Rossi tops GP test

After the fans went home from the Czech GP on Sunday most of the teams stayed behind to put in two days of testing on the Brno circuit.

Valentino Rossi set the fastest time of the test with a 1:58.247 lap on his Yamaha YZF-M1, just ahead of Honda man, and championship rival, Sete Gibernau who came in with a 1:58.526 lap.

Rossi used the session to test a new shaped fairing for the Yamaha but he wasn’t entirely convinced of its benefits. “I made some laps with the new fairing but couldn’t really feel a difference, although the nose of the bike looks very different. The engineers will analyse the data and decide when we will use the new fairing again. For sure it won’t be in the next race in Portugal because it was our first test with it.”

Rossi only tested the fairing for 20 laps and spent the rest of the time working on engine mapping and testing a ream of new tyres from Michelin.

Gibernau used the session test the new exhaust and engine mods that had been given to him by Honda. He was given the new kit before the Brno round but the qualifying sessions proved to be so wet the team didn’t have a chance to test them enough before the race.

Loris Capirossi had a small crash on his Ducati Desmosedici while Nicky Hayden hardly even managed to get his factory Honda out of the garage.

An engine fault prevented him going out on the RC211V on Monday afternoon, while more work on the engine kept him in the garage on Tuesday morning before the rain came down in the afternoon ending the session.

Best unofficial times:

1. V. Rossi 1:58.247

2. S. Gibernau 1:58.526

3. C. Edwards 1:58.807

4. L. Capirossi 1:58.960

5. C. Checa 1:59.016

6. M. Tamada 1:59.120

7. T. Bayliss 1:59.145

8. N. Hayden 1:59.313

9. M. Melandri 1:59.413

10. J. Hopkins 1:59.475

11. M. Biaggi 1:59.608

12. S. Itoh 1:59.628

13. S. Nakano 1:59.730

14. A. Barros 1:59.735

15. Ke. Roberts 2:00.311

16. N. Abe 2:00.414

17. G. Lavilla 2:00.694

18. A. Hofmann 2:01.105

19. N. Aoki 2:01.131

20. O. Jacque 2:01.851

21. J. Ellison 2:02.948

22. N. Matsudo 2:04.931