Rossi impressed with seamless gearbox

Valentino Rossi set the pace on the opening day of the second Sepang test with the Italian closing a pace one second off his fastest time in Sepang 1, a qualifying simulation, despite challenging track conditions today in Malaysia.

Rossi was able to test the fully seamless gearbox today and afterwards he gave his first opinion on the new part:

“Everybody in our team was curious about the new gearbox and my first impression was quite positive,” said Rossi. “It’s not a huge difference but it’s a small help in a critical point where we needed to improve. The bike in braking and under braking is a bit better and I think that we have to work to understand the maximum potential but the first test was good and I’m happy to finish in first position because I was fastest from this morning.”

Rossi set his time in the laps around midday but with two hours remaining the rain that had threatened to hit Sepang throughout the day finally fell and brought an end to competitive running however he was pleased to have been able to improve his wet weather feel from a year ago.

“It’s important for us to do some mileage in the wet because I don’t like the feeling of the bike in the wet. Last year I struggled a bit and already today we improved a bit but we need to do some more tests and some more kilometres.”