Rossi and Edwards continued from where they left off yesterday, once again spending the day refining settings on their M1s and trying to find the best way to develop the new version of the bike, as well as testing a variety of Michelin tyres. According to the unofficial lap times, Ducati rider Loris Capirossi was the fastest man on the track for second day running, setting a time of 2’01.99, whilst Rossi was second fastest once again, completing 55 laps with a best time of 2’02.16. He was followed by Alex Barros (Honda, 2’02.30), Max Biaggi (Honda, 2’02.35), seemingly well recovered from a broken leg sustained in November, and Kenny Roberts (Suzuki, 2’02.38). Rossi’s Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards completed 62 laps and was sixth fastest with a time of 2’02.48.
Valentino Rossi, (2’02.16, 55 laps)
“I am quite happy with the work we’ve done today. We worked on suspension and set-up and the bike gave us some good data and a good feeling. Yesterday we went the wrong way with some things but today we’ve made some modifications and we’ve found the right way forward. We’ve worked mainly on making the bike more agile and trying to make it more like the 2004 bike in this area, and we had a really good run of improvements this morning.”
Colin Edwards (2’02.48, 62 laps)
“We sorted out our first-day teething problems and I’m feeling much happier about everything. I’m so tired tonight, but we knew we’d have to work hard! Overnight we had some ideas and they seem to have worked; now it feels like we’re going in the right direction. The most important thing is front confidence and I had more of it today. Overall now it doesn’t feel so different from the old bike and the whole package is good. Tomorrow we’ll play around some more, probably do a race simulation and hopefully make some more improvements.”
Davide Brivio, Gauloises Yamaha Team Director
“It was a productive day for both riders. We spent a lot of time testing tyres for Michelin and we made a good job of this. Before that we were able to improve the bike settings compared to yesterday, so we are on the way. Tomorrow is the final day so we will hope that we can continue this work and finish on a good note.”
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