The Texan was fastest on day oneFour teams and seven riders were on track today in Malaysia, for MotoGP's second visit to Sepang of 2007.
The teams absent from last week's Australian excursion all continued their 800cc development under the customary humid conditions,
in the first of three testing days.
Both Yamaha factory riders took the early initiative in Asia, with Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi at the top of the timesheets. Edwards put in a lap of 2'02''175 on the latest version of the M1, edging out team-mate and five time premier class World Champion Valentino Rossi by under five hundredths of a second. The Italian rode the fewest laps of any rider on day one, going round 40 times.
Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet was the only other rider to break the 2'03 barrier, albeit over half a second slower than the two official Yamaha representatives. The Frenchman grafted hard on the opening day, and put in over twice as many laps as Rossi on the Ninja ZX-RR 800.
As he continues to adapt to the Yamaha M1 with Dunlop tyres, a product of his switch this season from Konica Minolta's Michelin-shod Honda team, Makoto Tamada was fourth fastest, ahead of the French duo of Olivier Jacque and his fellow Yamaha Tech3 rider Sylvain Guintoli. The Japanese rider went quicker than at the opening test of the year in January.
Ilmor, making their first appearance outside of Europe, only bring rider Andrew Pitt to Sepang for this week's proceedings. His team-mate Jeremy McWilliams is still on the mend after surgery on his leg, and is expected to return to action for the official test in Qatar.
Pitt put 49 more miles on the Ilmor GP bike's clock, adding to the small number he was unable to undertake in Almeria last month.
MotoGP Test Sepang – Day One – Unofficial times :
Colin Edwards – Yamaha Racing – 2'02''175 – 47 laps
Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Racing – 2'02''221 – 40 laps
Randy de Puniet – Kawasaki Racing – 2'02''966 – 85 laps
Makoto Tamada – Yamaha Tech3 – 2'03''219 – 68 laps
Olivier Jacque – Kawasaki Racing – 2'03''959 – 60 laps
Sylvain Guintoli – Yamaha Tech3 – 2'06''558 – 55 laps
Andrew Pitt – Ilmor GP – 2'08''640 – 49 laps
DORNA / CAPSIS International
