Andrea Dovizioso and his JiR Team Scot squad slashed almost two seconds from their lap time at Jerez today, to post the fourth fastest time of the day.

The rookie MotoGP rider is using the three-day test session at Jerez to get accustomed to the four-stroke RC212V machine he will campaign in the 2008 MotoGP Championship.

The 2004 125cc champion impressed once more at the 2.748 mile (4.423km) Jerez track as he continued to get used to four-stroke power, after years on two-stroke machinery. Today was spent tyre testing for Michelin, where Andrea had the opportunity to acquaint himself with qualifying rubber. The test continues tomorrow before the test ban comes into force between December 1st and January 20th.

Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager, JiR Team Scot
“Today was a good day. Andrea at the moment stays in some of the top positions overall for the two days with his lap time of today.  All the riders have been using the soft tyre for the best lap and Andrea also took advantage of this and he is second rider overall that uses Michelin tyre so this is good for us. So, it has been a satisfying day. Tomorrow our work must continue but I think that everyone has been impressed with the way Andrea has methodically gone through things with us and his feedback to the technicians has been very good also.”

Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP - Best time: 1’ 40.650”, total laps: 69
“Today went better than yesterday and I was quite fast and not too far from the lap record, although some other riders were a little faster than me. Like yesterday I’m not so worried about this or the overall time. The last two runs were on qualifying tyres and it was very strange for me! These were not such perfect laps because for me there was so much-grip from the rear, but this also causes some chatter from the front-end of the bike and you have to brake early so I still need some time to learn how to get the best from qualifying tyres. We made some improvements today to make the RC212V more stable at the front, although we still have some work to do to improve stability under braking. But overall I am happy!”

Gianni Berti - Technical Coordinator, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
“We had a very positive day today. We did a lot of work with Michelin and did a thorough tyre test. We improved with race tyres and it is good to see Michelin doing some good work with Andrea as they are following his requests, which is very positive for us. Today that was the most important point. We didn’t make many setting changes just mapping changes and this also meant that Andrea had the chance to get more used to this track on the MotoGP bike. He tried qualifying tyres today, but again the priority was that he improved on race tyres, which is much more important.”

MotoGP Jerez day two test times
1) Valentino Rossi  Yamaha  1’ 40.134”
2) Shinya Nakano  Honda  1’ 40.251”
3) Alex de Angelis Honda  1’ 40.332”
4) Andrea Dovizioso Honda  1’ 40.650”
5) Dani Pedrosa  Honda  1’ 40.651”