ROSSI THIRD FASTEST ON SECOND DAY IN SEPANG

Another scorching day in Sepang saw Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi putting in some fast laps on the new 2008 YZR-M1 today, on the second day of the opening test of the year. Proving he was harboring no ill-effects from yesterday's fall, the Italian was a second faster than yesterday and over half a second under lap record pace, setting the third fastest time of the day on a race tire.

Rossi once again worked on the pneumatic-valve engine and on the new electronics, as well as concentrating on tire testing with Bridgestone as he and his crew continue their learning curve with their new tire manufacturer. Rossi completed 60 laps and his best lap of the day, a time of 2'01.437, was set just before five pm. Rossi was one of three Yamaha riders in the top four as his team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was just behind him with a time of 2'01.583 and Yamaha Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards was just ahead of him in second place. For the second consecutive day Randy de Puniet topped the time sheets, in a time of 2'01.139.

46 Valentino Rossi Position: 3rd Time: 2'01.437 Laps: 60

"Today we continued to work on bike set-up in the same way as yesterday and on the new engine, the electronics and the tires. We continued with the pneumatic-valve engine as it's important to get as much mileage as possible behind us with this engine to check the performance, the reliability and just to gain experience with it. With the electronics we worked a lot on the acceleration mapping and I'm quite happy with this. Although it doesn't make us any faster, it helps me to be more comfortable on the bike. Finally we tested some different rear tires with Bridgestone and also some qualifying tires, although we didn't improve on the time with the soft tires so we need to work more in this area. We completed a lot of work today and hopefully we can have another good day tomorrow to finish."

Fiat Yamaha Team Davide Brivio Team Manager

"We were able to get through a lot of work today and we're finding some good results. We continued to work a lot with different settings, constantly modifying the bike, as we learn more about it, to make it easier and faster to ride. Valentino is getting more used to his new tires and therefore he is gaining more confidence and going faster. We didn't complete a long run today but this is on the schedule for tomorrow so we hope for more good weather to allow us to get through all of our testing schedule."