Valentino Rossi built on his competitive Yamaha return by cl👍ipping a further half-second from his best time on day two of MotoGP testi꧙ng at Sepang.

That kept the Italian fourth over💮all, with Dani 💦Pedrosa (Honda), Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) and Marc Marquez (Honda) once again in front.

Rossi remained just under 0.5s from Pedrosa, but felt he lost the chance to at least match star rookie Marquez (+0.254s) aft🌟er a mistake at the hairpin.

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

Rossi's fastest Wednesday lap was a 2m 1.038s, jus🌟t shy of his 2m 0s target. Rossi's quickest Sepang lap in testing for Ducati was a𒉰 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!" smile💟d Rossi, who often struggled to make successive gains during two 🥂tough seasons at Ducati.

"I impro🌠ved half a second with the new tyre and now the lap time starts to be q♛uite interesting.

"More importantly I improved mౠy rhythm by more than half a second. Today I was able to run constantly in the low 2m 1s. This is so impo💯rtant.

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

"But anyway⛦, wi🌟thout the rain [at 4pm], I would expect Pedrosa, Lorenzo and Marquez to also improve.

"They are very strong,༒" he said of the three riders ahead of him. "I can see Lorenzo from clo🏅se and he is able to do the lap time from the first moment.

"Lorenzo has a great feeling with the bike - like Pedrosa and also Marquez, Marquez maybe a little bit less🗹.

"But Marquez is scary because he ha🐽s the most potential to improve.

"Usually in the second half of last year Lorenzo and Pedrosaꦡ were in front. So to be fourth and ♊not so far from them is positive.

"Tomo🍷rrow will be important because we will have some more soft tyres to try, so if the condi♎tions are good it could be funny!"

In terms of technical improvements, Rossi highlight𝕴ed 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, b𒊎ut because they can 🌃use more of it - they have more mechanical grip," he explained.

Rossi confirmed that he wants a ♌seamless sꦿhift gearbox and is "pushing" Yamaha to get it, but "we don't know if it will arrive or not".

Rossi u🍒sed a seamless shift gearbox at Ducati, but said the Ducati 'box "is not the same as the Honda. It is between the Yama൩ha and the Honda."

Meawhile, it is not juไst 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 motivation ꧃- they can finish at 6pm, they can drink beer, they have tim🐻e! This is very important for the atmosphere.

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

The first Sepang test concludes on Thursday ev💜ening.