Valentino Rossi admits the switch to Bridgestone tyres has brought no miracle transformation in performance, but he has gained much more consistency - and says the change was just what he'd been waiting for.
The Fiat Yamaha star, who has spent his entire premier-class career on Michelins, finished his second day on the Japanese rubber just 0.141secs behind Dani Pedrosa, as all the top five set their best lap time with a qualifying tyre.
"Today we made longer runs than yesterday and our times were still consistent, which means we are working in the right direction. We still are still missing something in terms of performance, but for sure we are making improvements in terms of constancy," confirmed the former five times MotoGPworld champion.
"Bridgestonehas brought quite soft tyres here to Jerez, because they expected lower temperatures, so I am sure that with some harder material we could do even better. The pace is not bad at all and it is similar to the one I had in the race here at the beginning of the past season.
"I could probably have done even better today with the material I had, but I kept some “margin” to improve tomorrow. Tomorrow we will test some more qualifying tyres and we will also make a long run. Today we tested 2007 tyres, but tomorrow I will have some brand new tyres in order to find more grip.
"Of course we need to work on the bike, too; the bike's power delivery puts a lot of pressure on the tyres, so we need to make it "sweeter"," he continued. "Generally speaking this is what I was waiting for: new motivation and a lot of fun, and in fact I am having a lot of fun with the new tyres.
"I am looking forward to starting the next season because it will be exciting and interesting, but before that I want to finish this test in the best way and then start again in January in order to arrive at Qatar in the best possible shape," Rossi concluded.
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