Rossi is improving on the Ducati, but had his first crash on Sunday.

Italian Valentino Rossi has admitted he’s finally beginning to enjoy himself following the first day of MotoGP testing at Qatar on Sunday.

The Ducati Marlboro Team made steady progress during the first half of a two-night pre-season test at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit.

Rossi was eighth fastest on night one, finally moving up the order after a frustrating pre-season to date.

“It wasn’t bad for a first day. I was able to ride the bike better, and I enjoyed myself,” the nine-time champion said. “Although I was just eighth, my times aren’t too far from the top, seven tenths is still a big difference.

“Anyway it’s progress, considering that I did my best time with a very used tyre. We worked well on the settings, even if in a couple parts of the circuit I’m still not fast enough, and we’ll have to try some more solutions tomorrow.

“As for the shoulder, I’m happy because I have a little more strength, and that enables me to ride better.

“Today I also had my first crash on a Ducati, which I naturally did intentionally because after a while, you have to do a little fall. All joking aside, I entered too quickly and lost the front.

“I was able to pick it up and avoid crashing while I was on the track, but I dropped it in the gravel—no big deal though.”

Teammate Nicky Hayden was directly behind in ninth and he too was pleased with the progress made at Qatar.

“Right out of the gate, it wasn’t too bad, and then we were up against a wall for a while,” the 2006 champion said. “The team made one little change with ride height and I was able to get a decent lap time and get consistent.

“In parts of the track I felt pretty good, but there are spots where the steering still needs to improve. If we can do better in those areas, we should be able to drop the lap time. I feel a little bit closer than Malaysia, but we certainly need to go quicker tomorrow.”