Rossi happy with second

Valentino Rossi’s quest to win back the MotoGP world title saw him play second fiddle for once to team-mate Colin Edwards in Sepang.

The Italian finished second fastest in Malaysia, his best time on a Michelin qualifying tyre of 2.00.79 over 0.5s off the American.

Rossi was also beaten by Edwards on race tyres, with Rossi’s time of 2.02.09 on day two his fastest in race trim, though he completed another hugely impressive 20-lap race simulation this afternoon.

He reeled off 11 laps under the 2.03 margin – two less than he managed in a 20-lap run two weeks in Sepang – but an overall comparison showed he was close to two seconds faster in his distance run than he was at the end of January on Yamaha’s new 800 machine.

Rossi was much more consistent than Edwards on race tyres and the 27-year-old said: “This has been a good test with Michelin and Ohlins, but also to see that our bike is competitive already.

“Colin was very fast using qualifying and race tyres and this shows our bike is at a good level.

“I made another race simulation today and was a little bit faster than the last test, so we are making progress.

“Now we must continue the work in Qatar next week, which is very important test with the first race there not so far away.”