Valentino Rossi built on his competitive Yamaha return by clipping a f𒆙urther half-second from his best time on day two of MotoGP testing at Sepang.

That kept the Italian fourth overall, with Dani Pedrosa (Honda), Jorge Lorenzo🐎 (Yamaha) and Marc Marquez (Honda) once agꦍain in front.

Rossi remained just under 0.5s from Pedrosa, but felt he lost the chance to at least match star rookie Marquez (+0.2ಞ54s) after a mistake at the hairpin.

On the positive side, Rossi stated that his average time had improved by more than the half-seco𓂃nd seen on the best lap ranking.

Rossi's fastest Wednesday lap was 🌟a🐼 2m 1.038s, just shy of his 2m 0s target. Rossi's quickest Sepang lap in testing for Ducati was a 2m 0.824s, last year, while he recorded a 2m 0.271s on the 800cc Yamaha in 2010.

"I am happy because I improved today. This is a great feeling!" smiled Rossi, who often struggled to make su✅ccessive gains during two tough seasons at Ducati.

"I improved half a second with the new tyre and now the lap time starts🐠 to be quite interesting.

"More importantly I improved my rhythm by more than half a se💧cond. Today I was ab🍎le to run constantly in the low 2m 1s. This is so important.

"There remains a small regret because I wanted to do a 2m 0s but unfortunately before the rain I did a mistake in the h♑airpin. If not, I could stay more or less with the lap time of Marquez.

"But anyway, wit🦩hout the rain [at 4pm], I would expect Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Marquez to also improve.

"They are very strong," he said of the three riders ahe♑ad of him. "I can see Lorenzo from close and he is able to do the lap time from the first moment.

"Lorenzo has a great feeling with the bike - l🐽ike Pedrosa and also Marquez, Marquez maybe a little b💖it less.

"But Marquez is scary because hꦓe has t𓂃he most potential to improve.

"Usually in the second half of last year Lorenzo and Pedrosa wereಞ in front. So to be fourth and not so far fr🦄om them is positive.

"Tomorrow will be important because we will have some more soft tyres to try, so i🌃f the conditions are good it could be funny!"

In terms of technical impr🔯ovements, Rossi highligh💙ted acceleration as the area where the most gains can be made.

"It looks⛎ like Honda is able to put more horsepower on the ground. Not because they have more horsepower, but because they can use more of it - they have more mechanical grip," he explained.

Rossi confirmed that he wa🦩nts a seamless shift gearbox and is "pushing" Yamaha 🌌to get it, but "we don't know if it will arrive or not".

Rossi used a seaml𒈔ess shift gearbox at Ducati, but said the Ducati 'box "is not the same as the Honda. It is between the Yamaha and the Honda."

Meawhile, it is not jus❀t Rossi who is happy to be back at Yamaha - where he won four of his seven MotoGP titles - his crew chief Jeremy Burgess and group of mechanics are also enjoying the 'atmosphere'...

"Jeremy is very happy," said Rossi. "Also the guys in the garage have great m♉otivation - they can finish at 6pm, they can drink beer, they have time! This is very important for the atmospheওre.

"Last year at 6pm the bike was all open in the🍌 garage - they were not very happy!"

The f🐎irst Sepang test concludes on Thursday evening.