After making another step up the all-time winners list to joint second with his 90th career victory yesterday, Valentino Rossi wasted no time in getting started on working towards number 91 at Le Mans yesterday. It was the first of two days of testing for Rossi, who was the sole occupant of the Fiat Yamaha Team garage as team-mate Jorge Lorenzo flew back to Spain after his hard-fought second yesterday to continue rehabilitation on his fractured ankles.
Yamaha is flying high after filling the podium but there is still ongoing development work for the team, with Rossi focusing largely on tyre testing for the future with Bridgestone today as well as refining the set-up of his M1. Most of the paddock stayed on to test and Rossi was second fastest today after 68 laps with a best lap of 1’33.661, set on a qualifying tyre.
The Italian is keen to head to his home race at Mugello next week in the best possible shape and will therefore continue testing Tuesday, when he will have the track almost to himself with most teams are packing up tonight.
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Valentino Rossi; “Monday was a good day, even if it was quite hard to get back to work after the great day we had Sunday! We tested many different tyres with Bridgestone, both qualifiers and race tyres, and collected a lot of information. The tyres we tested were mostly for the future development, not so much for the next few races, but it’s very important to look ahead like this and we found some good material. Of course we worked on the setting a bit as well and also tested some new electronic maps, and now we will continue with more tyre testing again tomorrow. Our aim for this test is just to make sure the bike is in the best possible shape for the Italian challenge that is waiting around the corner!”
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1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1′33.106
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1′33.661 3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1′33.994 4. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1′34.108 5. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1′34.484 6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1′34.730 7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1′34.752 8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1′34.911 9. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1′34.926 10. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1′35.082 11. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1′36.064 12. Erwan Nigon (FRA) HRC Test Team 1′37.389 13. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1′37.424 |
Le Mans record lap: V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2006, 1′35.087
Le Mans best Lap: C. Edwards (Yamaha) 2007, 1′33.616
Le Mans best Lap: C. Edwards (Yamaha) 2007, 1′33.616
