Valentino Rossi has expressed concerns about the effects bad weather might have at Sepang this weekend, after heavy rain lashed down on the Malaysian Grand Prix venue on Thursday.
The newly-crowned world champion suggested that running in such torrential conditions may be cut short, as they were in 2006, when practice sessions were cancelled due to water on the track.
"It looks like it start to rain always around 14.00 - the race time – so we will have to wait to see the condition," he said.
"We had exactly the same situation in 2006; heavy, heavy rain and we cancelled the official practice. For sure if we have rain like one hour ago, it is very difficult to race because there is a lot of water on the track. But we have to wait, maybe we will have some sun."
Rossi added that he is very fond of Sepang, where he has won four times in the top class and has never finished lower than fifth in seven visits. "I like a lot this track and in the past I did a lot of good results here," he said. "I also won two championships here, so I have a very good memory and we test a lot here during the winter. It was the first time with Bridgestone tyres, and I had a quite good feeling.
"But a lot of time has passed since then and the setting of the bike is different so we have to understand in which way we have to work. But anyway this track is fantastic to ride and I think the bigger issue is the weather."
Rossi also confirmed that he expected to ride the first iteration of the new 2009 Yamaha at the post-season test at Valencia, having postponed its debut at Motegi last month.
"From [that] Monday we will start to use the 2009 protoype, because after Motegi we had rain so we cancelled the test," he said. "It will be interesting to see how we can improve the bike for next season."
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Fiat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi put a dent in everyone else's hopes with a blistering final lap in the opening practice for this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang. Rossi spent most of the session at or near the top of the times. With 30 seconds of the session remaining, Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo went to the top with a 2:03.179. But Rossi was not done with, and after the chequered flag fell set a time of 2:02.693 to go almost half a second clear of his nearest rival. Lorenzo remained second, 0.016 of a second ahead of Ducati's Casey Stoner, who spent most of the session swapping fastest times with Rossi. Next fastest was Colin Edwards, three-quarters of a second behind Rossi but consistently near the top of the times through the session. Behind Edwards were a pair of Hondas, Randy de Puniet a tenth faster than Repsol's Nicky Hayden, with Suzuki's Loris Capirossi just over a second behind Rossi in eighth. An improved showing for Marco Melandri saw him thirteenth, just under a second slower than teammate Stoner and faster than both the Alice Ducatis, while Dani Pedrosa ended the session seventeenth, eight tenths of a second slower than teammate Hayden. Nobuatsu Aoki's wildcard ride on the Suzuki has got off to a slow start, a clear last, nearly five seconds off the pace.
16.10.2008, 17:09
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