After claiming his 100th premier-class podium with second place in Sunday's Spanish Grand Prix, Valentino Rossi joined the majority of his MotoGP rivals back at Jerez on Monday for testing.
With just two races under his belt since joining forces with Bridgestone, the primary focus for Rossi and his crew remains 'merging' the YZR-M1 with its new Japanese rubber.
Sunday's podium proved they are heading in the right direction, but Monday offered a chance to spend some uninterrupted hours concentrating purely on that objective. Setting was improved in general and Rossi was pleased with some of the new compound tyres he tried, both front and rear and including qualifying tyres.
The five-time MotoGP world champion completed 85 laps with a best of 1min 39.117secs, set using a qualifying tyre, which put him second on the timesheets - behind Michelin-shod team-mate Jorge Lorenzo - by 0.438secs. During qualifying for the grand prix, Rossi had been 0.875secs slower than Lorenzo.
"Today gave us the chance to spend a whole day working closely with our engineers and Bridgestone on tyres and general bike setting," said Rossi's team manager Davide Brivio. "It's still early days in the Bridgestone-Yamaha relationship so we are still focusing on adapting these two elements in order to create the best package. We got some good feedback today and it seems we improved the feeling in both areas.
"It's been very important to stay this extra day because the first two races have been quite intense for everyone, so it's good to have time to test in relaxed surroundings without the pressure that comes during a race weekend. We were able to go through things step by step, analyse the details and take on board some information which we hope will be useful in Estoril and beyond.
"We worked with different front and rear compounds today, and we also tested some qualifying tyres. Of course we're always looking to improve the setting and today we were also able to improve the stability of the bike in the fast corners. Valentino is happy with the day's work and now he and all of the team will have some well deserved rest before the next race," concluded the Italian.
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With just two races under his belt since joining forces with Bridgestone, the primary focus for Rossi and his crew remains 'merging' the YZR-M1 with its new Japanese rubber.
Sunday's podium proved they are heading in the right direction, but Monday offered a chance to spend some uninterrupted hours concentrating purely on that objective. Setting was improved in general and Rossi was pleased with some of the new compound tyres he tried, both front and rear and including qualifying tyres.
The five-time MotoGP world champion completed 85 laps with a best of 1min 39.117secs, set using a qualifying tyre, which put him second on the timesheets - behind Michelin-shod team-mate Jorge Lorenzo - by 0.438secs. During qualifying for the grand prix, Rossi had been 0.875secs slower than Lorenzo.
"Today gave us the chance to spend a whole day working closely with our engineers and Bridgestone on tyres and general bike setting," said Rossi's team manager Davide Brivio. "It's still early days in the Bridgestone-Yamaha relationship so we are still focusing on adapting these two elements in order to create the best package. We got some good feedback today and it seems we improved the feeling in both areas.
"It's been very important to stay this extra day because the first two races have been quite intense for everyone, so it's good to have time to test in relaxed surroundings without the pressure that comes during a race weekend. We were able to go through things step by step, analyse the details and take on board some information which we hope will be useful in Estoril and beyond.
"We worked with different front and rear compounds today, and we also tested some qualifying tyres. Of course we're always looking to improve the setting and today we were also able to improve the stability of the bike in the fast corners. Valentino is happy with the day's work and now he and all of the team will have some well deserved rest before the next race," concluded the Italian.
crash.net