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.
