world champion Valentino Rossi maintaining his place on top of the Sepang timesheets for the second day in succession.Rain delayed the start by an hour and brought forward the finish by an hour as the session ended at 5pm local time.
In between the showers, Rossi – the last rider out on track at 1.15pm – managed to beat his Thursday best by 0.486 seconds during his 32 Friday laps of the Malaysian Grand Prix circuit.
“After yesterday this second day has been very good as well, even though we lost a few hours to the rain, and the end we were still able to finish all our work,” said the Fiat Yamaha rider.
“We worked on the new bike to find a better setting and I was happy to be the fastest overall – even though this is just testing this is important for me. At the next test we will have a few more new things but we’re already happy because we’re fast and strong.
“There is room to improve of course: Sepang is always a good track for the Yamaha so we will have to wait until Qatar to get a better understanding of our level, but we have made a great start.”
Rossi’s pace was enough to keep Ducati’s Casey Stoner in second place, although the 2007 world champion gained a little ground on Rossi by closing to within 0.395sec.
Third fastest was Rossi’s team-mate and 2009 title runner-up Jorge Lorenzo, who led the way earlier in the day before finishing 0.755sec behind ‘The Doctor’.
The fourth and final rider within one second of Rossi was the fourth of the MotoGP ‘big four’ – Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa – who progressed from eighth on day one to lead the RCV challenge. The Spaniard worked mainly on the rear of his bike, including testing swingarms.
Despite still feeling jet-lagged, World Superbike champion Ben Spies turned heads with an impressive performance on day two. The Texan vaulted from twelfth to fifth place to be both the highest-placed rookie and satellite rider.
The Monster Tech 3 Yamaha star lapped 1.3sec behind Rossi, but ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), Colin Edwards (Tech 3 Yamaha), Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro), Aleix Espargaro (Pramac Ducati) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki).
Gresini’s Marco Melandri was the top satellite Honda rider in 11th, with Hector Barbera – the top rookie on Thursday – dropped two positions on the timesheets to 12th for Aspar Ducati.
Melandri’s team-mate Marco Simoncelli was the only faller on day two, the former 250cc world champion high-siding from his RCV at the fast turn five, where James Toseland crashed last year.
The Italian fortunately walked away unharmed and later resumed testing. Simoncelli finished the day in 15th position.
This week’s outing was the first of three pre-season tests to be held before the start of the new racing season. The next test is also at Sepang, from February 24-26.
During the test, MSMA representatives met to discuss the future 1000cc engine rules for MotoGP. A further meeting will now be held later this month in Barcelona.
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