Valentino Rossi rounded off his testing activity a little early in Jerez today after he began to feel an increased level of pain in his recovering right hand, which he broke at the final race of the season.

Nonetheless the Italian managed to complete almost his entire schedule of testing activity and his first test on Bridgestone tyres was deemed to be a positive one by Yamaha and Bridgestone engineers alike.

Rossi had planned to complete a long run today but decided to stop early rather than put more stress on his hand, and he also decided not to test any more qualifying tyres following his work on soft rubber yesterday. With most of the rest of the riders choosing to test qualifiers however, Rossi’s best lap on race tyres, a time of 1’41.538, put him 11th in the final standings, with the time sheets topped by Dani Pedrosa after a lap of 1’38.562ssi’s 2008 team-mate Jorge Lorenzo finished 3rd today, with a best time of 1’39.464.

The Fiat Yamaha Team will now enjoy a well-earned winter break, reconvening at Sepang in Malaysia for the first test of 2008 on 22nd, 23rd and 24th January 2008.

Valentino Rossi (11th, 1’41.538, 32 laps)
“Today I tried to do my best but I wasn’t able to ride fast due to my hand; it started hurting a lot today and I had no power to ride with it in such conditions. The fracture is still hurting and furthermore I have not ridden or trained for almost one month, so it is to be expected that today my hand would be tired. I knew I was not in perfect shape, and I also expected to have some problems at this first test back. Anyway, we were able to finish our programme and despite today I think it’s been a positive first test with Bridgestone. Of course we still have work to do on the bike in general and with regards to adapting it to the new tyre u can reconfirm my first feeling of two days ago, which was positive. Now we have a better idea where we need to work hard in order to improve further. I would like to take this chance to say a big thank you to all my team, my mechanics and to all the Yamaha staff for their great effort throughout the season. I know that I will find them again at the beginning of 2008 with the same motivation, if not even more than ever. Thanks to everyone!”

Davide Brivio –Team Manager
“Today we decided to finish early because Valentino was not able to ride at 100% due to pain in his hand. Anyway, it is quite normal, since he had a bad crash in Valencia and he has not ridden since. It is not a big problem for us because we were able to finish our working schedule and test program, so we preferred to stop the test early in order not to put unnecessary stress on his hand. It’s been a very interesting test session here in Jerez; we had the chance to meet al te rigestone engineers and technicians who will work with us next season and we got very interesting information from them and from the new tyres. In return we were also able to give them important information to work on, and now we need to analyze all the data and work hard on it during the winter in order to be as ready as possible in January. Now Valentino and the team have some holiday time, which they deserve because they have worked hard all year, then we will be back at Sepang in January for the final preparation before the 2008 championship”

Masahiko Nakajima – Fiat Yamaha Team Director
“Today Valentino’s physical condition did not allow him to ride as much or to be as fast as he wanted, so we decided to finish the session early. We expected this, because he rode quite hard for three days and we knew that he was not at 100%. This test session in Jerez has been very positive for us, for the team and for the rider, mainly because w hae udertood the performance of the new Bridgestone tyres. This test was enough to collect good data for the future that will also help us with the direction of our development for the next season. I do not want to go into details at this stage, because it is too early to do so at the very first test with Bridgestone, but let me say that this has been a very good test. As far as the bike is concerned, here in Jerez we tested some new improvements to our electronic control system and in this field too we collected some very interesting data. Now we will be able to implement this information at the first 2008 test”.

Lap Times
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1’38.562
2. Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1’38.848
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’39.464
4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1.39.747
5. Shinya Nakano (Honda) 1’40.121
6. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’40.184
7. Alex de Angelis (Honda) 1’40.185
8. Jaes Tselad (Ymaha) 1’40.213
9. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 1’40.398
10. John Hopkins (Kawasaki) 1’40.984
11. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’41.538
12. Marco Melandri (Ducati) 1’41.619
13. Tadayuki Okada (Honda) 1’41.715
14. Nicolo Canepa (Ducati) 1’41.793
15. Anthony West (Kawasaki) 1’42.343
16. Vittoriano Guareschi (Ducati) 1.42.850
17. Shinichi Ito (Bridgestone) 1’43.001