Reigning champion Valentino Rossi confirmed his frustration after the rain-affected testing session in Qatar yesterday, as he didn't get to complete a single lap on his new Yamaha YZR-M1. Teammate Jorge Lorenzo was as unlucky as Rossi on Sunday, despite managing a single lap on the Asian circuit.
Rossi argued that he and his team need the mileage in Qatar really bad, especially since this was the race in which the reigning world champion suffered the most in 2008. During the first night race of the MotoGP last year, Rossi crossed the finish line in 5th place, being overtaken by rookie Andrea Dovizioso in the last part of the race.
“Five minutes of rain really gave us a lot of problems today. First we waited and then finally we decided to abandon it. I hope tomorrow it's back to normal because this was our worst race last year and we need the time to see where we are and continue to improve with our new package,” said Rossi after the chaotic first day of testing at Losail.
Having managed to do some quick laps in the first hour of the testing session – before the rain started pouring – Ducati's Nicky Hayden set the best time of the day (2:00.717), some 0.150 seconds faster than Marco Melandri's Kawasaki. This was Kawasaki's first official test after their reversed-quittal decision last week. Third overall was MotoGP rookie Mika Kallio.
Among the drivers that didn't get to test their 2009 machineries at Losail are also Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi.
Google News