Factory Yamaha engineers will use the feedback derived from Biaggi and Checa to further develop the M1's chassis performance before the new-look MotoGP series gets underway at Suzuka on April 7.

"It would be fair to say that we've been a little disappointed with these tests at Valencia and Estoril because we weren't faster than the competition," said Marlboro Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio. "But this is why we test, to find out what needs to be done and to put it right so that we can provide the riders with the best equipment at all tracks to be raced during the championship.

"At Valencia and here in Estoril we focused on improving the M1's turning abilities and we acquired a lot of useful data. We have new chassis parts on the way to improve turning and increase the range of set-up adjustments. Some of these were ordered after our tests in December last year, but some others are a direct result of the feedback from last week's Valencia Test. We are aware that we have a lot of hard work still to do to make the M1 fully ready for the first race in Suzuka in April.

"The M1 is a brand new bike and Max and Carlos only had two full tests on the 2002 spec bike before Christmas. It is still early days and it's only to be expected that the bike will perform better at some tracks than others.

"Yamaha's engineers have been working hard and we've reorganised our Team's test schedule to add an extra day to our Mugello test session in early March.

"Max and Carlos are both very competitive riders and we understand that it is frustrating for them not to be going faster at this stage. But we are confident that we can provide them with what they are looking for and everybody is pushing very hard to prepare the best-possible package for the start of the 2002 season."

"At the moment we can't use the full potential of the M1, so that's why we're working so hard on the chassis," said Checa. "I hope the new parts we've got coming for Mugello will help us find a good way to improve the total package."

Biaggi added: "We've tried everything we could today, and now we're taking a very short break before resuming testing. These last two tests have helped us to understand that we have a lot of work to do. That's why we're starting work at Mugello early, so we can push even harder on development."

Fortunately today there were less fallers today, although David Checa was unlucky to crash out and fracture the radius in his right forearm, meaning 20 days out of action. There were falls also for Olivier Jacque, Jay Vincent, Randy de Puniet, Roberto Locatelli and Franco Battaini.

Marco Melandri was quickest in 250, going eight-tenths faster than rival Fonsi Nieto. Despite this, the Spaniard continues to show that he is one of the form-men in the quarter litre class. Fonsi remarked, "The most important thing is that we are testing lots of things so we can get a good base set-up for the bike. The times are coming easily to me and I'm constantly on the pace, when the normal thing would be that we wouldn't see such good results after all the changes we're making to the bike."

• MotoGP
• 1. Loris CAPIROSSI, ITA, (Honda) - 1'40.126
• 2. Daijiro KATOH, JPN, (Honda) - 1'40.743
• 3. Shinya NAKANO, JPN, (Yamaha) - 1'40.831
• 4. Alex BARROS, BRA, (Honda) - 1'41.040
• 5. Jurgen Vd GOORBERGH, NED, (Honda) - 1'41.056
• 6. Carlos Checa, SPA, (Yamaha), - 1'41.3
• 7. Max Biaggi, ITA, (Yamaha), - 1'42.1
• 250cc.
• 1. Marco MELANDRI, ITA, (Aprilia) - 1'41.994
• 2. Fonsi NIETO, SPA, (Aprilia) - 1'42.737
• 3. Franco BATTAINI, ITA, (Aprilia) - 1'42.773
• 4. Casey STONER, AUS, (Aprilia) - 1'42.903
• 5. Roberto LOCATELLI, ITA, (Aprilia) - 1'42.943