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Valentino Rossi rounded off his testing activity a little
early in Jerez today after he began to feel an increased level of pain in his
recovering right hand, which he broke at the final race of the season.
Nonetheless the Italian managed to complete almost his entire schedule of
testing activity and his first test on Bridgestone tyres was deemed to be a
positive one by Yamaha and Bridgestone engineers alike.
Rossi had planned to complete a long run today but
decided to stop early rather than put more stress on his hand, and he also
decided not to test any more qualifying tyres following his work on soft rubber
yesterday. With most of the rest of the riders choosing to test qualifiers
however, Rossi’s best lap on race tyres, a time of 1’41.538, put him 11th in the
final standings, with the time sheets topped by Dani Pedrosa after a lap of
1’38.562. Rossi’s 2008 team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished 3rd today, with a best
time of 1’39.464.
The Fiat Yamaha Team will now enjoy a well-earned
winter break, reconvening at Sepang in Malaysia for the first test of 2008 on
22nd, 23rd and 24th January 2008.
Valentino Rossi (11th,
1’41.538, 32 laps)
“Today I tried to do my best but I wasn’t
able to ride fast due to my hand; it started hurting a lot today and I had no
power to ride with it in such conditions. The fracture is still hurting and
furthermore I have not ridden or trained for almost one month, so it is to be
expected that today my hand would be tired. I knew I was not in perfect shape,
and I also expected to have some problems at this first test back. Anyway, we
were able to finish our programme and despite today I think it’s been a positive
first test with Bridgestone. Of course we still have work to do on the bike in
general and with regards to adapting it to the new tyres but I can reconfirm my
first feeling of two days ago, which was positive. Now we have a better idea
where we need to work hard in order to improve further. I would like to take
this chance to say a big thank you to all my team, my mechanics and to all the
Yamaha staff for their great effort throughout the season. I know that I will
find them again at the beginning of 2008 with the same motivation, if not even
more than ever. Thanks to everyone!”
Davide Brivio –Team
Manager
“Today we decided to finish early because Valentino was
not able to ride at 100% due to pain in his hand. Anyway, it is quite normal,
since he had a bad crash in Valencia and he has not ridden since. It is not a
big problem for us because we were able to finish our working schedule and test
program, so we preferred to stop the test early in order not to put unnecessary
stress on his hand. It’s been a very interesting test session here in Jerez; we
had the chance to meet all the Bridgestone engineers and technicians who will
work with us next season and we got very interesting information from them and
from the new tyres. In return we were also able to give them important
information to work on, and now we need to analyze all the data and work hard on
it during the winter in order to be as ready as possible in January. Now
Valentino and the team have some holiday time, which they deserve because they
have worked hard all year, then we will be back at Sepang in January for the
final preparation before the 2008 championship”
from Fiat Yamaha Racing
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