Fiat Yamaha Team
Day 1 - Valencia Test
Monday, 9th November 2009

Ambient temperature: 20 degrees
Track temperature: 22 degrees
Humidity: 32%

Fiat Yamaha start work for 2010 in Valencia

One day after sealing the Triple Crown of titles for 2009, the Fiat Yamaha Team was back at work in Valencia today looking towards the next season. World Champion Valentino Rossi and runner-up Jorge Lorenzo tested this afternoon and will continue tomorrow before finally getting the chance to take some time off. Lorenzo finished the day second fastest behind Casey Stoner and Rossi was just behind him in third.

Both riders had a new evolution of the 2010 prototype YZR-M1 to try alongside a 2009 bike, a step on from the first version they tried in August in Brno.  They both reported back positively to the Yamaha engineers and were able to set some good times on the prototype bikes. Lorenzo's best time was just 0.025 seconds off Stoner, with Rossi 0.141 seconds behind his team-mate.  
 
 
Jorge Lorenzo #99
Position: 2nd   Time: 1'32.685   Laps: 45
"I was really excited to try this new version of the M1 today and I had a lot of motivation to get back to work. The feeling out of the corner is much better and we have more grip already in the rear so it's a big improvement for me. We still need to work on accelleration but I like what we have so far and I think we will continue to be competitive like this year. We have to wait and see the comparison between the old and new bike at a different track next year, but I am excited. I'm quite tired because this is already our fourth day riding here, but I am happy to have one more day of testing."

 
Valentino Rossi #46
Position: 3rd   Time: 1'32.826   Laps: 37
"It was quite hard work to get back on the bike today but it's a very important test for us. The new prototype we have already feels better than what we tried in Brno, so this is positive. I was faster than with the old bike straight away so we know we're working in the right way and hopefully we can improve some more tomorrow. Of course we still have a 2009 specification engine and we won't have an update until the next test in February, but the bike already feels more stable and has more rear grip. Tomorrow we have quite a lot to get through and it will be an important day before we can finally relax."

For information on the Fiat Yamaha team visit the team's new website at www.FiatYamahaTeam.it or the official website at http://www.yamaha-racing.com/Racing/
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