Motorcycling ace improves further on final day (ANSA) - Valencia, February 2 - MotoGP champ Valentino Rossi shaved his lap times further during his final day of Formula 1 trials in Valencia and said afterwards he was "very satisfied" with the experience .

Rossi, who is considering a switch from two wheels to four in the future, put in another 50 laps at the Spanish circuit on Thursday, trimming almost half a second off his best time of the day before. His new best of 1'12"4, was about a second and a half slower than the fastest of the 'real' drivers on the track .


But Rossi, seen as a possible Ferrari driver in the near future, insisted that he was unconcerned with his times and more worried about developing his understanding of Formula 1 cars .

"I didn't come here to show I'm fast or to prove anything to anyone. But my feel for the car is getting better all the time, so we'll see what happens in the future," he said .

Technicians stressed that the newcomer's performance in a reduced-power version of Ferrari's V10 2004 car should not be compared with those of other drivers in their new V8 models .

The 26-year-old star said he was now intending to focus on defending his world title in the coming MotoGP season .

"It was great, very interesting. But now I'm going back to motorcycles, which are my priority for this year," he said as the tests, which involved all the key Formula 1 teams, drew to a close .

Rossi, who has won seven world titles in motorcycling, spoke enthusiastically about the Ferrari squad he had worked with for three days and gave the impression that he would like to be part of it .

"I'm very happy about the environment in Ferrari. There are a lot of very capable people who get on with each other well. This is the way it should be because it allows you to grow," he said .

Rossi's first real Formula 1 experience started embarrassingly. After spending most of Tuesday watching the rain, he managed just 20 seconds on the track before misjudging a right-hand curve and going into a spin .

Wednesday's session also included a spin-out and an interlude in the sand but generally went much better .

Ferrari's seven-time world champ Michael Schumacher was apparently impressed. He was quoted in the Italian press on Thursday as praising the novice's performance and saying he had "no need of my advice" .

Some pundits say that Rossi, who has little left to prove in MotoGP, is attracted by the challenge of successfully making a switch which only one man, Britain's John Surtees, has ever done before .

Surtees won four world motorcycling titles before switching to cars in 1960. In 1964, at the age of 30, he won a world title driving a Ferrari .

Italian sports fans - along with sponsors and marketing people - are thrilled by the idea that Rossi might try to be the first Italian driver to win a title in a Ferrari since Alberto Ascari in 1953 .