MOVISTAR Yamaha MotoGP's Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo have finished the first Sepang test fourth and fifth overall, but Rossi insists the team must keep working to beat the speed of the Repsol Hondas.
Perfect weather conditions on Friday led to quick times. Rossi made progress with the overall setup of the bike, managing to pinpoint the direction of development for his YZR-M1 after he smashed his own record at Sepang with a time of 1:59.401.
The remainder of the session for the Italian consisted of testing more components along with a race simulation.
Rossi said: 'Today I’m more satisfied. It was a good day and we did a good job, especially because we tested everything and we decided what we have to use to continue the development.
'I’m very happy because 1’59.4 is my best lap in Sepang in my whole career and I’m already 0.3 faster compared to last year. It’s true that the conditions today are good, but also compared to yesterday we improved the setting of the bike a lot and also my pace is not so bad.
'We also tried a race simulation, but not with our performance at a hundred per cent.
'We tried some different parts for the bike, something good and something I didn’t like. My pace in the simulation was quite good so the test was positive.
'The only negative thing was the speed of Marc and Dani. They are a little bit faster than us on a lap with a fresh tyre, but also in terms of pace. That means that, if we want to beat them, we have to keep working.'
Team-mate Lorenzo only took half an hour to beat his fastest ever lap around the Sepang circuit with a time of 1:59.624s. The Spaniard also completed a race simulation, but this was still off the pace of the two Repsol Honda's.
'In the morning we weren’t very explosive to make a good lap time because the bike didn’t stop so well on the brakes,' Lorenzo said.
'We modified the set-up to improve the braking, but we didn’t have any new tyres left to do a good lap time. I think we might not have been able to ride a 1’58, but maybe a low 1’59.
'The race simulation was interesting. We did one at the time of day when the temperature was the highest and our pace was very consistent. I think that if there was a race tomorrow, we could fight for the win, so this is positive.
'The bike improved a little compared to how it was at the Valencia test. I think we have a big thing to try at the second test at Sepang. Let’s see if this is clearly better.'
Movistar Yamaha MotoGP will now analyse the data from the three-day Sepang test and will return for the second pre-season test in two weeks time.
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