First session past the midway point at Losail

After four hours of the opening session of the Qatar Test it was Valentino Rossi of the Fiat Yamaha team setting the pace, with the Italian’s time of 1’55.971 the only lap under the 1’56” mark so far.

Having completed a further 15 laps in the past two hours the reigning MotoGP World Champion was 0.232s faster than Ducati Marlboro rider Stoner, who added another 20 laps onto his session to bring his total so far to 34.

The Australian’s team-mate Nicky Hayden, also retaining the same set-up as used at the last Sepang Test, made a big step up as he moved into the third quickest slot which he occupied in Malaysia. The American was just over half a second off his colleague by 10pm.

The fastest Honda remained that of Randy De Puniet, with the LCR rider the final man to come within a second of Rossi. Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider Ben Spies, Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso and Loris Capirossi of the Rizla Suzuki team followed suit as all three continued their respective work agendas.

Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) completed seven more laps as he maintains his bid to try and make progress despite still nursing his injured right hand. The Spaniard has been to the Clinica Mobile for a massage on his hand, and at the moment is only able to ride a maximum of three laps at a time before the pain becomes too great. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) completed the top ten times on the timesheet.

Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) was off the pace at just over two seconds from Rossi’s time, alter riding 40 laps on his RC212V.

The latest video update direct from the circuit includes an interview with veteran rider Capirossi ahead of his 300th Grand Prix at Qatar in the season opener on April 11th, as well as a comprehensive overview of what is being tested by the teams over these two days.

You can see the regularly updated timesheet by clicking here.