The end of the second testing at Sepang allowed Valentino Rossi to be at the top of the timesheet yet again, this time the Doctor was quicker than his own pole position record he set at the track in 2009 at the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

A super quick lap of 2’00.271 was nearly three tenths of a second faster, as Rossi worked on the last day testing his electric packages, a fresh wheel for Bridgestone, and assessing the overall modifications so far on the M1.

“I'm really happy to have beaten my pole record, it's a good feeling to be this fast in testing,” says Rossi. “I did this with an old tyre but we also got the chance to try a very good new tyre from Bridgestone today, which I hope we will use from the first race. Our bike is in great shape; we need to do a bit more work on the electronics but in general everything is better, especially the rear grip and the engine. Yamaha have been very clever in developing this new bike whilst keeping the best parts of the old one.”

Rossi also rode a couple of laps on the Yamaha test squad’s bike, proving valuable data for future development of the M1,  he is now excited about the last pre-season testing in Qatar beginning March 18th.

“It was good to get the chance to try the Japanese test bike, hopefully the feedback I gave them will help us in the future,” adds Rossi. “Now we go to Qatar and then we will see our level because it is not one of mine or Yamaha's best tracks! But we're in great shape and this is very important at this stage of the season. I'm really looking forward to it.”