Valentino Rossi saw reasons to be encouraged by Movistar Yamaha’s new seamless-shift gearbox after setting the pace in testing on Monday at Sepang. The Italian was a tenth quicker than Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and although he didn’t feel the YZR-M1 was a transformed machine, he did feel the upgrade made a meaningful difference. “Everybody in our team was curious about the updated gearbox and the first impression is quite positive, so I’m happy. It doesn’t make a huge difference, but it’s a small help in a difficult point where we need to improve. The bike is a bit better in braking and corner entry and I think we need to work to understand the maximal potential, but the...
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