Rossi back to business (fastest!)

[GixerGaz]

Rossi fastest at Valencia test yesterday on the 800! Faster than Elias and Melandri on the new Bridgestone shod RCV 990's!

Also of note, Barros rode the Duacti for the first time and both Jeremy McWilliams and Andrew Pitt rode the Ilmor bike.

1. Valentino Rossi ITA Camel Yamaha Team (800cc) 1min 32.70 secs
2. Toni Elias SPA Fortuna Honda (990cc) 1min 32.73 secs
3. Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna Honda (990cc) 1min 32.90 secs
4. Valentino Rossi ITA Camel Yamaha Team (990cc) 1min 33.10 secs
5. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team (800cc) 1min 33.11 secs
6. John Hopkins USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (800cc) 1min 33.14 secs
7. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (800cc) 1min 33.18 secs
8. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (800cc) 1min 33.21 secs
9. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (800cc) 1min 33.41 secs
10. Alex Barros BRA Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (990cc) 1min 33.64 secs
11. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (800cc) 1min 33.66 secs
12. Jeremy McWilliams GBR Ilmor SRT (800cc) 1min 35.80 secs
13. Andrew Pitt AUS Ilmor SRT (800cc) 1min 36.60 secs

[wheelieboy136]

Cant wait for next season :D

[dave600srad]

If the timings stay that tight, its going to be a cracking season!!!
Can't wait, bring it on!!!!

[flashart]

Hope the Ilmore makes it further up the table than that next year though:shock: (yes I know it their first ride on the bikes)

[Bushiee46]

Awesome

[GixerGaz]

Crash.net made a mistake as Rossi set fastest lap on 990cc bike but was still fastest on the 800 but how close was it?! Bold is top Yamaha, Ducati, Suzuki and Honda respectively....

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Valentino Rossi bounced back from his title defeat by putting the new 800cc Yamaha on top of the post-season testing timesheets, at Valencia on Wednesday.

The Italian, who lost out on a sixth consecutive premier-class crown with his fifth lap fall in Sunday's season-ending grand prix, not only put the 2007 Yamaha at the head of the 800cc field - but was also the fastest 990cc rider, beating Sunday's best race lap set by Ducati's Loris Capirossi, by 0.224secs!

That was enough to keep Rossi just 0.03secs clear of Fortuna Honda's Toni Elias, riding a 990cc RC211V, who made an impressive start to his new Bridgestone career by lapping 0.9secs faster than he had on Michelins during the grand prix - with team-mate Marco Melandri a fraction slower for third at the end of day one.

Fourth fastest overall was Rossi on his 800cc machine, but Capirossi was just 0.01secs slower on the new 800cc Ducati. The Marlboro rider was 0.41secs slower than The Doctor's 800cc pace and just 0.03secs ahead of Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins, who completed the top six.

Hopkins and seventh fastest team-mate Chris Vermeulen were riding with an 800cc engine in their 'old' 990cc chassis and so were delighted to have lapped comfortably inside their best 990cc race times after their first ever day on an 800.

Eighth fastest was the first of the Honda 800cc riders, Dani Pedrosa, who first rode the RC212V at Motegi, while the Spaniard's 2006 rookie of the year rival, Casey Stoner, was only 0.2secs behind on his factory Ducati, Bridgestone and 800cc debut.

Alex Barros completed the top ten on his MotoGP return, after almost a year's absence - the 2006 WSBK race winner riding a 990cc d'Antin Ducati on Bridgestone tyres and lapping almost 1.5secs inside the best d'Antin lap, on Dunlop tyres, in Sunday's GP.

New world champion Nicky Hayden was eleventh fastest, but still within 0.6secs of Rossi, on his Honda 800cc debut - while Ilmor gave Jeremy McWilliams and Andrew Pitt a test on its X3 as the new team evaluates possible riders for next season.

McWilliams was the fastest of the pair, lapping 0.8secs quicker than WSBK front runner Pitt, and the experienced Ulsterman turned heads by beating Garry McCoy's best race lap from the grand prix.

1. Valentino Rossi ITA Camel Yamaha Team (990cc) 1min 32.70 secs
2. Toni Elias SPA Fortuna Honda (990cc) 1min 32.73 secs
3. Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna Honda (990cc) 1min 32.90 secs
4. Valentino Rossi ITA Camel Yamaha Team (800cc) 1min 33.10 secs
5. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team (800cc) 1min 33.11 secs
6. John Hopkins USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (800cc) 1min 33.14 secs
7. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (800cc) 1min 33.18 secs
8. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (800cc) 1min 33.21 secs
9. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (800cc) 1min 33.41 secs
10. Alex Barros BRA Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (990cc) 1min 33.64 secs
11. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (800cc) 1min 33.66 secs
12. Jeremy McWilliams GBR Ilmor SRT (800cc) 1min 35.80 secs
13. Andrew Pitt AUS Ilmor SRT (800cc) 1min 36.60 secs

[Bushiee46]

Still awesome. not bad for a 2nd place rider eh!

[GixerGaz]

Still awesome. not bad for a 2nd place rider eh!

2nd place rider? There is no doubt that he is No.1!

[Bushiee46]

Surely not, everyones convinced hayden earned his championship!!

[GixerGaz]

Surely not, everyones convinced hayden earned his championship!!

Well, Hayden did earn his championship but Rossi is still No.1

EVERYONE KNOWS THAT DEEP DOWN!

[Jase750]

The Suzuki boys are getting stuck in there !

[GSXR600_SHAQ]

Hayden may have ' won ' this seasons championship and whether he deserved it is a different matter. He is a good rider i hav to admit but u have to look at the overall season. Has he been consistant on the podium? finished in good positions? I dont think so. Fair enough after the crash caused by Pedrobot in portugal, maybe after that he deserved a win, but not the title. If Rossi had not had the the problems with his engine and tyres then hayden would be nowhere near catchin rossi in the championship. Rossi raced with broken bones in his foot/leg and hand to stay within the points, and at donny, he started 10th and finished 2nd. At sachsenring he started 11th and finished 1st. Where as in japan i think it was, hayden qualified for pole but within a few corners was about 14th with suspected clutch problems. The Honda's are always gonna be the best bikes but look what rossi is doin on a Yam. Give him back a honda and the others wont have a chance. Rossi is the real champ here, since he joined the 990's he has won them all except this one. If he wasn't the best, then how come no one else won a 990cc GP since Vale has been in it?

[gixxer6tomo]

roll on 2007...........
hopper did we also........

[Bushiee46]

Hayden may have ' won ' this seasons championship and whether he deserved it is a different matter. He is a good rider i hav to admit but u have to look at the overall season. Has he been consistant on the podium? finished in good positions? I dont think so. Fair enough after the crash caused by Pedrobot in portugal, maybe after that he deserved a win, but not the title. If Rossi had not had the the problems with his engine and tyres then hayden would be nowhere near catchin rossi in the championship. Rossi raced with broken bones in his foot/leg and hand to stay within the points, and at donny, he started 10th and finished 2nd. At sachsenring he started 11th and finished 1st. Where as in japan i think it was, hayden qualified for pole but within a few corners was about 14th with suspected clutch problems. The Honda's are always gonna be the best bikes but look what rossi is doin on a Yam. Give him back a honda and the others wont have a chance. Rossi is the real champ here, since he joined the 990's he has won them all except this one. If he wasn't the best, then how come no one else won a 990cc GP since Vale has been in it?

Thank god someone else see's the point. Nicky Hayden is the world champion but in my eyes he certainly isn't a deserving champion. In 2004 with those points Hayden would've been 3rd place at the end of the season and last year would've just scraped 2nd. So how can anyone say he's a deserving champion when he has purely and simply won his championship by CHANCE! He's soon got that No 1 plate on because he knows as well as everyone else he'll have it for a minimal time. Rossi was magnaminus in victory not to need that no 1 plate but the day after his chance title win, haydens got it on!