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***Malcolm*** · 06-02-2015, 05:30 PM

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP’s Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo ended the third and final day of MotoGP testing in Sepang on a positive note, finishing fourth and fifth on the overall timesheer.

Rossi clearly enjoyed Friday’s perfect weather conditions and was able to successfully complete his testing schedule. The progress he made in terms of the setup and pinpointing the direction of the development for his YZR-M1 showed when he shattered his own record at the Sepang International Circuit with a 1’59.401s lap, moving him up to third on the leader board. The Doctor used the remaining time of the session to test some more parts for the bike and did a race simulation, before finishing the day in fourth place.

Teammate Lorenzo also made strides. Continuing his good rhythm of Thursday, he was quick right from the start of Friday’s eight-hour session. Despite the crowdedness of having 27 riders on the track at the same time, he was able to focus on his pace and position himself as one of the key protagonists. As with his teammate, it only took him about half an hour into the session to beat his fastest ever lap at the Malaysian track when he posted a time of 1’59.624s. The Spaniard also concluded his testing schedule with a race simulation at the hottest time of the day and ended fifth in the standings.

This third day completes the first pre-season test in Sepang. Movistar Yamaha MotoGP will analyse the gained data and come back to the Malaysian circuit for a second pre-season test in two weeks time.

Rossi noted,

“Today I’m more satisfied. It was a good day and we did a good job, especially because we tested everything and we decided what we have to use to continue the development. I’m very happy because 1’59.4 is my best lap in Sepang in my whole career and I’m already 0.3 faster compared to last year. It’s true that the conditions today are good, but also compared to yesterday we improved the setting of the bike a lot and also my pace is not so bad. We also tried a race simulation, but not with our performance at a hundred per cent. We tried some different parts for the bike, something good and something I didn’t like. My pace in the simulation was quite good so the test was positive. The only negative thing was the speed of Marc and Dani. They are a little bit faster than us on a lap with a fresh tyre, but also in terms of pace. That means that, if we want to beat them, we have to keep working.”

Lorenzo also stated,

“In the morning we weren’t very explosive to make a good lap time because the bike didn’t stop so well on the brakes. We modified the set-up to improve the braking, but we didn’t have any new tyres left to do a good lap time. I think we might not have been able to ride a 1’58, but maybe a low 1’59. The race simulation was interesting. We did one at the time of day when the temperature was the highest and our pace was very consistent. I think that if there was a race tomorrow, we could fight for the win, so this is positive. The bike improved a little compared to how it was at the Valencia test. I think we have a big thing to try at the second test at Sepang. Let’s see if this is clearly better.”

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