Weather curtails Motegi test
The post-race test at the Motegi circuit came to a premature end on Monday after a torrential rain hit the Japanese circuit
The deluge forced Yamaha to cancel the debut of their 2009 bike, which was scheduled to hit the track today with newly-crowned champion Valentino Rossi.
Championship rival Dani Pedrosa did take to the circuit with his Honda, but his team decided to call it a day at 1pm due to the poor weather conditions.
The Spaniard, celebrating his 23rd birthday today, managed just 22 laps.
"This morning we mainly concentrated on engine tests, comparing data and performance with some different electronic mapping," said Pedrosa. "It is important for us to keep on learning about this bike, and working to improve the set up of the pneumatic valve engine with Bridgestone tyres.
"We started testing before 10.00am, but we couldn't do too many laps because it started raining around lunch time. Then came a surprise from the team in the garage, when they produced a big cake for my birthday."
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