After making another step up the all-time winners list to joint second with his 90th career victory yesterday, Valentino Rossi wasted no time in getting started on working towards number 91 at Le Mans today. It was the first of two days of testing for Rossi, who was the sole occupant of the Fiat Yamaha Team garage as team-mate Jorge Lorenzo flew back to Spain after his hard-fought second yesterday to continue rehabilitation on his fractured ankles. Yamaha is flying high after filling the podium yesterday but there is still ongoing development work for the team, with Rossi focusing largely on tyre testing for the future with Bridgestone today as well as refining the set-up of his M1. Most of the paddock stayed on to test and Rossi was second fastest today after 68 laps with a best lap of 1’33.661, set on a qualifying tyre. The Italian is keen to head to his home race at Mugello next week in the best possible shape and will therefore continue testing tomorrow, when he will have the track almost to himself with most teams are packing up tonight. Davide Brivio Team manager “Today was a good day, even if it was quite hard to get back to work after the great day we had yesterday! We tested many different tyres with Bridgestone, both qualifiers and race tyres, and collected a lot of information. The tyres we tested today were mostly for the future development, not so much for the next few races, but it’s very important to look ahead like this and we found some good material. Of course we worked on the setting a bit as well and also tested some new electronic maps, and now we will continue with more tyre testing again tomorrow. Our aim for this test is just to make sure the bike is in the best possible shape for the Italian challenge that is waiting around the corner!” Test Times 1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1’33.106 2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’33.661 3. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1’33.994 4. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1’34.108 5. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1’34.484 6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’34.730 7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1’34.752 8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’34.911 9. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’34.926 10. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1’35.082 11. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1’36.064 12. Erwan Nigon (FRA) HRC Test Team 1’37.389 13. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1’37.424 Le Mans: Record Lap – V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2006, 1’35.087 Le Mans: Best Lap – C. Edwards (Yamaha) 2007, 1’33.616 More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: REPSOL HONDA RIDERS LEARN MORE AT LE MANS Repsol MotoGP tests, Le Mans, France Monday, May 19 2008 Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden stayed on at Le Mans today for a busy day of testing following yesterday’s French Grand Prix. Both riders focused on evaluating Michelin tyres and different chassis set-up solutions in preparation for the next MotoGP event at Mugello, Italy, on June 1. Pedrosa set the fastest lap of the tests, using qualifying tyres and the end of the day, while hard-working Hayden used race tyres throughout his impressive run of 113 laps. Mugello is the first of a quick-fire run of six races over eight weekends. Hayden’s next duty, however, is this coming weekend, when he will ride a demo lap aboard a 2007 RC212V just before the start of the huge Indy 500 car race to promote September’s inaugural Indianapolis MotoGP event. Dani Pedrosa, fastest lap: 1m 33.106s (77 laps) “I think we made some positive steps today. We focused on the front end, looking to improve feeling, so I tested several different front tyres and tried several different set-up solutions. I also tried some different electronics settings. I’m quite satisfied, we’ve learned a few things that should be useful at the next few races. It was difficult sometimes because the weather was quite cold, but finally it worked out okay. At the end of the day I used a qualifying tyre because we had to test something for qualifying. Now I’m looking forward to Mugello, a great track with an incredible atmosphere, where I hope we can have a better race.” Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 34.752s (113 laps) “It was a hard weekend, today we found a couple of band aids for the problems we’ve had here. We only tested with race tyres and we improved our pace. I was able to go quicker than we went yesterday but still not enough. We tried a lot of solutions and I can’t really say we really found any cures for the braking stability and for getting the bike to enter the corner better. We went through a lot of stuff which at least we can now rule out. We tried mainly setting changes and a few tyres, which could possibly work well for us at other tracks, which we needed to get a little bit of data on. It looked like the sky could open up any time, it stayed dry but it wasn’t a day for the beach! I feel a little better now, so hopefully Mugello will go smoother for us.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM COMPLETE FIRST DAY OF TESTS AT LE MANS The Ducati Marlboro Team have concluded day one of testing at Le Mans today in cool and cloudy conditions. Thankfully the weather did not interrupt the riders’ programme and both Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri were able to work on various aspects of the set-up of their GP8 machines, as well as trying a variety of new Bridgestone tyres. Stoner completed 50 laps on race tyres and worked on the electronics with the aim of improving engine performance. During a five-laps run, in which the Australian used a particularly encouraging rear tyre, he clocked a best time of 1’33.994. Melandri worked relentlessly over 63 laps on the set-up of his machine but was unable to find any significant steps forward. The pair will be back on track tomorrow for the second and final day of tests in France before the next appointment for the Ducati Marlboro Team: the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello on 1st June. Circuit Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha – 2008) 1’34.215 Pole record: Dani Pedrosa (Honda – 2008) 1’32.647 Unofficial lap times: Monday 19th May Dani PEDROSA (Honda) 1’33.106 Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha) 1’33.661 Casey STONER (Ducati) 1’33.994 (race tyres) Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki) 1’34.108 John HOPKINS (Kawasaki) 1’34.484 Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 1’34.730 Nicky HAYDEN (Honda) 1’34.752 Shinya NAKANO (Honda) 1’34.911 Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 1’34.926 Anthony WEST (Kawasaki) 1’35.082 Marco MELANDRI (Ducati) 1’36.064 (race tyres) Erwan NIGON (Honda) 1’37.389 Olivier JACQUE (Kawasaki) 1’37.424