Rossi Tests New Engine for Yamaha at Jerez

Valentino Rossi did not put up a great show in Spain over the weekend, when he only finished 3rd in the MotoGP race at the Jerez track, but the Italian had a solid motive in his still-recuperating shoulder. Despite his injury though, the Italian did not hold back from testing for his team one day after the race.

And with less pressure on his shoulders, the 7-time MotoGP champion actually improved his lap times as compared to last weekend's event, posting a time a quarter of a second quicker than his race-running performances. Additionally, he also got to test a new engine evolution of his bike, believed to add some acceleration to the YZR-M1 this season.

“We improved our race setting a bit and found better stability and grip, so we arrived at the right place finally, even if we were too late for the race! We tried a new front tire for Bridgestone, which was good and also a slightly different engine from Japan, trying to improve the acceleration,” said Rossi, according to crash.net.

Rossi's time was the day's second best, as the Italian finished the session some 0.055 seconds behind Honda's Dani Pedrosa – also pole sitter in Spain last weekend – but 0.026 seconds ahead of teammate Jorge Lorenzo. On the negative side, Rossi had a low-speed crash when approaching Turn 2, but luckily did not sustain any further damage to his shoulder.

“My lap times were fast and apart from the small crash, when I just put a bit too much lean on and lost the front, it was a good day. I was only doing 65 km/h so luckily it wasn't a problem. Now we have a long rest and I want to fully recover so I'm back to full strength in Le Mans,” added the Yamaha rider.