Sepang (Day 2) : 2’03.17 . How about them apples?

Rossi the god went around Sepang in 2'03.17 on his second day on the M1. I hope all the non-believers will start believing a little now. I tell you guys what, Honda is shieting and pissin their pants now. Bring it on, yah baby! :bow :fire

damn right, he's 3rd fastest after only two days on the bike! honda of course fired back with, well, we don't have the full spec 2004 rc211v yet. well, yamaha doesn't have the latest version of the m1 yet either. rumor has it that the m1 will be almost totally revised in the coming weeks.

I reckon Rossi's gonna dispell a few myths and doubts this season...The best rider MAKES the best bike...:)

No. He's second fastest ahead of Sete Gibernau who ran a 2:03.33. I've said from day 1 that Rossi will win it this year with consistency and a couple of first place finishes. I'm taping every race 'cause I think he's gonna make history.

Originally posted by sunbear I reckon Rossi's gonna dispell a few myths and doubts this season...The best rider MAKES the best bike...:) This season will prove that theory. Honda reckons that it's Bike over Rider. Rossi will prove that it's Rider over Machine. It's Rossi VS. Honda at it's finest. Luke Skywalker VS. The Dark Side

From Yamaha: As track temperatures matched the scorching 41 degrees of the Malaysian Grand Prix in October 2003 Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team) cut his lap time down to a best of 2m 03.17 seconds. This was more than six tenths of a second faster than his best time from day one of this three-day session. The Italian completed 66 laps, among them a brief ride on a Yamaha M1 with a different engine specification. "I'm very happy with today's work," said the reigning MotoGP World Champion. "I had a good rhythm with the bike today and all the changes we made helped us towards consistent lap times. The suspension settings with the 16.5-inch Michelin front tyre are quite good now and although we need to do more work with the engine, I'm happy with what we've achieved at this stage. The other engine was good, but it's very new and needs a few more development kilometres before we can really tell how good it is." Rossi's Crew Chief Jerry Burgess was typically realistic about today's improvements but was quietly satisfied with the progress made. "We're going forwards," he said. "We've been playing around with the little things, now we're up and running fairly consistently and we made a minor mapping change to the engine which was slightly better. Spanish star Carlos Checa (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team) put in 58 laps of the 5.548km track with a best time of 2m 03.57 seconds. He tried a selection of different front tyres and believes he has found an effective set-up with a 16.5-inch front tyre. "We tried a lot of different front tyres today," he said. "The bike has been working well in some areas, but we didn't quite get the consistent results I wanted. I managed four laps in the 2m 3 second bracket but we have more work to do tomorrow, as well as tyre endurance tests." Marco Melandri (Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Team) completed 36 laps and fell without injury at turn six in the morning session. But the gritty Italian bounced back to record a best lap of 2m 04.90 seconds in the afternoon after finding a front tyre that allowed him to fully exploit the power and nimble chassis of his Yamaha M1. "This afternoon was much better," he said. "Once I found a front tyre I liked things started to work for me. The crash was as strange as the one I had here at the Grand Prix last year. But my shoulder is getting better and today I could do five laps at a time. But each lap I got slightly weaker and it felt like someone was adding 10kg to the bike on each lap! It will be stronger tomorrow and we'll work on improving engine response." Norick Abe (Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Team) worked his way steadily through a total of 61 laps and the Japanese ace is methodically carving down his lap times. Today he recorded a best of 2m 04.90 seconds - a full second faster than his best of yesterday. "Things are getting better," he said. "We've got some work to do still on the front suspension, but to achieve this improvement on several sets of one type of tyre shows we are going in the right direction. We'll go step-by-step tomorrow and see what improvement we can make." Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Team Director Herve Poncharal was happy that both riders broke through the 2.5 second barrier and he expects bigger improvements on tomorrow's final day. "We have good bikes now for the individual needs of both riders and now we'll see how much we can improve again on new tyres."

Here's a brief write up... > As track temperatures matched the scorching 41 degrees of the Malaysian Grand Prix in October 2003 Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team) cut his lap time down to a best of 2m 03.17 seconds. This was more than six tenths of a second faster than his best time from day one of this three-day session. The Italian completed 66 laps, among them a brief ride on a Yamaha M1 with a different engine specification. “I’m very happy with today’s work,” said the reigning MotoGP World Champion. “I had a good rhythm with the bike today and all the changes we made helped us towards consistent lap times. The suspension settings with the 16.5-inch Michelin front tyre are quite good now and although we need to do more work with the engine, I’m happy with what we’ve achieved at this stage. The other engine was good, but it’s very new and needs a few more development kilometres before we can really tell how good it is.” Rossi’s Crew Chief Jerry Burgess was typically realistic about today’s improvements but was quietly satisfied with the progress made. “We’re going forwards,” he said. “We’ve been playing around with the little things, now we’re up and running fairly consistently and we made a minor mapping change to the engine which was slightly better. Spanish star Carlos Checa (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team) put in 58 laps of the 5.548km track with a best time of 2m 03.57 seconds. He tried a selection of different front tyres and believes he has found an effective set-up with a 16.5-inch front tyre. “We tried a lot of different front tyres today,” he said. “The bike has been working well in some areas, but we didn’t quite get the consistent results I wanted. I managed four laps in the 2m 3 second bracket but we have more work to do tomorrow, as well as tyre endurance tests.” Marco Melandri (Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Team) completed 36 laps and fell without injury at turn six in the morning session. But the gritty Italian bounced back to record a best lap of 2m 04.90 seconds in the afternoon after finding a front tyre that allowed him to fully exploit the power and nimble chassis of his Yamaha M1. “This afternoon was much better,” he said. “Once I found a front tyre I liked things started to work for me. The crash was as strange as the one I had here at the Grand Prix last year. But my shoulder is getting better and today I could do five laps at a time. But each lap I got slightly weaker and it felt like someone was adding 10kg to the bike on each lap! It will be stronger tomorrow and we’ll work on improving engine response.” Norick Abe (Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Team) worked his way steadily through a total of 61 laps and the Japanese ace is methodically carving down his lap times. Today he recorded a best of 2m 04.90 seconds – a full second faster than his best of yesterday. “Things are getting better,” he said. “We’ve got some work to do still on the front suspension, but to achieve this improvement on several sets of one type of tyre shows we are going in the right direction. We’ll go step-by-step tomorrow and see what improvement we can make.” Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Team Director Herve Poncharal was happy that both riders broke through the 2.5 second barrier and he expects bigger improvements on tomorrow’s final day. “We have good bikes now for the individual needs of both riders and now we’ll see how much we can improve again on new tyres.”

Well he's proving the critics wrong that said he wont be able to do anything on the new M1. Great news for Rossi,and more importantly,EXCELLENT results for Yamaha!!:jump

Originally posted by Turbo329 Luke Skywalker VS. The Dark Side :D :) :machinegu

Magnus..Spidey..Im seeing double here guys:eek:

Spidey, any possibilities of video clips of second day ride?

Ain't that sum sheot... lmao We posted at the exact same time... lmao

None have been uploaded yet... I'll hook them up here if they are... Pretty much what is in the press access area is the same and what's in the general sections right now.... There is more testing today though... :)

Originally posted by SpidermanSS Ain't that sum sheot... lmao We posted at the exact same time... lmao :lol

wohoo! Go Rossi/Yamaha! This indeed will be a great MotoGP season. Now Schumi just needs to jump over to Williams or MClaren to make F1 & Speed channel even more interesting =) btw, I am also hoping Hayden will do good!

:eek: Damn... I'm a big Rossi fan, but even I didn't expect him to do so well so early... - BA

:jump I'm booked up for 2 GP's this season(Donington and Valencia)and my pants are already full of a creamy substance.:fire

btw as the testing continues this section is gonna get busy.:jump

Originally posted by Vegas 01 R6 ...Now Schumi just needs to jump over to Williams or MClaren to make F1 & Speed channel even more interesting =) Nah he doesn't have to, cause we all know that Ferrari doesn't have the best car. Also, he already proved himself when he won the Championship with Benetton/Ford... :)

yep.. I keep checking all the GP sites.. lmao...

:thumbup it's gonna be soo exciting this motogp year, i'm gonna fly out to italy's mugello circuit from california just to see a motogp race. can't wait for the gp race here in the states, which i think will be at barber in 05, and that's a possibility. mugello is the second largest turnout last year! plus the straightaways where the bikes hit over 200mph w/o mufflers! so italy make room for 1 more fan. Forza! :fork :yesnod