Rossi crashes on return

The five-time world champion was back on a bike for the first time in four months - having recovered from the broken hand that he suffered in a qualifying accident at the season-ending Valencia Grand Prix last year.

But, while entering turn two on his 20th lap of the day, the 28-year-old Italian high-sided off his hybrid Yamaha YR-M1, although, despite holding his left hand in dismay, he escaped injury and was able to complete 44 laps during the day.

"I was on an out lap and maybe I pushed a little bit too hard, too soon, with not enough temperature in the tyre and I lost the front," said Rossi. "Luckily I was not hurt, my hand is okay and I was able to continue with the day's work!"

Rossi's best lap saw him go sixth on the official timesheets on a day that saw LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet set the pace, just as he had done when the teams tested at the circuit in December.

The 26-year-old Frenchman lapped in 2:01.337 while completing 68 tours of the Malaysian circuit during the day without any dramas. He was still using an interim bike though as the team are yet to take delivery of their 2008 engines.

Second fastest was Dani Pedrosa, half a second behind de Puniet. The Spaniard though, had bigger things on his mind than watching the time gap.

During the afternoon, Pedrosa lost the front end of his Repsol Honda at over 80 mph and was thrown over the top of the machine, leaving him on his way to hospital with a suspected broken hand, which could force him to miss the rest of the test.

Suzuki had a promising day with Chris Vermeulen and new signing Loris Capirossi third and fourth fastest - both ahead of the Ducati of world champion Casey Stoner - who was sporting the number one plate for the first time.

Rossi was sixth, ahead of Tech-3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards and Repsol Honda's 2006 world champion Nicky Hayden.

Yamaha rookie Jorge Lorenzo was ninth-fastest on his Michelin tyres - only seven hundredths of a second slower than his Bridgestone-shod team-mate Rossi - while Shinya Nakano completed the top ten for Gresini Honda.

Britain's James Toseland - using Tech-3's 2008 Yamaha chassis for the first time - was 13th-fastest of the 21 riders present.

"Today was pretty good even if it did take me a bit of time to get back into things after the break," said Toseland.

"My quickest time here in November was 2:03.5 and then I was mostly in the 04s and 05s. On my last run today, when the track was at its hottest, I was constantly in the low 03s, so we have made progress and I am pretty pleased with that.

"We have got some new forks which are quite stable under braking. Along with an increase in engine performance this is the main thing that I noticed compared to the old bike.

"The new rear swinging arm was working well and I did not feel as much chatter around this track as I did before. The bike is not hugely different so far but the subtle changes are a step in the right direction."