MOTOGP JEREZ TEST – DAY TWO

World Champion Valentino Rossi set the fastest time in Jerez today on
the final day of testing for the year. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge
Lorenzo was third fastest, making it a successful concluding test for
the year’s leading team.

Rossi spent most of his time today on the new 2009-prototype M1,
working on developing the setting and also trying out some new parts
for the engine, amongst other things. He set his best time of the day
on his 52nd of 54 laps, dipping nearly seven tenths of a second under
the lap record with a time of 1’39.429.

It was another cold day in Jerez and Lorenzo did not make his first
foray on track until 1.30 pm, completing 58 laps before ending his day
at 5pm. The 21-year-old spent the entire time today on a test bike,
which carries some new prototype parts, familiarising himself with the
different machine, working on establishing a base setting and
continuing to improve his feeling with the new single-brand tyres. He
showed his improvement with a best lap of 1’40.426, just over 0.3
seconds off the current lap record.

The team will now have two months to recover from a hard season while
the MotoGP testing ban is in force. The next on-track action will be
at Sepang in Malaysia on 5th, 6th and 7th February 2009.

Valentino Rossi – Position: 1st Time: 1’39.429 Laps: 54
“The track was a bit drier today and so we were able to improve even
more and do a great job. We worked a lot on the new bike and tried
some different parts to yesterday, including for the engine and we
were quite fast. It seems we’re going in the right direction with this
new bike and I am happy about this. I hope that the information we
have gathered here will help the engineers to improve the bike and I
look forward to the next evolution in Sepang. I think these first
tests with the one-tyre rule have been quite positive and Bridgestone
have done a good job so far, although for sure they will have a
difficult job to decide which tyre for which track. Anyway, I hope
that we will have some exciting battles next year with everyone at the
same level with their tyres. Now I am looking forward to some holidays
and next week I will go to Wales for the rally, which I hope will be a
lot of fun. It’s been a fantastic year and I am really happy I have
finished at the top today, it’s not a big thing but it gives a good
feeling to me and all the team and means we can enjoy our holidays
confident that we are in good shape!”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager
“This has been a positive test for us, and we have finished the year
very well. Despite the cold weather allowing us just a few hours to
test over these two days, we have been able to go through more or less
our entire programme and check everything on the agenda. This means
that we have given a lot of valuable information to our Japanese
engineers, and this will help them in their development work over the
winter. Valentino finished fastest today, which is a great conclusion
to the year, and shows that we’re on the right track with the
2009-prototype M1. Now we have some time for rest and so I would like
to thank all of the team once again for their hard work and wish them
happy holidays!”

Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 3rd Time: 1’40.426 Laps: 58
“Today we concentrated on the evolution bike, which has some prototype
parts, with a new setting from Valentino. It seems we had a small
advantage with this bike and I was able to improve my time, so I am
happy about this. This ‘new’ bike is also more stable under
acceleration, with less wheelie and the throttle is a bit easier to
handle so these are important improvements. The final conclusion of
these two days is very positive I think, although we know there is
still a lot of margin to improve, both in the bike and in my riding
style and of course we need to keep working to better understand the
new tyres. Now we start a long holiday and I am looking forward to
starting training immediately, because since Valencia I have really
been too busy! It will be good to have two months off with my friends
and family but I am also looking forward to February in Sepang, when
hopefully I will get to try the new engine.”

Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager
“This has been a very good test for us, and today we improved our lap
time by quite a lot compared with yesterday. Jorge focused on the new
bike today and he likes it and was able to make some good laps. The
team worked on finding a new setting, which helped us to improve our
lap time and, although there is a lot more to work on, it seems with
the new bike we have more potential to improve than with the old one
so this is very encouraging. We are very happy about Jorge’s lap time
because he is the first rider who is using new tyres, behind Valentino
and Dani who have had a lot more experience with them. Of course we
need more time to understand the tyres and how we can use them to
their full potential, but we have time. Now finally we have a long
winter break for the team, but Yamaha will continue to work hard to
improve our bike before the next test in Sepang in
February.”

Test Times
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’39.429
2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1’39.447
3. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’40.426
4. Toni Elias (SPA) Team San Carlo 1’40.448
5. Alex De Angelis (RSM) Team San Carlo 1’40.486
6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’40.486
7. Mika Kallio (FIN) Alice Team 1’40.564
8. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1’40.604
9. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Grupo Francisco Hernando 1’40.856
10. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda 1’40.966
11. Niccolò Canepa (ITA) Ducati Test 1’41.077
12. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1’41.740
13. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’42.906
14. Yuki Takahashi (JPN) JiR Team Scot Honda 1’42.918

Jerez: Record Lap

D. Pedrosa (Honda) 2008, 1’40.116

Jerez: Best Lap

J. Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2008, 1’38.189

Yamaha Racing Communications
Hoogte Kadijk 61hs / 1018 BE Amsterdam / The Netherlands

E. office@yrc.nl W. http://www.yamaha-racing.com