Light-hearted Rossi enjoys day two at Sepang

Friday, 6 February 2009

Focusing on the electronics of his new M1 and enjoying some friendly competitiveness with his old friend Loris Capirossi in testing at Sepang, Valentino Rossi was in a typically good mood at the end of Friday’s session.

Despite the nagging pain caused by the stitches in his left hand and foot – a result of his domestic mishap earlier this week in Italy – Valentino Rossi enjoyed Friday’s testing session in Malaysia, finishing third on the timesheet just behind Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi.

Working hard on the continual adaptation of his 2009 prototype M1 the MotoGP World Champion tested a new electronic setting to assist with acceleration and was able to produce a best time of 2’01.626, inside the existing lap record and just 0.143s off pace-setter Stoner’s Friday best.

At the end of his 40-lap workout Rossi explained, “Today we tested some new electronic solutions in order to allow me to open the throttle earlier and they were not bad at all, but we still need to work to improve it even more. This afternoon the stitches hurt me a bit, but my pace was still very good so I am happy.”

Having raced around the 5.542km Sepang circuit with his compatriot and friend Capirossi late in the session, the Fiat Yamaha star joked, “At the end of the day I had some fun with Loris; we did a couple of laps together and I think that he enjoyed it a lot, because he beat me! I had fun, a lot of fun; it was like the good old times!”

Further detailing the thinking behind his work schedule the 29 year-old added, “I did not do the long run; I will do it tomorrow if my physical condition allows it. I may have to do it in two parts, so that it won’t put too much stress on my stitches. It will be interesting to do the long run with the new tyres, but I am not expecting it to be so much slower than last year.”

Click here for the MotoGP Sepang Test Results so far.