The Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team rounded off its championship-winning 2004 season today with a third and final day of testing in Sepang. Valentino Rossi and his 2005 team-mate Colin Edwards enjoyed another hot and dry day at the Malaysian circuit and now head off for a well-earned winter break.

World Champion Valentino Rossi completed 44 laps, once again spending time refining the set-up of the 2004-spec M1. He also completed a long distance run on the new 2005-spec prototype version of the bike. Rossi posted his fastest time of the three-day test today with a lap of 2’02.35s.

Speaking after the test, Rossi said, “We’ve been working on the new bike lots during these three days; it seems we do more and more testing every year, and start even earlier! Yamaha has put in a lot of effort to bring this bike here and enable us to start work on it in the right direction for next year, so it was very important for me to be here.

“Not every part of this prototype bike is new, but Yamaha has changed a lot. We are aiming for more stability in the rear end, but we want to keep the sweet handling. We are also looking for a little more horsepower; as everyone knows, which is one area we need to improve on. We’re still not quite there yet, but Yamaha’s engineers will continue this work during the winter and then I am sure we will be nearer our goal when we meet again in January. I’m now looking forward to a long holiday!”

Colin Edwards rode just 13 laps today on the 2004-spec bike, finishing his day early having completed the work he set out to do during the test. He posted a best lap of 2’04.31s.

Team Director Davide Brivio commented, “We are pleased with the progress we’ve made during this test. In January we will start to work more specifically on set-up of the new bike. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy good weather during this test; at 6pm today it started to rain heavily, so we were very lucky!

“The team has been working very well together during this test. We are looking forward to continuing the work we have begun here when we reconvene in January. It has been a fantastic season for all those involved in the project, and everyone has worked very hard to make it a success. Now I hope that they all enjoy a very relaxing holiday, before we arrive back here in January to continue the hard work!”

The team will return to the Sepang circuit to recommence its winter test schedule on 22 January.

TIMES TODAY:
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2’02.35 (44 laps)
Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2’04.31 (13 laps)

BEST TIME OF TEST
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2’02.35
Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2’02.41