(ANSA) - MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi was out in a Ferrari racing car again on Thursday, apparently set on establishing once and for all whether he can hope for Formula 1 glory.
The 26-year-old motorcycling star was completing laps of the Ferrari-owned Mugello track in about 58 seconds, compared to a circuit record of 55.99 seconds set by seven times world champion Michael Schumacher last year.
According to unconfirmed sources, Rossi drove a few laps even faster and showed particular skill on the curves, which he now knows well, thanks to two previous Ferrari tryouts at the same track.
On Wednesday, Rossi spent the day at Ferrari's other test track at Fiorano, near the car maker's headquarters in Maranello.
There has been persistent speculation in the media that Rossi, who has now won five successive titles in motorcycling's top class, could some day race Formula 1 cars for Ferrari. Rossi has frequent contact with the Italian Formula 1 team but is cagey about his intentions in interviews.
Meanwhile, Ferrari Chairman Luca Cordero di Montezemolo has frequently said the door is open for Rossi.
Several big names in the Formula 1 world, including Italian driver Giancarlo Fisichella and his boss at Renault, Flavio Briatore, give short shrift to talk of Rossi entering Formula 1. They say the sport requires too much training for someone to start in their late 20s and hope to be successful. But 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.
Rossi, who has little left to prove in MotoGP, is also believed to be 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. Rossi recently signed a contract to race another year with his current team, Yamaha, but after that his future is uncertain.
Some fans see him racing for Ferrari in 2007, when Michael Schumacher is expected to retire. Rossi's third set of tests with Ferrari came two weeks after Schumacher tried his hand at steering a MotoGP motorcycle round the same track near Florence.
The seven-times world champion, fresh from his worst Formula 1 season since joining Ferrari, completed 40 laps on Ducati's Desmosedici bike in an unannounced test apparently aimed merely at satisfying a whim.
