Following on from their first and third place finishes in last Sunday's MotoGP Grand Prix of Spain, Fiat Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards got back to work straight away with a two-day test. The scene of their victorious celebrations under sunny skies on Sunday was a very different place on Monday as heavy rain fell throughout the day at the Spanish circuit. This was just what the team wanted however, as it gave them the chance to do some serious wet-weather testing with the new 800cc M1, something they have not had the opportunity for so far this year. Rossi completed 41 laps in the rain with a best lap of 1'51.899, whilst Edwards put in 36 laps with a best lap of 1'53.104.

With all the necessary wet-weather work completed on Monday, the Fiat Yamaha Team were forced to wait until yesterday afternoon, when the track was fully dry, to get started with their programme of tyre testing. Both riders tested a range of new tyres with Michelin and the information gathered is sure to prove invaluable when they head to Istanbul next month, the first circuit at which they will not have tested since the new tyre regulations came into play. Rossi also tried out some small engine modifications in order to give the Yamaha engineers more information for their engine development ahead of the next run of races. Edwards was the fastest rider not to run a qualifying tyre yesterday, finishing the test in fifth place with a time of 1'41.755 after 46 laps. Rossi was ninth fastest with a time of 1'42.348 from 42 laps.

There is now a three-week break until the third round of the 2007 MotoGP Championship, which will take place at the Istanbul Park circuit in Turkey on 22nd April.
 

Davide Brivio - Team Director: Yesterday we had the chance to test in really wet conditions, which was extremely important for us. It gave us the chance to really understand the performance of the M1 in the wet and to give us a lot of information about tyres and settings in these conditions. We're now more prepared in case we have rain at any of the next races, which is quite possible! Today we had to wait until the afternoon for it to be properly dry, as it was still raining this morning. Anyway we had enough time to get some good work done, mostly tyre testing but Valentino also tried some new engine modifications and we found some small improvements in the engine performance. Now our engineers will work in Japan with the information gathered today, and we will decide whether or not we will use these new modifications at the next race in Istanbul. We also did a lot of tyre testing with Michelin and gathered a lot of important information for the next few races. It's always hard to get back to testing after a great day like we had on Sunday but everyone has worked very hard - now they all deserve a nice long break before Istanbul!"