MotoReview

A windy night resulted in a dirtier track than on previous days, and with just the 2 bikes on track the racing line never quite reached yesterdays speed, with neither rider improving their times. Rossi's best effort clocked in at a 1'56.78 and Colin Edwards' was a 1'57.07.

The empty track did however allow the riders to quickly complete their remaining Michelin tyre testing work in the morning, before moving onto long runs in the afternoon.

The Camel Yamaha team now have a 5 day break before returning to the Sepang circuit in Malaysia from the 14th to the 16th of February, for what will be their final unofficial pre-season test.

For pictures from the last 3 days, check out our Qatar test gallery.

Valentino Rossi (1'56.78, 49 Laps)

"Today was not quite as good as the last two days, mainly because the condition of the track was slightly worse and we didn't have such good grip. I think that last night there was a lot of wind and with only two bikes on the track today it wasn't enough to clean the surface properly. Anyway we continued to work, did our long run and found out some more information about the new M1 in different conditions. We have some vibrations and our top priority now is to find a way to fix this; I hope we can do that in Sepang. Anyway, in general this has been a good test and we have made some more improvements. The times have been quite good and we've done some important work with Michelin. Now I go home for a few days to rest before we start again in Sepang next week."

Colin Edwards (1'57.07, 57 Laps)

"Overall I am really happy with this test and I am looking forward to the season ahead. I am especially pleased with the setting of the bike, which we seem to be improving all the time. Both Yamaha and Michelin have worked really hard over the winter and, together with the new tyres, we've got a really good package. My long run was not bad this afternoon and the encouraging thing was that my times were consistent, even later on as the tyres started to go off slightly in the heat. It's difficult to compare to last year's race since the conditions are so different, but this year's Qatar race is only two months away now, so we hope that the work we've done at this test will put us in a good starting position for that weekend. The general progress of the bike has been great over just two tests this year so now we will hopefully be able to keep working like this in Sepang next week."

Davinde Brivio - Team Director

"It was interesting to come here in very good conditions and we got some good information which we can work on for the start of the season. It's good to now go immediately to Sepang to check again the settings that we found there at the first test in January. Sepang is the last really important test for us before the start of the season."

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