Rossi / Yamaha Fastest at 1st Official MotoGP Test.

Well...well...well; look who's at the top of the timesheets. Yamaha's Valentino Rossi won a new BMW Z4 car, by narrowly beating Honda's Colin Edwards in the special session. (BMW donates a new car to be awarded to the fastest rider during a special 40 minute session at the first "Official" IRTA MotoGP test of the year.)

Rossi's lap on the YZR-M1 stood as the fastest time, throughout the remainder of the weekend. However, later in the day, both Alex Barros and Nicky Hayden ended up beating Edwards' best special session time, taking 2nd and 3rd respectively on the overall time sheets.

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Continuing their form from last season, Ducati was easily the fastest bike in a straight line, with Loris Capirossi topping 215.87 mph! on Catalunya's front straight, smashing the old MotoGP record by over 9mph. Speeds were way-up this year, with 21 Riders topping 205mph, and all_but_one over 200mph.

Note: Kurtis Roberts was not at the test, because he is currently back in the USA recovering from a shoulder injury sustained at an earlier test for his Father's Proton Modenas team.

After all was said and done, the times looked like this:

---- Rider -------- Bike ------ Best Lap - Fastest Speed -
1.) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:44.571, 211.1mph
2.) Alex Barros (Honda) 1:44.631, 215.7mph
3.) Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1:44.634, 214.9mph
4.) Colin Edwards (Honda) 1:44.653, 214.2mph
5.) Sete Gibernau (Honda) 1:44.689, 212.8mph
6.) Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 1:44.871, 215.87mph *new speed record
7.) Kenny Roberts (Suzuki) 1:44.046, 206.2mph
8.) Ruben Xaus (Ducati) 1:45.073, 212.5mph
9.) Carlos Checa (Yamaha) 1:45.171, 211.1mph
10.) Marco Melandri (Yamaha) 1:45.196, 210.0mph
11.) Makoto Tamada (Honda) 1:45.226, 215.2mph
12.) Max Biaggi (Honda) 1:45.519, 214.3mph
13.) Neil Hodgson (Ducati) 1:45.520, 212.1mph
14.) Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki) 1:45.654, 206.6mph
15.) Alex Hofmann (Kawasaki) 1:46.007, 202.2mph
16.) Shane Byrne (Aprilia) 1:46.170, 205.9mph
17.) Troy Bayliss (Ducati) 1:46.182, 211.6mph
18.) Shinichi Itoh (Honda) 1:46.212, 210.1mph
19.) Gregorio Lavilla (Suzuki) 1:46.227, 203.4mph
20.) John Hopkins (Suzuki) 1:46.329, 210.0mph
21.) Nobuatsu Aoki (Proton) 1:46.620, 204.1mph
22.) Norick Abe (Yamaha) 1:47.429, 207.8mph
23.) Jeremy McWilliams (Aprilia) 1:48.682, 204.0mph
24.) Marcellino Lucchi (Aprilia) 1:49.489, 205.0mph
25.) Michael Fabrizio (WCM) 1:50.144, 195.8mph