Camel Yamaha Team - Sepang Test Day 2

Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards both made progress on the development of the 2006-spec YZR-M1 in Malaysia today, despite the day being cut short by rain. The morning saw high temperatures and building humidity at the Sepang track before it gave way to a rainstorm in the mid-afternoon. Both riders decided not to carry on testing and now hope for good weather tomorrow in order to make the most of the final day. Ducati riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi both set fast times under the 2'02 marker today, but Edwards was close behind with a best lap of 2'02.00 after 58 laps. Rossi, who set a lap of 2'02.14 yesterday, was ninth fastest today with a best time of 2'02.62 after 41 laps Colin Edwards (2'02.00, 58 Laps) "Today went really well and I'm excited about the progress we're making already. Usually with a new bike you have to compromise in some areas to improve others, but it seems that with this bike they've improved it all over. Yamaha has done a really great job on it over the winter. The traction especially is much better. The crash yesterday has actually helped us to make progress and now we've found a setting that I really like. We've still got a tiny bit of chatter, but only in about three corners so we're not so worried and I am confident we can find a way to fix it." Valentino Rossi (2'02.62, 41 Laps) "Today was not perfect because the rain interrupted everything this afternoon and we didn't do as much work as we wanted to. Up to then we had concentrated mostly on fixing the chatter that we experienced yesterday and in the end we were successful. We realised that the problem was in the rear shock and now it's okay. I ran a lot on old tyres today and then it started to rain so we weren't able to try any of the new race tyres Michelin had brought. Tomorrow we will probably do a long run and hopefully we will also get the chance to try some of these new tyres." Davinde Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Unfortunately it rained this afternoon so we couldn't finish the day's work. Despite this both riders made some progress and Colin's times especially were quite fast. Tomorrow we hope that we have good weather and that we can complete everything that we need to do." Unofficial lap times 1. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati 2'01.50 2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati 2'01.80 3. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha 2'02.00 4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda 2'02.02 5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda 2'02.26 6. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki 2'02.40 6. John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki 2'02.40 8. Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda 2'02.57 9. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha 2'02.62 10. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda 2'02.70 11. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda 2'03.26 12. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki 2'03.43 13. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki 2'03.80 14. Kenny Roberts (USA) Honda 2'04.10 15. James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha 2'04.15 16. Alex Hofmann (GER) Ducati 2'04.49 17. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) Ducati 2'06.06 Lap Record: Nicky Hayden (Honda) 2005 - 2'02.993 Best Lap: Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2005 - 2'01.731 Ambient temperature: 29.2 degrees Track temperature: 43 degrees Humidity: 64.4%