World champion Valentino Rossi completed his first MotoGP laps since the Valencia season finale three-weeks ago, when he took to the track for the start of a three-day test at Sepang, in Malaysia, today.
A short rain shower in the morning slightly delayed proceedings, but the weather then improved and allowed uninterrupted running for the rest of the day, with Rossi joined on track by Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards - plus riders from Honda, Kawasaki, Suzuki and Yamaha Tech 3.
Rossi concentrated mainly on Michelin tyre testing, before going on to make his debut on the prototype version of the new 2006 YZR-M1 (top and middle pic) towards the end of the session. The #46 completed a short run of the 5.548km circuit on the new bike and will begin more in-depth work on it tomorrow.
"My first impressions of the new bike are very positive," declared Rossi, who was sixth fastest overall, 0.85secs behind Monday pace setter Marco Melandri. "The engine seems a little bit faster and it feels more stable. However I only did a short run; just a few laps, so it's really too early to make any detailed observations about it at this stage. Tomorrow the real work will start and we will take some time to try to understand the new bike and begin to work on the set-up.
"Most of today we spent on the 2005 bike, testing tyres for Michelin and trying to understand the problems that we had here during the race in September," explained the Italian, who lapped half a second slower than his fastest lap from this year's Malaysian GP. "We made some investigations and tried to gather some information to help us, and we made some good progress. We will continue like this tomorrow as well as getting started working on the new bike."
Meanwhile, Edwards spent the day focusing on a new '250' type riding style, which he had been adapting to over the last part of the season, working with settings and electronics on his M1 as well as testing some new tyres for Michelin. The Texan would end the day 0.02secs ahead of Rossi.
"As usual it was hot and humid out there, but it feels good to be back on the bike," began Colin. "We had a bit of a rain delay in the morning and got started a bit late, but once we did get going I instantly felt comfortable on the bike. I said in Valencia that I needed to get out and do lap after lap to really ingrain this new style in to my head, and this test is offering me that chance.
"As soon as I started I felt that it was coming much more easily than at the last two races; I didn't have to make such an effort to consciously think about doing it and it felt more natural. We played around with some new settings and electronics and found that we are moving even more towards Valentino's settings; it all felt good.
We tested a couple of tyres for Michelin, but mostly today was about getting back into the swing of things and getting comfortable with my new style," confirmed Edwards.
Team director Davide Brivio revealed that Edwards will stick to riding the 2005 machine tomorrow, but will then join Rossi on the 06 M1 for the final day.
"It's only the first day back but it was a positive start for both riders. Valentino made some laps on the new bike, just to get the initial feeling, and tomorrow we will start to work properly on it, trying to gather as much information as we can," he said. "Colin is continuing from where he left off in Valencia, getting used to his new style of riding and adapting his settings to match it. He will carry on like this tomorrow and then on Wednesday he will try the new bike also."
According to the unofficial lap times, the fastest man on the track today was Fortuna Honda rider Melandri with a time of 2mins 2.95secs (see separate story). He was followed by fellow RCV riders Nicky Hayden, Carlos Checa and MotoGP rookie Dani Pedrosa with Edwards the top non-Honda.
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