Valentino Rossi guided his Fiat Yamaha YZR-M1 to second place in today’s Official Practice at Jerez today, despite bad weather disrupting the day’s proceedings at the Spanish circuit.

Valentino Rossi guided his Fiat Yamaha YZR-M1 to second place in today’s Official Practice at Jerez today, despite bad weather disrupting the day’s proceedings at the Spanish circuit. After yesterday’s sunshine this morning saw heavy rain which, although it gradually abated, left the track very damp for the forty-minute ‘qualifying’ session after lunch.

It was nonetheless a very important day for Rossi as it was the first chance for him to ride in the wet on Bridgestone tyres, offering him and his team the chance to gather important information about their new wet set-up. Despite having had just the morning to get used to his new tyres in the conditions, Rossi finished the qualifying session in second place behind Casey Stoner with a best lap of 1’50.580.

His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo struggled a little as he, too, tried to get used to his new package in the tricky conditions, finishing the day in 16th position overall.

Valentino Rossi (Position: 2nd; Time: 1'50.580; Laps: 17)

“Today the conditions made things quite difficult so we didn’t have quite the day we hoped for! Anyway I’m quite happy with our performance in this weather; it’s the first time for me with the Bridgestones in the wet and, although we can see that we have some more work to do with the set-up of our bike, we were not so slow.

"Of course we know we can be faster with more time, and so it would be good to have another chance in the rain tomorrow. The main problem is that we are lacking a bit of front grip and the balance of the bike is not at 100%, so I can’t enter the corner exactly how I want, but we will improve this. The first test in the dry with Bridgestone was quite hard but now, after three tests, things are good, so of course it’s going to be the same in the wet. At the end we came second today after just one morning, so I think we can be quite content with our day’s work.”

Davide Brivio (Team Manager)

“The bad weather was welcomed by us this morning because we haven’t had a chance yet to try the Bridgestones in the rain. For our first time in the wet it was quite good, although we can see that we need to gain more experience with our new tyres in these conditions. We could have done with more time in order to be ready for the qualifying this afternoon, but we learnt a lot all the same. To come second after just one morning for us is positive. Unlike most of the rest of the paddock now we hope we have another really wet day tomorrow, so we have the chance to further refine our setting!”