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Testing kicked off today at the Sepang circuit, in Malaysia, with a first day marked by high temperatures and humidity. All the Honda MotoGP teams are gathered at the Malaysian venue for this test, with the exception of Makoto Tamada's Konica Minolta Honda team. Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa resumed his work on a tailor-made version of the RC211V, with a smaller tail, foot pegs anchored differently and even an isolated exhaust tube as the Spaniard was previously bothered by the excessive heat.
Toni Elias was another rider building-up experience on the 4-stroke Honda, alongside his Fortuna Honda team-mate, Marco Melandri. The Honda Pons team was also resuming their winter schedule with Carlos Checa and Casey Stoner.
Suzuki's John Hopkins was the first rider to hit the track, riding the new version of the GSV-R while Chris Vermeulen lapped on the 2005 machine. The Australian should test the latest version of the Japanese prototype tomorrow.
In the Yamaha camp, Valentino Rossi focussed on tyre testing, before riding the new M1 which was plan to debut on Tuesday. Yamaha test riders Norihiko Fujiwara and Wataru Yoshikawa were the first riders to test the new bike. On this occasion, Rossi was sporting his #7 white crash helmet, with which he celebrated his seventh World title at the Grand Prix held in Malaysia, back in September.
"It has been a long year! A few days ago, I drove in a Rally event, I had some fun testing a Formula 1 car, I could relax a bit but now, at this time of the year, I begin to feel tired! I tried the new M1 prototype and we made a few adjustments. There aren't big differences with the old one, we just have to see if it's quicker and if we are headed in the right direction," said Rossi.
Elsewhere, this first day of testing saw James Ellison make his debut with the Tech3 team on a Dunlop-shod Yamaha. French rookie Randy de Puniet continued his adaptation to the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR, while Shinya Nakano started to work on the 2006 version of the bike.
