Valentino Rossi Rides The Yamaha

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Valentino Rossi had his first laps on the factory Yamaha today at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia, Spain, with the first official test of the year for the MotoGP men hampered by wet conditions. And Yamaha has just announced they are packing up and heading to Motorland Circuit in Aragon, Spain, in search of better weather. They will test there tomorrow.

With lap times mostly meaningless, Rossi's best thus far is a 1:43.736, which puts him fifth. The fastest time of the day has been set by Alvaro Bautista, but the Spaniard did his 1:35.936 early when conditions were dry.

Nicky Hayden is seventh with his best lap, like Rossi's, also coming in the wet conditions.

Not everyone has taken to the track with Moto2 World Champion Marc Marquez opting to wait for drier weather before making his debut on the ex-Casey Stoner Honda RC213V. The Honda team has a private test scheduled for later in the month at Sepang in Malaysia. Bradley Smith, the other MotoGP rookie, has also stayed in the garage thus far. Smith will ride the Monster Energy Tech 3 Yamaha vacated by Andrea Dovizisio, the Italian making his factory Ducati debut today.

Rossi out to help Lorenzo in Valencia

Valentino Rossi stresses that he will be trying his upmost to assist Jorge Lorenzo at this weekend’s Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana, as his Yamaha Factory Racing teammate vies for the title against Repsol Honda Team’s Marc Marquez.

Following consecutive race victories at Phillip Island and Twin Ring Motegi, Lorenzo sits second in the riders’ standings and the reduced margin of 13 points behind Marquez. Lorenzo may have been a chief rival of Rossi’s in past seasons, but the Italian insists that he will be doing all he can to help the Spaniard on this occasion.

"Usually Valencia is not one of my best tracks but I have had some good podiums there and some wins," Rossi begins. "As always, we have to try and do the maximum for the weekend. If I am strong enough, I want to try and help Jorge as much as possible on Sunday and also to be on the podium."

2013 marks the first time since 2006 that MotoGP™ has witnessed a last-race title decider; it was Yamaha versus Honda on that occasion as well, as Rossi lost out to American Nicky Hayden.

‘Half and half’ race for Rossi in Malaysia

Rossi referred to the positives and negatives, meaning that he was pleased to have close the gap somewhat on his teammate Jorge Lorenzo, who he trailed across the line by 3.7s, but disappointed to see the advantage his Repsol Honda rivals had over him.

Valentino Rossi dropped initially to fourth off the line from his second place grid position, tucked in behind Marc Marquez on the first lap.

The nine-time World Champion made a move on Marquez at turn 10 but was unable to pass and settled back into fourth. Rossi spent several laps holding off the advances of Alvaro Bautista, narrowly escaping an incident when the Spanish rider overshot turn one, just missing Rossi as he ran wide.

The rest of the race proved to be a lonely one as he held his position in fourth, crossing the line just over ten seconds behind winner Pedrosa. It is his seventh fourth place finish of 2013 and he has now finished in the top four at the last ten races.

"Today was half and half for me," Rossi explained. "For sure we improved and made another step, improving the setting of the bike and I was able to be very close to Jorge. It looks like today our competitors had an advantage here; they were able to keep a better rhythm than us."

"Starting from second I hoped to arrive on the podium but I knew the top three guys were very strong. At the beginning of the race I lost some time as I had a problem with the front brakes. We continue to work and push and fight to be in with the top three."

Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Factory Team Director added, "The weekend didn't go as we expected. We suffered a drop off in tyre life and the riders couldn't ride as they needed to. We tried hard to make the best setting to be fast and consistent but unfortunately we still needed something more. We won’t give up until the end and fortunately there is one race in a week’s time. We would like to have our revenge so we are really looking forward to Phillip Island."