At MotoGP Official Test
Valentino Rossi was once again the fastest rider at the MotoGP Official Test, with a dominant display at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Already yesterday`s fastest on track, he took just under twenty minutes to top the timesheets today, with a fast lap of 1`43.704 coming at 1pm local time.
Amongst those to take to the track early this morning were Sete Gibernau, Alex Hofmann and Hopkins, with Rossi the last to make an appearance at the Spanish circuit.

Weather conditions all day were gloomy and overcast but luckily no rain fell, although the cloudy skies caused temperatures to drop from yesterday on the track.

With many riders breaking for lunch, Repsol Honda`s Dani Pedrosa crashed out on turn four. The incident left the Spaniard uninjured, but forced him to ride on his second bike for the rest of the session.

Rossi continued to ride fast, but later in the afternoon the top spot on the leaderboard was exchanged rapidly between four riders. Colin Edwards set a lap of 1`43.388, but just minutes later Kawasaki`s Shinya Nakano put in a flying lap of 1`43.245 to snatch the position.

Carlos Checa continued his tremendous preseason form by breaking the circuit record. The Spaniard has so far been the surprise story of the Official Test, yesterday completing an all-Yamaha top three and today going one better.

Fifteen minutes after setting his fastest lap though, Checa saw Rossi break the 1`43 second barrier and pip him to first place.

Behind the top four of Rossi, Checa, Nakano and Edwards, there were three other riders to lap quicker than 1`44: Ducati`s Sete Gibernau, French rookie Randy de Puniet on the Kawasaki and Suzuki`s John Hopkins.

Completing the top ten were the three fastest Honda riders of the day. HRC rider Nicky Hayden clocked the eighth fastest lap of the day ahead of Makoto Tamada and Dani Pedrosa.

Some light rain is predicted for tomorrow, which will be both the final day of the Official Test and the scene of the BMW M Award competition, which starts at 2pm local time and will see the riders compete to earn the fastest lap in a 40 minute session.

The winner of this action-packed race against the clock will receive a brand new BMW Z4 M Roadster.

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