Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha team Brno tests notes

Yamaha's Work Continues in Brno

The Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team continued working today at the Brno circuit in the first day of a two-day test, joined by most other riders in the 2004 MotoGP line-up. Within twenty-four hours of claiming their respective second and sixth places in yesterday's Czech Grand Prix, riders Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checa were again lapping the picturesque Brno circuit with their YZR-M1 machines and ended the day faster than the rest of the pack.

Rossi made the fastest lap time of the day (1'58.247s) after putting in an arduous 82 laps. For around 20 of those laps the World Champion tested a newly designed front fairing on his Yamaha machine but then switched back to his current M1 fairing. Rossi's team-mate Checa was also on form today, finishing with the second fastest time of 1'59.016s and around 80 laps under his belt. Both riders took advantage of the warm and sunny conditions to work on their dry weather settings, as well as testing Michelin tyres and working on electronic mapping.

"There wasn't so much time during the weekend to work on set-up in the dry", said Team Director Davide Brivio. "So this was a good chance to improve, and the times today were good. The Michelin tyres they used today were very good, again this showed in their lap times. The track temperature was much higher today as well which of course helped."

Of his new fairing, Valentino Rossi commented, "I made some laps with the new fairing but couldn't really feel a difference, although the nose of the bike looks very different. The engineers will analyse the data and decide when we will use the new fairing again. For sure it won't be in the next race in Portugal because it was our first test with it."

The Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha continues testing at the Brno circuit tomorrow.

<pre> LAP TIMES: 1. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1'58.247 2. Carlos Checa Yamaha 1'59.016 3. Makoto Tamada Honda 1'59.120 4. Marco Melandri Yamaha 1'59.413 5. Loris Capirossi Ducati 1'59.429 6. Colin Edwards Honda 1'59.431 7. Troy Bayliss Ducati 1'59.459 8. John Hopkins Suzuki 1'59.475 9. Nicky Hayden Honda 1'59.486 10. Max Biaggi Honda 1'59.608 11. Sete Gibernau Honda 1'59.609

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