Rain spoils Valentino Rossi's Yamaha return in Valencia testing

After two winless seasons with Ducati, the Italian has rejoined the Japanese squad at which he spent seven years, winning four premier class titles and 46 grands prix along the way.

Early morning rain ruined any hopes of Rossi setting competitive times however, while cold afternoon conditions effectively truncated the day's running.

Click here for Valencia MotoGP testing gallery, featuring Valentino Rossi's Yamaha return and Marc Marquez's Honda debut

With the aim of giving Rossi maximum seat time on the 2013 M1, Yamaha will now travel overnight to Aragon in order to join Wednesday's World Superbike test.

Rossi did at least complete 28 laps for his new squad, although having missed the early window of dry running he was more than seven seconds slower than overall pacesetter Alvaro Bautista.

Both Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso, the man who replaced Rossi at Ducati, managed to go faster. Rossi boasted better long-run pace, however.

Dovizioso ended the day third fastest and Hayden fifth, the pair split by Hiroshi Aoyama on the Avintia Blusens bike on which he will compete next season.

Other newcomers did not even manage to go out, with Moto2 champion Marc Marquez (Honda) and fellow graduate Bradley Smith (Tech 3) opting not to run at all.

Their new team-mates Cal Crutchlow and Dani Pedrosa followed suit, as did 2012 MotoGP champion Jorge Lorenzo.

Andrea Iannone, newly installed in Ducati's restructured satellite Pramac team, was late to join the circuit but ended the day with 40 laps under his belt, behind only Dovizioso and Hector Barbera on the second Avintia machine.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike             Time       Gap
 1.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda         1m35.936s
 2.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda             1m36.198s  + 0.262s
 3.  Andrea Dovizioso  Ducati                1m39.868s  + 3.670s
 4.  Hiroshi Aoyama    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m42.239s  + 6.303s
 5.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                1m42.571s  + 6.635s
 6.  Valentino Rossi   Yamaha                1m43.736s  + 7.800s
 7.  Michele Pirro     Pramac Ducati         1m44.297s  + 8.361s
 8.  Claudio Corti     Forward Suter-BMW     1m45.814s  + 9.878s
 9.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia         1m46.045s  + 10.109s
10.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia         1m46.060s  + 10.124s
11.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW     1m46.426s  + 10.490s
12.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Aprilia       1m46.992s  + 11.056s
13.  Andrea Iannone    Pramac Ducati         1m47.772s  + 11.836s
14.  Hector Barbera    Avintia FTR-Kawasaki  1m49.457s  + 13.521s
15.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda Suter-BMW
16.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda
17.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha
18.  Bradley Smith     Tech 3 Yamaha
19.  Shane Byrne       Paul Bird Aprilia
20.  Marc Marquez      Honda
21.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha