The third and final MotoGP pre-season test to be held at Sepang began with a bang on Tuesday when Valentino Rossi set the fastest lap time seen at the Malaysian circuit this winter.

After a late start due to a 'dirty' track, Rossi headed a limited nine-rider line-up - also consisting of Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo, Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden, Gresini Honda team-mates Shinya Nakano and Alex de Angelis, plus the Yamaha and Kawasaki test teams - by pulling 1.649secs clear of nearest rival Hayden during his 64 laps.

The Italian's best time, of 2mins 0.300secs, was set with a Bridgestone qualifying tyre at the very end of the day, but the former five-times MotoGP world champion had already claimed his position at the head of the timesheets due to a 2mins 1.444secs race tyre time.

Prior to Tuesday, the best lap recorded at Sepang this winter was a 2mins 0.326secs, set by Hayden - with a Michelin qualifying tyre - on January 24. But while Rossi may have edged under that mark, he is still to beat the 2mins 0.964secs race tyre time set by Ducati's world champion Casey Stoner at the January test - which Rossi finished just sixth fastest.

Nevertheless, Rossi's Tuesday race-tyre best still put him almost half a second clear of Hayden, who suffered a harmless late fall at the final turn, with Nakano a further 0.368secs back in third position. Rossi's Michelin-shod team-mate Jorge Lorenzo had been fastest at lunch time, but finally slipped back to fourth position, 1.2secs from the #46 on race tyres.

Fellow 250cc graduate Alex de Angelis was pushing as hard as ever, but fell early on and was left to settle for an eventual fifth, 0.4secs ahead of Kawasaki test rider Olivier Jacque.

A near three-second gap then stood between former 250cc world champion and the final three riders; consisting of Yamaha test team riders Wataru Yoshikawa and Yoshihiko Fujiwara, plus OJ's Kawasaki colleague Tamaki Serizawa.

Hayden's team-mate Dani Pedrosa is continuing to recover from a fractured hand, sustained during day one of the January test. Pedrosa hopes to return to action next time out, at the official Jerez test, from February 16-18.

Testing at Sepang continues on Wednesday and concludes on Thursday.