Friday, November 21, 2008

Rossi ends guest tests and proves fast once again

Today 8 time motorcycle champion Valentino Rossi concluded two tests he had with Ferrari. On Thursday Rossi had a lot to say about his testing. "I can't wait to try the F2008 to see how much F1 cars have changed compared to my previous tests," Rossi was quoted as saying by Autosprint. "In 2005 I went quick: compared with equal conditions, I ran within 1.2 seconds of Michael Schumacher's lap times. Let's say that I'll be very happy if this time I can limit the gap down to one second."

In testing at Mugello, Rossi covered a total about 200 miles during the first day of the test, setting a fastest time of 1:22.550. 2007 F1 champion Kimi Raikkonen's best time was a 1:21.070 set in September of this year. One can just to do the math and see that he was only about 1.5 seconds off the pace. However Rossi let the world know "I have nothing to prove, neither to myself nor to others. I only had a big curiosity to know. Well, I'm more and more convinced that with a bit of time I could have become a good F1 driver. It only remains to be seen how good, whether good enough to win or not. So I have no regrets, never had them: I did the right thing with staying in MotoGP, where I win and I hope to carry on winning for a long time."

Day 2 of his testing was struck by rain. Rossi completed just a handful of dry laps today before the rain arrived which hampered his efforts to compete with Raikkonen's fast time. When he tried to run in wet conditions with wet weather tires, he spun. Nevertheless, Rossi completed 56 laps with a best time of 1:24.04 in the dry and 1:33.56 in the wet. Still, not bad for the master on 2 wheels.

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