Biaggi finished 11th at Jerez following a mid-race, off-track excursion, the result not doing justice to the lap times he was running in the late stages. At Mugello his best 1m 52.9s lap put him almost half a second inside the record, confirming that the Italian doesn’t lack any speed, just a little luck. 

I’ve been swapping from one bike to the other, trying a few settings changes, nothing too radical, said Biaggi who rode two days on his YZR500s, after several earlier outings on Yamaha’s new YZR-M1 four-stroke GP bike. We’ve been working on detail stuff, including some engine work, and we’ve also done some good tyre testing. 

Checa only rode the last day, allowing him more time to recover from his bruising Jerez get-off. He was less focused on outright lap times, more on regaining his confidence. And the brave Spanish reckons his injuries accounted for at least a second of his best 1m 54.5s lap. 

Doing a fast lap here is all about getting through the high-speed chicanes as fast as possible, he explained. But at the moment I’ve not got the strength to flick the bike hard through the direction changes. We’ve been concentrating on a few minor suspension settings, nothing else, I just wanted to feel good on the bike again and I definitely feel better than I did at Jerez. 

Marlboro Yamaha Team director Hiroya Atsumi believes the session achieved its goals. I think this test helped both Max and Carlos, he said. Max has worked on suspension, damping and grip as well as trying new cylinders, and his pace is very good. I think it shows that there’s no problem, we just need things to go our way a little. Carlos is still very injured, so he couldn’t go for best-possible lap times, but the kilometres he’s done have helped him to get his feeling back before practice starts at Le Mans.

Not only was Biaggi very quick at Mugello, he was also very consistent, as Marlboro Yamaha Team manager Geoff Crust revealed He did five consecutive low 53s and that’s a good pace around here. And he was doing some really good times with worn tyres, still putting in 54s after 20 laps on a rear and doing mid-54s with 30 laps on the front. Of course, Max is a perfectionist, he’s always trying to find that last little bit, he always wants more out of the motorcycle and that’s what we’re always trying to give him. We’ve tested some stuff here that we wouldn’t have had time to try out at a race, now we’re just looking forward to getting to Le Mans and going racing. 

Practice and qualifying for next Sunday’s French GP gets under way on Friday. The event is round four of this year’s 16-race MotoGP series, the final 500 two-stroke World Championship before larger capacity four-strokes are introduced in 2002. 

Lap times 
Max Biaggi 1m 52.9s 
Carlos Checa 1m 54.5s