Sepang: Day 3

Valentino Rossi left his best till last, but ended the three day Sepang MotoGP test fastest after spending the first two days chasing Suzukis.

Rossi’s best lap of 2:00.93 was the only one under the 2:01 mark at the test, and placed him nearly 0.1s ahead of pacesetter on day one and two John Hopkins. 

The lap was nearly 0.9s today than yesterday’s overall fastest.

Hopkins second was ahead of Loris Capirossi in third, Honda’s top man Dani Pedrosa in fourth. 

Chris Vermeulen in fifth on the second Suzuki 0.7s off Rossi’s best.

Kawasaki continued to show strong early pace on what is the newest of the 800s, Randy De Puniet in sixth ahead of reigning world champion Nicky Hayden in seventh.

Rossi’s team-mate Colin Edwards was in eighth.

Check back later for news direct from the track, and more video.

Unofficial times:

1. Valentino Rossi 2:00.93
2. John Hopkins 2:01.02
3. Loris Capirossi 2:01.27
4. Dani Pedrosa 2:01.66
5. Chris Vermeulen 2:01.69
6. Randy De Puniet 2:01.87
7. Nicky Hayden 2:01.88
8. Colin Edwards 2:02.26
9. Casey Stoner 2:02.40
10. Marco Melandri 2:02.48
11. Carlos Checa 2:02.58
12. Alex Barros  2:02.63
13. Toni Elias 2:02.92
14. Alex Hofmann  2:03.04
15. Shinya Nakano 2:03.07
16. Makoto Tamada – 3 2:03.30
17. Kenny Roberts JR 2:03.33
18. Olivier Jacque 2:03.59
19. Shinichi Ito 2:03.97