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.

Lorenzo and Rossi poised for Sepang challenge

Jorge Lorenzo heads to Sepang with the knowledge that he collected his first premier class world title at the Malaysian circuit in 2010. On this occasion, the task is to out-score championship leader Marc Marquez by as many points as possible.

With four Grands Prix remaining and a maximum of 100 points left on offer, newcomer Marquez (Repsol Honda Team) heads reigning World Champion Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) by 39 points. With a difference of five between first and second positions (25 and 20 points, respectively), Lorenzo is aware that he must aim for victories while hoping that his chief rival runs into trouble.

"Now we start the big trip, with three races in a row, and face the last part of the championship - the crucial part," Lorenzo acknowledges ahead of back-to-back races in Malaysia, Australia and Japan.

"After Aragón, where we fought so hard, we now visit a special circuit. Sepang is a track everybody knows really well. I guess all the riders will be strong there because we did a couple of pre-season tests. Sepang is a long and technical circuit with two great straights but also some nice corners. The worst thing is it’s always stormy and you never know when it is going to rain.

"I have some good memories there but we need to keep focus now on the race and try to recover a little bit to Marquez. The championship is difficult, but we want to fight until the end. Let’s see what happens!"

Lorenzo could be assisted by former arch rival and Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who has won at Sepang on no less than six occasions since 2001.

"The Sepang circuit is a track that I like a lot - I have had many great victories there," begins the Italian, who last time out at MotorLand Aragón picked up his fifth rostrum finish of the 2013 campaign.

"I think it suits the Yamaha quite well. It's very demanding physically, because it’s very hot, but it's also a great track and challenge because of that. I want to try to have a good weekend and work hard on the setup in order to be competitive in the race."

For Constructors’ honours ahead of the Shell Advance Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix, Yamaha trails Honda by 26 points, whereas Yamaha Factory Racing is second in the Teams’ standings and 73 points in arrears of Repsol Honda Team.