Rossi announces his plan to ride 4-stroke.

Earlier today on the second day of official HRC tests in Jerez, the new 500cc World Champion Valentino Rossi made an announcement that he will be riding Honda's four-stroke prototype motorbike, the RC211V, in next season's MotoGP World Championship.

The Italian was using the early stages of Honda's official testing session to weigh up the potential of both the two-stroke NSR500 and the RC211V in similar track and weather conditions. Clearly Rossi has been impressed with the improvements made to the new bike since he first rode it in Japan back in August.

The 22 year-old stated, "I will ride the four-stroke. All the changes I asked for have been completed and we have an excellent base to work from." Rossi added, "The bike is good and we're on the right track, but before saying anything I want to lap in identical conditions to the Yamaha and the Suzuki"

Rossi set a best time today of 1 minute 42.9 seconds, inside the current lap record. His new team-mate, Japan's Tohru Ukawa, will also ride an RC211V in MotoGP and had a best lap of 1'43.6. Ukawa's compatriot, Daijiro Katoh will be on board the two-stroke NSR500 next season, after winning the 250cc World Championship this year. He seems to be settling in with the new machine, as he recorded a 1'42.6, which is just inside Rossi's pole position time from earlier this year. The other HRC rider in the elite MotoGP class, Jurgen Vd Goorbergh, clocked a 1'45.3 on his Team Kanemoto NSR500 fitted with Bridgestone tyres, having crashed during the afternoon session.

In Australia the official Yamaha MotoGP riders, Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa, continued the work on the four-stroke M1 bike they will race in the lead class next year. Biaggi had a couple of shocks as he lapped the coastal Phillip Island circuit; firstly he hit a low-flying seagull and then narrowly avoided a hare which had made its way onto the track.

Despite these small hitches he remarked, "I haven't had too many problems and I continued with the work we started yesterday on the bike's set-up. Still we can't make big conclusions, but I'm clear about the fact that the engine has more potential than the 500 2-stroke in terms of its power and range." Biaggi completed 70 laps of the track, while his Spanish team-mate Checa covered 58.