Valentino Rossi deprived John Hopkins of topping the time sheets for the third consecutive day today, when he made a 1.683secs improvement over his previous days time....
Although being knocked out of the top spot, Hopkins was only 0.09s slower than Rossi.
Honda looked to be in trouble as its riders were pushed outside the top seven on day two, but Dani Pedrosa restored some confidence within the team by posting the fourth fastest time today...
World champion Nicky Hayden was the final rider to lap within one second of Rossi, the American setting the seventh fastest time, as Rossi's team-mate Colin Edwards (confirmed as using only race tyres), Capirossi's team-mate Casey Stoner and Gresini Honda's Marco Melandri completed the top ten.
1 - Valentino Rossi ~ 2'00.936
2 - John
Hopkins ~ 2'01.026
3 - Loris
Capirossi ~ 2'01.274
4 - Dani
Pedrosa ~ 2'01.664
5 - Chris
Vermeulen ~ 2'01.691
6 - Randy
de Puniet ~ 2'01.878
7 - Nicky
Hayden ~ 2'01.884
8 - Colin
Edwards ~ 2'02.266
9 - Casey
Stoner ~ 2'02.407
10 - Marco
Melandri ~ 2'02.489
11 - Carlos
Checa ~ 2'02.583
12 - Alex
Barros ~ 2'02.630
13 - Toni
Elias ~ 2'02.927
14 - Alex
Hofmann ~ 2'03.040
15 - Shinya
Nakano ~ 2'03.077
16 - Makoto
Tamada ~ 2'03.308
17 - Kenny
Roberts ~ 2'03.330
18 - Olivier
Jacque ~ 2'03.572
19 - Shinichi
Ito ~ 2'03.973
Sylvain Guintoli ~ Did not ride on day three
Fastest day two time:
John Hopkins ~ 2'01.806
Fastest day one time:
John Hopkins ~ 2'02.277
The next pre-season test will take place at Phillip Island in Australia from January 30 to February 1, before the teams return to Sepang for the third and final time from February 5-7
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