Having been a cautious 13th fastest during the rain interrupted opening day at Jerez, former five-times MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi dominated much of day two as the set-up of his factory Yamaha M1 got bett🌠er and better.

Rossi topped the time sheets until the last stages of Saturday's session, when he was edged out by Honda moun𝓡ted countryman Marco Melandri (using qualifying tyres) but that couldn't overshadow a near perfect day's work.

"Today was a very good day for us and we've done some great work," stated Rossi. "After today we're happy because we can understand that we did a great job when we were here in November. We started with the same setting and the bike was fast straight away, then afterwards we tried a new setting from January and February, with the suspension and other things, and it felt even better. I had a great feeling with the front and also with the rear, and I had a lot of confidence with my bike. The balance was good under acceleration and I was able to go fast and in a ꦗgood rhythm.

"Tomorrow we've got some more things to try and also some more tyres from Michelin, so we hope to make even more improvements🦄. We'll also get the chance to try a qualifying tyre and to see how we go against our rivals in the 'qualifying' session, which will be interesting. So anyway, we've got another day and some more work to do, but the situation is already good and I am feeling happy."

Team-mate Colin Edwards, having been in the top three for most of the day, also slipped down the order at the end as several riders opted to try qualifying tyres ahead of tomorrow's 40 mi♛nute timed 'qualifying' shoot-out. The Texan finished Saturday in ninth position, but within a second of Melandri.

"Today we started where we left off yesterday, trying to work out how to adapt the good setting from Qatar to this track. We figured a few things out in the morning and kept on making progress and actually what we've found is quite a long wayౠ from the Qatar setting and also from the old setting we used here, but anyway it works great!" said Colin. "It felt good all day and I was doi𓆉ng consistently quick times, before we put in our 'first-choice' tyre from Qatar near the end and then it felt really fantastic. It really is a great tyre, so hopefully Michelin will have lots of those for me this season! I was right up there on the time sheets until the end when a few people put qualifiers in, but that wasn't on our agenda today and we'll have a go at that tomorrow. Of course there's the competition tomorrow and it's definitely the day to make a statement, so we'll see how it goes!" added last year's BMW winner.

"Today we did a great 🅰job with Valentino, we found a very good balance and a good setting and he was able to be fast from his first lap and always at the top, until the very end," confirme🌌d team director Davide Brivio. "It was also a good day for Colin and he was also fast throughout. Tomorrow is our last day of testing before the championship starts so it's very important, then we also have the competition in the afternoon. We're in good shape with both riders so it should be an interesting day."