The Fiat Yamaha Team was in action as the first ‘day’ of the 2008 Grand Prix season took place under floodlights in Qatar last night, the curtain finally going up on the new World Championship.

The first ‘day’ of the 2008 Grand Prix season took place under floodlights in Qatar last night, as the curtain finally went up on the new MotoGP World Championship. Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi, following on from a test here last week, finished the night’s work eighth on his Bridgestone-shod YZR-M1.

After suffering from a few problems at last week’s test, marginally warmer temperatures for the first practice of the night saw Rossi improve his pace somewhat, finishing in fourth after the first hour. He began to suffer from a lack of grip later on however as conditions deteriorated and the temperature went down and he was unable to improve on his earlier time, dropping to eighth in the combined standings. His young team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile was on fine form throughout the night, finishing the day second in the combined standings behind Casey Stoner.

Valentino Rossi (Position: 8th: Time: 1'56.269; Laps: 44)

"Earlier this evening it was a bit warmer than at the last test and it was helping us quite a lot, because we were already faster and lapping close to the leaders. Unfortunately later on in the second practice the track seemed more slippery and we suffered a lot. We just didn’t have enough grip and we weren’t able to improve on our time from the previous session. We weren’t able to completely sort out the problem tonight but we will have a good look at the data and try to find the right step for tomorrow, I think we need a slightly harder setting. I’m really sorry that Pedrosa fell, and I hope that he is okay. I was riding normally, if not at lap record pace, but I think he was travelling faster behind me and wasn’t able to stop when he exited the turn and hit me from behind. It was unlucky. Finally, I want to say again that the lighting is very good and now honestly I am not really thinking about it, it seems like normal."

Jorge Lorenzo (Position: 2nd; Time: 1'55.453; Laps: 46)

"It’s clear that we have some work to do and we’re still searching for the right setting to make our package work at its full potential in these low temperatures. Now the engineers will check the data carefully and we will try some different things tomorrow and see how we go. It’s a very good sign that the other Yamaha’s are doing so well because this shows that our bike is very good and that we just need to find the key to make Valentino’s one work as well as we know it can."

Davide Brivio (Team Manager)

“It’s clear that we have some work to do and we’re still searching for the right setting to make our package work at its full potential in these low temperatures. Now the engineers will check the data carefully and we will try some different things tomorrow and see how we go. It’s a very good sign that the other Yamaha’s are doing so well because this shows that our bike is very good and that we just need to find the key to make Valentino’s one work as well as we know it can.”