Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager
“Today was difficult in places and especially at the start of the afternoon when the track conditions were still quite bad. It was also quite windy which didn’t help! We’ve done some good work but we’re still lacking some rear grip and have too much spin, so improving this is our key target at the moment. At the end with the qualifier things were very good and all the team had fun watching Jorge go so fast. Thanks to Jorge and the team for working so hard, now we will use the remaining time before the first race as best we can to be ready.”

Rossi spent most of the day refining set-up and tyre testing with Bridgestone, although the tricky track conditions hampered progress somewhat. Towards the end of the day the Italian, like most of his competitors, tried a qualifying tyre and it was with this that he completed his best lap of the three days, in time of 1’39.568.

The next stop for the team will be Qatar in ten days time, where they face two days of night testing in preparation for the season opener and inaugural night race on 9th March.

Valentino Rossi – Position: 5th Time: 1′39.568 Laps: 79
“At the end of today it was quite cold which made things difficult, and generally the conditions have made our job harder for the whole three days. Despite this I think we’ve done some good work; I have a good rhythm and I am having a lot of fun riding the bike. I’m quite excited now about the start of the season! We have things to work on, especially our speed in the exit of the corner, which was worse today because we had less grip on the damp track. Overall though it’s been good, and I think we’ve learnt a lot both about the bike and the Bridgestones, plus I have been quite fast both with the qualifier and the race tyres. I didn’t use the qualifier I like best here, so I am confident that when we use it in Qatar we can be faster. Now there’s just one test left, which will be in the dark and therefore something quite strange! We will focus on our final days of preparation and be ready for the first race.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“Looking at the three days of the test, we can draw some good conclusions. We were pretty fast on Saturday, made some good progress in the wet yesterday and then today we tried some different things and made another important step in our preparation. The bike is good and it seems that the engine is too, but of course we need to wait and see how our whole package performs in Qatar in different conditions. We’re looking forward to the first race but we have more work to do before then and only two days of testing left, so we will be working at the maximum!”

A best time of 1.39.678 on the opening day ensured Toseland secured seventh place overall at the weather hit three-day IRTA test. He also claimed the sixth best time on race tyres at the end of only his fifth MotoGP appearance. With weather forecasts predicting rain and strong winds for the final day, Tech 3, Yamaha and Michelin management agreed for Colin Edwards to fly back to America a day early.

Edwards had two productive days of testing in wet and dry conditions, and was given an extra day’s rest in preparation for the vital final winter test in Qatar on February 28-29.

James Toseland – Position: 6th Time: 1.39.727 Laps: 36
“It was a bit of a freak accident and nothing I could have done about it. It all happened very fast but luckily I only twisted my ankle when I got caught up with the bike. It was on my first lap out of the pits and I just got caught out. Whether it was the track conditions or not, I was just tipping in and the rear end came round. I wanted to get back out there and it was nice to get to those times again. I didn’t want to leave on a bad note. It was nice that even with a few problems like my ankle that I can still end up in the top six. I’d been in the top five in the wet and dry and to finish off in 14th I’d have been a bit deflated. But even with my ankle it was good to still be doing some competitive times. What’s nice is I feel progress at every test I have done. I have been consistently quick here and in the dry and the wet which was encouraging, especially in the wet. If I carry on working in this direction hopefully we can raise a few eyebrows. Everybody has been pretty encouraged and I think this is a great team and my guys are why I have been able to progress so quickly. It is down to their experience. I’ll rest my ankle for a couple of days now and be ready for Qatar, which I’m looking forward to as it is another track I know well.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager
“This has been a very productive test. For most of the first day James was second on race tyres behind Valentino and Colin was able to do some competitive lap times too. We made a big improvement compared to the November test, especially with James who is continuing to show big progress. Yamaha and Michelin have been working very hard in the winter and we can see the result of their efforts with James and Colin very close to the top guys. We also got to test in full wet conditions and Colin confirmed that the new Michelin rain tyres are a big plus. We know how important it is to have a tyre that reacts quickly and is easy to adapt from a slick tyre. Last year we had two flag-to-flag races and we saw in Japan that some riders struggled a few laps out of the pits with the rain tyres. Michelin have been working in this area and we are very happy. The weather wasn’t too good on the last day and although James had a minor incident on his first lap out of the pits, he showed his dedication and willingness to learn by doing a lot of tyre testing this afternoon. It was very important and I would like to thank him for that because his ankle is a bit sore. I was a little bit scared when I saw him in the gravel and in the ambulance because the championship starts very soon but he showed his determination. As for Colin, Yamaha, Michelin and the team decided it wasn’t worth taking some risks knowing the conditions were not going to be perfect. He didn’t have much to test, so we sent him home to recharge his batteries and be ready for Qatar.