2008 MOTOGP World Champion Valentino Rossi left things until the death in Malaysia to head the Free Practice 1 timesheet, the only man to breach the 2´03 barrier in a session delayed by five minutes after events in the 125cc outing. The Fiat Yamaha rider was the standout of the initial practice run as he set his fearsome final lap of the morning, which took place under customarily humid and – for the moment at least - dry conditions.
Crowned 250cc World Champion in Malaysia last year, Jorge Lorenzo posted a 2´03.179 lap in the final two minutes of the session to trail his teammate by just under half a second. 2007 racewinner Casey Stoner was just shy of clocking a time two-thousandths of a second slower than that of Lorenzo, although Rossi´s 2´02.693 lap has well and truly laid down the gauntlet for his two early rivals.
Colin Edwards added to the Yamaha presence in the upper echelon of the early timesheet with the fourth quickest lap of the practice session, ahead of morning crasher Randy de Puniet. Nicky Hayden, Loris Capirossi, Shinya Nakano, Andrea Dovizioso and James Toseland also made their presence felt in the top ten.
Valentino Rossi said:
“This was a good day for us because we were fastest this morning and then second this afternoon behind Colin. I like this track a lot; it’s difficult, technical and wide and it’s possible to have a lot of fun riding a MotoGP bike here. It’s a different feeling compared to the tests here pre-season, because the bike has changed a lot since then and we’ve also learnt a lot more about the tyres; it’s good to see how much we have improved everything since then. Our pace today is already good so I think we have a good potential this weekend, but it’s definitely possible to improve some more and make our setting better. We need to work on one or two small things. I have a strong motivation for a good result here!”
