16.02.2008 ROSSI CELEBRATES BIRTHDAY WITH PROMISING FIRST DAY IN JEREZ

VALENTINO ROSSI

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi, who celebrated his 29th birthday today, put in a strong showing on the first day of the Official MotoGP Test at Jerez de la Frontera in Southern Spain today.

Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi, who celebrated his 29th birthday today, put in a strong showing on the first day of the Official MotoGP Test at Jerez de la Frontera in Southern Spain today. The seven-time World Champion spent the majority of the day atop the time sheets after lapping consistently fastest on race tyres throughout a long morning session, although he eventually finished the day further down the order in eighth position after several riders put in fast laps on qualifying tyres later on.

Rossi continued to make good progress with his set-up on Bridgestone race tyres, making the most of the day’s good weather to put in a total of 92 laps on his YZR-M1. The birthday boy’s best time of 1’40.641 was only a fraction off the existing lap record, which he set on his way to a memorable victory over Sete Gibernau in the 2005 race here.

His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, who is riding on home soil for the first time since he officially joined the Fiat Yamaha Team in January, finished the day in third position with a time of 1’39.528, set on qualifying tyre on his 94th lap. Fastest man on track today was Nicky Hayden with a lap of 1’29.200.

Tomorrow sees the traditional televised forty-minute timed session taking place between 1405 and 1445 local time. With a high possibility of rain the event, which Rossi ‘won’ here last year, looks like being an eventful battle for pre-season honours.

Valentino Rossi (Position: 8th; Time: 1'40.641; Laps: 92)

“It’s good to be here on my birthday because I love to ride my bike and I had fun today. I had a special helmet with the design of a birthday cake on it, so this was my way to celebrate today! For the first day it’s not so bad at all, I feel good with the tyres and the balance and power of the engine is also okay. Of course we’re not at 100% and we need to improve in some areas, especially in the entry to the corner where we’re not yet at the maximum. We tried a new generation of Bridgestone qualifying tyre today, whilst tomorrow we will have the more standard tyre, which we were very fast with in Sepang, so I think we will be able to fight with the others in the ‘qualifying’ session.  Overall we’ve made a very good start and I feel confident that we can continue to be even faster tomorrow.”

Davide Brivio (Team Manager)

“We’ve made a good start today and done some very good work. At the end we tried a new type of qualifying tyre and on this we weren’t so fast but we will try what we know works tomorrow and hopefully we can be competitive alongside the others. It’s been a very positive day for Valentino and the whole team and we are looking forward to more of the same for the rest of the test.”
 

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