Commercialbank Grand Prix Of Qatar Report Day 1 Thu, 5 April 2012 Stoner sets the early MotoGP™ pace in Qatar The 2012 MotoGP™ World Championship got underway at Losail on Thursday with the first practice session of the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar, and immediately into the groove was reigning World Champion Casey Stoner. His best lap of the session – a 1’56.474 – headed the opening 45-minute run of the weekend as the new 1000cc machines made their first outing of the season. The Australian did not have it all his own way however as the leading spot changed hands a few times in the closing minutes of the session, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) being one rider who led before settling in second at just 0.174s off Stoner with a 1’56.648. Making it three different bikes in the top three Nicky Hayden rode his factory Ducati to a best time of 1’56.924, whilst Ben Spies on the second Yamaha Factory Racing machine was fourth and the final rider under 1’57″. Dani Pedrosa (Respol Honda) was just under seven-tenths of a second off his team-mate Stoner as the Spaniard ended the session fifth, and Cal Crutchlow put in an impressive showing on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine to secure the highest satellite position of sixth in a time of 1’57.395. The Brit was also the final rider to get inside a second off Stoner’s benchmark. Álvaro Bautista (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Andrea Dovizioso (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Héctor Barberá (Pramac Racing), all riding for new teams in 2012, and Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) completed the top ten. The Italian was fractionally under a second off his team-mate Hayden. Rookie Stefan Bradl, the 2011 Moto2 World Champion, finished his first MotoGP session in 12th place as he began setting up his LCR Honda RC213V machine for Sunday’s race, and the debut of the CRTs witnessed Randy de Puniet (Power Electronics Aspar) lead the pack as he timed in 13th quickest with a lap of 1’59.985 on his Aprilia. Colin Edwards was just 0.059s off the Frenchman on the Suter-BMW machine of the NGM Mobile Forward Racing team, with Michele Pirro (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Aleix Espargaró (Power Electronics Aspar) close on De Puniet’s trail as the new CRT machines laid down their first World Championship practice session laps. The MotoGP class returns to the track on Friday for its second and third practices, but the Moto2™ and Moto3™ classes both ran two sessions on Thursday. Earlier on Thursday MotoGP riders Crutchlow and Barberá were joined by Moto3 youngster Viñales and Moto2 wildcard Nasser Al Malki as the quartet took part in the official pre-event. Embarking the ‘Magnifico’, the riders took in the Doha skyline and had a tour of the luxury vessel, before posing for photographs and discussing their expectations for the weekend. In Moto2™ Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock) topped both practices and posted a best time of 2’00.767 in the second, to get his weekend off to a strong start. Lüthi led a top three which included Claudio Corti (Italtrans Racing Team) and Pol Espargaró (Pons 40 HP Tuenti), with the Italian also getting under 2’01″ in a best time of 2’00.918. Espargaró and team-mate Esteve Rabat, who was fourth fastest, were the last riders to lap within 0.5s of Lüthi. Marc VDS Racing Team riders Scott Redding and Mika Kallio were separated by just 0.024s in fifth and sixth positions respectively, with 2011 Championship runner-up Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) seventh. Mike di Meglio (S/Master Speed Up), Takaaki Nakagami (Italtrans Racing Team) and former Moto2 World Champion Toni Elías (Mapfre Aspar Team) completed the top 10 with Japanese rider Nakagami just under a second off Lüthi. The new Moto3™ category debuted on day one at Losail as a new era in the World Championship began, and it was last year’s 125cc Rookie of the Year Maverick Viñales (Blusens Avintia) who was the leading rider in both sessions. Viñales topped the second practice session in which all riders set their best time with a time of 2’08.160, which left him 0.498s clear of second place, as the talented young Spaniard set a scorching marker for the rest of the field. Malaysian rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin (Airasia-SIC-Ajo) led the charge behind Viñales with a time of 2’08.658, with Red Bull KTM Ajo rider Danny Kent putting a problematic first session behind him in which he had technical issues to time in third quickest at 2’08.967. Miguel Oliveira (Estrella Galicia 0’0) was the last rider under 2’09″ with an effort of 2’08.979, and his rookie team-mate Alex Rins (Estrella Galicia 0’0) rounded off an impressive day by placing fifth in the order. With his time of 2’09.107 Rins was the last rider to get within a second of leader Viñales. Sandro Cortese (Red Bull KTM Ajo), Alberto Moncayo (Bankia Aspar Team), Louis Rossi (Racing Team Germany), Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar Team) and Niccolò Antonelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Moto3) completed the top 10 on a day on which the Moto3 class made its World Championship bow. The action resumes at 6pm local time on Friday, when the MotoGP riders head out on track for the second practice session. All categories will then complete their third and final practice, before qualifying commences on Saturday. More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Round 1: Qatar MotoGP™ Free Practice One Losail International Circuit Thursday 5 April 2012 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium & Extra-Hard; Rear: Medium, Hard (Asymmetric) Weather: Dry. Ambient 27-27°C; Track 30-29°C (Bridgestone measurement) The first laps of the 2012 season were completed tonight at the Losail International Circuit, with Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner taking first place in a session that saw the highly anticipated return of the 1000cc machines to competitive MotoGP™ action. Stoner’s best time of 1:56.474 saw him finish almost two-tenths faster than Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and a half second ahead of a determined Nicky Hayden aboard the Ducati GP12, though the reigning champion’s time was set on the harder rear tyre, with Lorenzo and Hayden setting their benchmark times on the softer rear option. With no pre-season test at Qatar this year, teams spent the first session evaluating many front and rear tyre combinations as they unleashed their new 1000cc machines onto the Losail Circuit for the first time. Track temperatures hovered around the 30°C mark for the first practice session, but patches of sand around the circuit made conditions less than ideal for fast running. The next free MotoGP™ practice session is scheduled for tomorrow evening at 1800 local time (GMT+3). Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department “As is often the case at Qatar, track conditions for the first practice session were not ideal today with a lot of sand on the circuit, but the feedback we got from the riders that the 2012 specification tyres were handling the variable track conditions very well. “Due to the changing track conditions and perhaps also the riders using their new 1000cc motorcycles at Qatar for the first time, there was no preferred front and rear tyre combination among the riders during the first session. Finding a race setup at Qatar can be difficult as the track temperatures during the race can be lower than during practice, so we consider this fact when choosing our tyre allocation and advising teams on what tyre combination might work best for them.” Qatar MotoGP FP1 results Pos Rider Team FP1 time Gap 1. Casey STONER, Repsol Honda, 1:56.474 2. Jorge LORENZO, Yamaha Factory Racing, 1:56.648, -0.174 second 3. Nicky HAYDEN, Ducati Team, 1:56.924, -0.450 4. Ben SPIES, Yamaha Factory Racing, 1:56.982, -0.508 5. Dani PEDROSA, Repsol Honda, 1’57.130, -0.656 6. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Monster Tech3 Yamaha, 1:57.395, -0.921 7. Alvaro BAUTISTA, San Carlo Honda Gresini, 1:57.512, -1.038 8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Monster Tech3 Yamaha, 1:57.547, -1.073 9. Hector BARBERA, Pramac Racing Team, 1:57.912, -1.438 10. Valentino ROSSI, Ducati Team, 1:57.914, -1.440 11. Karel ABRAHAM, Cardion AB Motoracing, 1:57.939, -1.465 12. Stefan BRADL, LCR Honda, 1:58.934, -2.460 13. Randy DE PUNIET, Power Electronics Aspar, 1:59.985, -3.511 14. Colin EDWARDS, NGM Forward Racing, 2:00.044, -3.570 15. Michele PIRRO, San Carlo Honda Gresini, 2:00.322, -3.848 16. Aleix ESPARGARO, Power Electronics Aspar, 2:00.720, -4.246 17. Ivan SILVA, Avintia Racing, 2:01.138, -4.664 18. Mattia PASINI, Speed Master Team, 2:01.261, -4.787 19. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Avintia Racing, 2:01.276, -4.802 20. Danilo PETRUCCI, CAME Ioda Racing Project, 2:01.352, 4.878 21. James ELLISON, Paul Bird Motorsport, 2:03.421, -6.947 More, from a press release issued by Ducati: Nicky Hayden third, Valentino Rossi tenth on day one in Qatar The 2012 MotoGP World Championship kicked off this evening at Qatar’s Losail International Circuit, where the first free-practice session of the new season took place under the lights. On a dirty track surface, Ducati Team riders Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi spent the single 45 minute session working on finding a race setup, as well as continuing to familiarize themselves with the still-new Desmosedici GP12. Toward the end, the American managed to post the third-fastest time of the session, while Rossi, who used just a single hard tyre, finished the night tenth-quickest. Tomorrow evening will find the MotoGP riders participating in two more free practice sessions, with qualifying to take place on Saturday night and the first race of the year on Sunday evening. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 3rd (1:56.924) “The first session went well. This track is a lot different than what we experienced in Jerez, more open and a lot wider. It was quite dirty and not very grippy, which helped us a bit. We started off on the hard tyre and then switched to the soft for the last exit, and I was able to do a nice lap. In general we were pretty fast and consistent, and I’ve certainly had worse sessions here, but we’ll just stay calm, keep trying to improve and try to get a good grid spot on Saturday night. It’s just one session, and there’s a long way to go. Sunday night is what counts, and it would be nice to get this team a result it deserves.” Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 10th (1:57.914) “It’s the first practice and I used the hard tyre the whole session, trying to do a lot of laps in order to understand it. The new tyre is much better for warming up, so good for safety, but it started to slide a lot after some laps and made some of the understeer worse. We have to work with the setting and also the electronics. The soft will be important for Saturday, but the hard will be the tyre for the race. Tomorrow we’ll try to do better.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Good start for the Repsol Honda Team The 2012 MotoGP World Championship began tonight under the footlights of the spectacular Grand Prix of Qatar. The Repsol Honda riders took to the Losail circuit for the first time this season in a short free practice of 45 minutes, and started to work on the set up of their RC213V for the opening race of the Championship. Casey Stoner set the fastest time with 1’56.474 and his team mate Dani Pedrosa finished fifth with 1’57.130. The action continues tomorrow with two more practice sessions to prepare for qualifying on Saturday. CASEY STONER, 1st 1’56.474 “The track tonight wasn’t so bad, I expected the conditions to be much worse but in general it was ok. We started this evening with huge chatter issues and I was a little afraid we couldn’t fix this but after a few more exits we managed to reduce it to a more comfortable level. This is a positive point for the weekend but with such a short session and then nothing until tomorrow it’s slightly strange. It was an ok start tonight, we finished quickest which is good but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow for some real track time and with the conditions a little better and see where we are”. DANI PEDROSA, 5th 1’57.130 “There are some corners where we are struggling a lot with the chattering, especially in the area where you slide more, but it’s like this and we will need to adapt the best we can. On my first exit I had an issue with the tyres and I had to stop in the garage; I felt a vibration in the wheels, so we decided to change both tyres. I lost some time there and at the end of the practice I went wide twice. Anyway, it’s been good to go out there and get the feeling back at this track after a long time without riding here. Tomorrow, with two practices sessions, we will start working more with the chassis and electronics to improve and prepare for the race”. Practice Results 1 Casey Stoner 1’56.474 AUS HONDA Repsol Honda Team 2 Jorge Lorenzo 1’56.648 SPA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing Team 3 Nicky Hayden 1’56.924 USA DUCATI Ducati Team 4 Ben Spies 1’56.982 USA YAMAHA Yamaha Factory Racing Team 5 Dani Pedrosa 1’57.130 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 6 Cal Crutchlow 1’57.395 GBR YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 7 Alvaro Bautista 1’57.512 SPA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini 8 Andrea Dovizioso 1’57.547 ITA YAMAHA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 9 Hector Barbera 1’57.912 SPA DUCATI Pramac Racing 10 Valentino Rossi 1’57.914 ITA DUCATI Ducati Team 11 Karel Abraham 1’57.939 CZE DUCATI Cardion AB Motoracing 12 Stefan Bradl 1’58.934 GER HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP 13 Randy De Puniet 1’59.985 FRA ART Aspar Team MotoGP 14 Colin Edwards 2’00.044 USA SUTER NGM Mobile Forward Racing 15 Michelle Pirro 2’00.322 ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini 16 Aleix Espargaro 2’00.720 ESP ART Aspar Team MotoGP 17 Ivan Silva 2’01.138 SPA BQR-FTR BQR 18 Mattia Pasini 2’01.261 ITA ART Speed Master 19 Yonny Hernandez 2’01.276 COL BQR-FTR BQR 20 Danilo Petrucci 2’01.352 ITA IODA Ioda Racing Project 21 James Ellison 2’03.421 GBR ART Paul Bird Racing More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: BRADL HOPING FOR MORE ON DAY AT LOSAIL Losail, 5th of April: Lights on for the first round of the 2012 campaign at Losail state-of-the-art race track with premier class riders and Teams fine-tuning their prototypes during the first 45-minute free session held tonight at 20:00 pm local time. The LCR racer Stefan Bradl was impatience to join the desert track aboard his Honda RC213V after the good feedback he had in Jerez 10 days ago. The 22-year circulated the track 16 times posting the 12th fastest lap time overall (1’58.934) but he experienced chattering issues which affected his riding style. Stefan : “Well.. it was not so good as I expected because we are a little bit too far away. But I am pretty sure we know we are in a difficult set up direction because I feel very hard to go into the corners. This layout is completely different compared to Jerez where I loaded the front so I feel that our bike needs some more weight in the front. We made a little change during the session but it was not enough and we used just one set of tyres so we have plenty for the other days. The overall situation is ok but I am sure we can do better than this”. More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing: HECTOR AND HIS CREW READY FOR LOSAIL The 2012 MotoGP™ World Championship officially starts this weekend in Qatar, the small Peninsula off the Persian Gulf, noted for hosting the only race of the calendar under floodlights. The Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar is, without any doubt, one of the most spectacular races of the season. This evening, the first true test of the 1000cc era, will kick off from 19.55 local time, in Qatar. A strong winter testing period with very good times, means, for Hèctor and the Green Team, a confident mood for the first race of the 2012 season. Hèctor Barberà Pramac Racing Team Rider “The 2012 season is very important for me. During the winter test we had worked tirelessly to try different technical solutions to find the right feeling with my GP12 and this kind of experiments had allowed me to mantain a good lap time in each circuit, where I had ridden on. I’m confident on the work done from my crew. Step by step we improved and quickly understood the main features of our Ducati GP12, which is much easier to understand compared to the 2011 one. Qatar was ever been a good track for my riding style, so I am hoping for good things to happen. Have a good race and fight with some official riders, would be my goal. And i’m sure that with both the new Ducati and my team’s work, i may achieve a good result.” Francesco Guidotti Pramac Racing Team Manager – “We will start the 2012 season confident on the work done and hoping to achieve nice results in each race scheduled for this year. The Losail circuit layout is very suitable for our rider characteristics so we should do well. Probably,we will have some problems with the track condition, because of some grains of sand on the track, in consequence to leave track unused for long time.However we can be confident on the work done during the winter tests , which it allowed us to understand different aspects of our bike”. More, from a press release issued by Speed Master: Thursday 4th April 2012 Losail, Qatar FIRST SESSION ON THE TRACK OF LOSAIL FOR THE ART MACHINE AND MATTIA PASINI The 2012 World Championship officially started today for the MotoGP class, with the first free practice at the circuit of Losail. Mattia Pasini took advantage of the session on the track to analize the performance of the ART machine here in Qatar, mainly counting on the setting and information that were previously gathered during the winter tests. Together with his crew, the Italian started the weekend working on the last data from the Irta test in Jerez, focusing on an analysis for the first modifications that will be prepared mostly during tomorrow’s sessions. Mattia Pasini #54 – 18th with 2’01.261 “This was an important session, the real beginning of the season. I’m not completely satisfied, but generally speaking things didn’t go that bad: we completed as many laps as possible, counting on the information that we gathered in the tests. We put together some important data and tomorrow the real work begins, when we focus on the setting and on possible modifications.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha MotoGP Team: The long winter wait is finally over as the MotoGP grid took to the track this evening under the spectacular floodlights of the Losail circuit for the first session of the 2012 season. Yamaha Factory Racing riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies took up where they left off in winter testing, putting in quick, consistent competitive laps from the start. Texan Spies led for a good part of the session and was the first rider to break under the 1’57 second barrier. He finished the session in fourth, 0.508 seconds from top. Team mate Lorenzo was quick to follow, delivering a blistering 1’56.648 in the last minutes to wrap up in second just 0.174 seconds from first. There was no dramatic changes to either riders bikes for this first session, the cobwebs were blown off and the base set up was assessed for the Losail circuit. Jorge Lorenzo Position : 2nd Time: 1’56.648 Laps: 13 “A quite good start, the track seems pretty dirty though, we are very far from the lap times of last year but that’s the same for everybody. I feel good, we are in the top close to Casey and we have improvements to come tomorrow from the bike, the track and myself. At the end we made a small change to gain some rear grip on all the corners which helped drop the lap time.” Ben Spies Position : 4th Time: 1’56.982 Laps: 17 “I was happy with tonight, we were generally pretty close to the top. The bike seemed to work pretty well; we made just two small changes to it and kept the same set of tyres on the whole time. We made our fastest lap when the tyre had dropped off with almost race distance on it. I’m quite pleased with how the bike performed. We’ve tested at Sepang, Jerez and here and the bike has been good at all three so I’m happy with the bike, the team and myself. We’ve just got to keep rolling and keep the momentum going.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “That’s the first free practice done, P2 is quite good and we’re happy to be there just one tenth from Casey. It seems to be that what we’ve learnt and solved over the wintertime is working here. Jorge is riding very well, calm and relaxed and focused so I believe we can make some more steps forward when the track is a little cleaner and get faster. Let’s see what tomorrow brings.” Massimo Meregalli Team Director “It’s definitely a good start for us. I think everything we saw in the winter tests meant we were confident we could come here and do well. We led the practice for a while and we had a very consistent pace and were able to put in fast laps with a used tyre. What a promising start, the base of the bike is really good as you can see with four Yamaha’s up there being competitive from the start.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Crutchlow and Dovizioso off to fast start in Qatar Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso began their preparations for the opening round of the new 1000cc MotoGP World Championship campaign in positive fashion in Qatar tonight, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders reeling off fast and competitive times throughout the opening practice session. British rider Crutchlow produced one of the standout performances of the opening night at the floodlit Losail International Circuit, having led the timesheets shortly after the halfway point of the 45-minute practice session. A lap of 1.57.601 rocketed the 26-year-old from 12th to first position and he was able to improve his pace to a 1.57.395 at the end of the session to finish in a hugely encouraging sixth position.Crutchlo w used just one soft compound rear Bridgestone tyre for the duration of the session and he is confident had he switched to fresh rubber in the final stages he could have posted an even more competitive lap time. The former World Supersport champion though was the leading non-factory rider and his best time was less than 0.5s away from the top three. Dovizioso was also satisfied with his evening’s work, the experienced Italian continuing the process of learning how to get the best out of his YZR-M1 machine in less than ideal conditions. Strong winds earlier in the day meant sand and dust had been blown onto the track from the surrounding desert landscape, and Dovizioso concentrated on improving rear grip on his way to setting the eighth fastest time. His quickest lap of 1.57.547 was less than 0.2s behind Crutchlow and he is o ptimistic of making progress up the leaderboard with a cleaner track offering more grip tomorrow night. Cal Crutchlow 6th 1.57.395 17 laps: “That’s not a bad way to start 2012 at all and I’m pretty happy to be in the top six. At the start of the session I was way down and not really going as quick as I should, but once I got my head down and got into a good rhythm I was always around the top six and that is very positive. I didn’t change anything on the bike at all and I kept the same soft rear tyre on throughout, so I’m sure had we put in a new tyre at the end like some of the others did, I could have been a bit faster and possibly inside the top four. I’d like to get the bike turning better but I’m not going to complain starting the new season inside the top six. It is a good platform to build on for the rest of the weekend and now I’m really looking forward to the race on Su nday night.” Andrea Dovizioso 8th 1.57.512 16 laps: “I’m satisfied with the first session and the feeling with the bike was immediately good. Straightaway I had a better feeling at the beginning than I did at the last test in Jerez, so we could work on improving the bike. I still need to understand how to use the maximum potential of the Yamaha. It has some very good points, which I like a lot, but I know in some parts I can be faster, particularly on the exit of the corner. We need to improve in that area but I know we have some good ideas for tomorrow and I am confident we will make the bike better. The gap to the front is quite big at the moment but tomorrow the conditions will be better and I am sure I will be much closer.”