By Peter McLaren

Having been as much as 17 Km/h slower than the Ducatis during the early part of last season, Valentino Rossi and Yamaha are aiming to face no more than a 5 Km/h disadvantage by the start of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship, at Qatar on March 9.

"We've reduced the gap in top speed to the other bikes, and have in our programme some further steps and evolutions before the first race," revealed the former five-times MotoGP world champion.

"Our target is to get closer and to within no more than a 5 Km/h disadvantage. I think we can find that," added the Italian, who is leading development of Yamaha's pneumatic-valve engine.

Rossi left the recent Sepang test having set the sixth fastest lap time, in terms of both qualifying and race tyres.