Today the Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team wrapped up the second Official MotoGP Test of the 2016 season at the Phillip Island circuit. Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi have spent the last three days battling the elements whilst working through a number of new materials and finished fourth and sixth respectively in the combined timesheets.

Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team's Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo set the fifth and ninth fastest time during the third day of testing in Australia. This last opportunity was one of the more challenging outings for the riders as they focused on making a decision as to which YZR-M1 model they would like to continue to develop - the one more similar to the 2015 model or the alternative edition.

Rossi was the last rider to head out on track, but he was quick to catch up with the other riders by pushing during long stints and moving up to fourth place before the weather once again put a halt to testing. He was able to pick up the pace further later in the afternoon when the rain subsided and set a total of 56 laps. His best lap of 1'29.435s secured him fifth in today's ranking order, just 0.277s off today's quickest time. His fastest time of the weekend, a 1'29.404s, puts him in sixth position in the combined standings, just 0.273s from first.

Teammate Lorenzo was also eager to work down his testing checklist and was one of the first riders to leave pit lane to make the most of the dry conditions in the morning. Determined to give his engineer as much data as possible to base the next steps on, he completed a total 41 laps and set a fastest time of 1'29.760s. Despite a small crash later in the afternoon, which left him unhurt but saw him end the day early, he took ninth place, 0.602s from the front. His best lap overall of 1'29.357s has him placed fourth in the combined time sheets, 0.226s from the lead.

The team will now head back to Europe whilst the engineers return to Japan to process the data and further prepare the 2016 YZR-M1 for the start of the season.

The Movistar Yamaha MotoGP team will regroup in Qatar for the final pre-season test on March 2nd, a little more than two weeks ahead of the opening round, also in Losail.

Massimo Meregalli - Movistar Yamaha MotoGP Team Director

"Overall we can be quite satisfied with the work we have done, if you take into account the little amount of testing time that was available over these last three days. The only glitch was Jorge's crash, most likely due to the cold conditions. Though we had some mixed weather and again weren't able to put in many laps, we completed most of the work that we had planned for this test. We came here with the imperative to decide on which bike we would start the season with. When the track dried in the afternoon we were able to make a comparison between the two models and chose accordingly. We are confident we will be ready for more testing in Qatar in a two weeks' time."



Valentino Rossi -5th / 1'29.435 / 56 laps, Overall 6th / 1'29.404 / 155 laps

"Unfortunately also today the conditions were not fantastic. In the end we only had one good day and that was yesterday, but it's better than nothing. Today we continued our job for a bit, especially we compared the two different bikes and I think we will use the bike that's more similar to last year's model. It was a positive test, especially yesterday, but also today. I feel good with the bike and with the tyres and my pace was not so bad, so I'm quite satisfied."



Jorge Lorenzo - 9th / 1'29.760 / 41 laps, Overall 4th / 1'29.357 / 144 laps

"We didn't have a lot of time to test in the morning and I did the lap time I set this morning on a rear tyre that already had done 24 laps. I've been riding with old tyres all day because we only had one more new tyre. When we finally got a dry track and time to try that last new rear tyre to set a decent lap time, Laverty crashed and I had to cancel that lap. I then decided to try a race simulation, but I crashed on the first lap because the track was very cold. There were a lot of crashes during this time of the day. I was very dedicated and braked a little bit too hard for the grip of the front tyre and I crashed, so I ended the test and I'm going home. Sepang, for us, has been an unbelievable test. Here things changed completely because the lay-out of the track is the opposite. Let's see what happens in Qatar."