The Italian superstar found that the pain from his recently fractured right hand began to bite during his third successive day back on an M1 and, while the Fiat Yamaha rider still managed to complete almost his entire testing schedule, he cancelled a planned long run and didn't use any qualifying tyres.

With most of the rest of the riders choosing to test qualifiers, Rossi's best lap on race tyres, a time of 1min 41.538secs, put him 11th in the final standings. Dani Pedrosa set the pace after a lap of 1min 38.562secs on the 2007 Honda.

"Today I tried to do my best but I wasn't able to ride fast due to my hand; it started hurting a lot today and I had no power to ride with it in such conditions," confirmed the former five times MotoGP world champion. "The fracture is still hurting and furthermore I have not ridden or trained for almost one month, so it is to be expected that today my hand would be tired. I knew I was not in perfect shape, and I also expected to have some problems at this first test back.

"Anyway, we were able to finish our programme and despite today I think it's been a positive first test with Bridgestone. Of course we still have work to do on the bike in general and with regards to adapting it to the new tyres but I can reconfirm my first feeling of two days ago, which was positive.

"Now we have a better idea where we need to work hard in order to improve further. I would like to take this chance to say a big thank you to all my team, my mechanics and to all the Yamaha staff for their great effort throughout the season. I know that I will find them again at the beginning of 2008 with the same motivation, if not even more than ever. Thanks to everyone!" he concluded.

"Today we decided to finish early because Valentino was not able to ride at 100% due to pain in his hand," added team manager Davide Brivio. "Anyway, it is quite normal, since he had a bad crash in Valencia and he has not ridden since. It is not a big problem for us because we were able to finish our working schedule and test program, so we preferred to stop the test early in order not to put unnecessary stress on his hand."

"This test session in Jerez has been very positive for us, for the team and for the rider, mainly because we have understood the performance of the new Bridgestone tyres," stated team director Masahiko Nakajima. "This test was enough to collect good data for the future that will also help us with the direction of our development for the next season.

"I do not want to go into details at this stage, because it is too early to do so at the very first test with Bridgestone, but let me say that this has been a very good test," he reiterated. "As far as the bike is concerned, here in Jerez we tested some new improvements to our electronic control system and in this field too we collected some very interesting data. Now we will be able to implement this information at the first 2008 test."

The 2008 YZR-M1 will make its debut at Sepang on January 22, after the winter test ban.