From a press release issued by Jir Team Scot Honda: Last day of testing for Yuki Takahashi The third and last test day in Qatar for the 125 and 250 classes has been used by Yuki Takahashi and the JiR Team Scot squad to verify all the results from the previous days’ work. The main target of the day was to find the correct balance of the bike from both chassis settings and engine set-up. Then the rider and the technicians concentrated in the second part of the day to tyre testing. They had a number of choices of Dunlop tyres to explore and try and test in time for this weekend’s race. The Japanese rider also did some short runs, which proved useful to compare the different tyre options possible. Obviously the target is to find a tyre choice that could be the right one for the 20-lap race on Sunday. Testing restarts this Friday but this time this will be the first session of the first ‘act’ of the 2008 World Championship. Yutaka Hirano Crew chief, JiR Team Scot 250GP “Today’s weather conditions forced us to work in the direction of the setting of the carburettor on the RS250RW. This afternoon the heat was very strong and what we could do during the test was governed by this fact. Our main target of this three-day test was to find a final setting, which is precise for the race on Sunday. We know we are very close to the correct solution and also even if the lap-time of Yuki isn’t one of the best, we’re confident that the direction in which we are working is the correct one. We will use to the maximum the session on Friday to further improve the final setting and to put Yuki in the position to be competitive for the first race of the 250cc World Championship.” Yuki Takahashi Rider, JiR Team Scot 250GP HONDA RS250RW Best time: 11th – 2’02″076 “Unfortunately the heat at the end of the afternoon postponed a major part of what we had planned today, so I didn’t have the chance to make a race simulation which is my task for the end of the day. Instead we dedicated this time to find the right solution of tyres, particularly at the front. We now definitely know we have the right setting for the front suspension, but there is still a little bit we can do with the carburettor settings on the bike. I’m not worried that during the whole day I didn’t find a fast lap time on one single lap, instead I was concentrating on thinking about the race. The team is working very hard and I’m very satisfied with these tests.” Test Doha 250GP Day 3 1) Thomas Luthi Aprilia 2’00″229 2) Mika Kallio KTM 2’00″595 3) Julian Simon KTM 2’00″974 4) Hiroshi Aoyama KTM 2’01″099 5) Marco Simoncelli Gilera 2’01″245 11) Yuki Takahashi Honda 2’02″076 More, from a press release issued by Repsol Media Service: THE 2008 PRE-SEASON CONCLUDES IN QATAR FOR THE REPSOL RIDERS Julián Simón in 250cc, and Esteve Rabat in 125cc, have completed their last tests on the Losail Circuit. Julián Simón suffered a light fall with no injuries. Today, Monday 3rd March, the 125cc and 250cc riders gave the final touch to the 2008 World Motorcycling Championship pre-season. Next Friday, in this same setting, the 2008 season will kick off with the first of the Qatar GP training sessions. This shall be the first time in the history of motorcycling that a Grand Prix is held at night. Esteve Rabat on his KTM 125 FRR, and Julián Simón on his KTM 125 FRR today finished the three days of training in Losail prior to the first Grand Prix of the season. While it was Esteve Rabat who had a taste on the first day of who hard the Qatar tarmac is, today it was Simón’s turn, though fortunately he came out unscathed. Simón, who was trying out a softer front tyre with more grip, fell on curve no. 15, the fast left before the right-hand curve approaching the finish line, when his bike suddenly lost adherence. In spite of the fall, the Repsol rider continued with his training schedule using his spare bike. Rabat continued with tests on suspension, tyres, and adjusting various parts of the engine and his riding style in order to build up more speed on the Qatar track. At the end of the third and last of the training sessions, Simón completed a total of 56 laps with a best time of 2’00”974 secs. Rabat did 72 laps on the Losail track; his best time was 2’07”769 secs. KTM riders Hiroshi Aoyama and Mika Kallio, who receive technical support from Repsol, have completed their last day of training of the 2008 pre-season without incident, always maintaining positions among the fastest riders in the quarter-litre category. Quotes 250cc Julián Simón >> “It has certainly been another tough day, because we were unable to find the ideal setup, but anyway, in spite of that the team has done a very good job and we are all very aware that it’s a new bike and that we are working under quite unusual conditions. Nevertheless, today we took a step forward, and I’m confident that we’ll have a good weekend here in a few day’s time. We’ve had a postive progression over these three days and that’s what’s important. Right now I’m really looking forward to Friday, to compete in the first night World Motorcycling Grand Prix. I think they have done a great job with the lighting on the track.” 125cc Esteve Rabat >> “Another complicated day. Today the track was dirtier than previous days, there was more wind that blew a lot of dirt on the track. I was very close to falling a number of times; we still have problems with the suspension, there are still too many rebounds and we didn’t manage to finish setting up the bike. That prevented me from riding faster, the same as the first two days. I can see that those ahead of me are at a great distance for now, and we have to improve. I can’t seem to be able to ride faster on this bike. We’ll see what happens next weekend.” More, from a press release issued by KTM: Thumbs up for KTM Night Riders at Qatar tests All three KTM 250 riders set themselves up for a successful opening to the season with strong performances in the final official texts ahead of the opening GP – the first- ever night race on the Losail Racing Circuit in Qatar next weekend. Red Bull KTM star Mika Kallio rode to second place in the final night-time practice on the brightly illuminated, desert racing circuit, closely followed by Julian Simón, Spain’s hope in the newly established Team Repsol KTM while Kallio’s factory team- Hiroshi Aoyama was in fourth place. In the combined practice times of all three days, Aoyama holds sixth place (2:00.551) ahead of Kallio (2:00.595) in seventh and Simón in tenth position (2:00.974). The scene is therefore set for these three riders to be among the front runners in the fight for the 250cc world championship title. Brand new conditions Testing at night gave KTM teams and riders the opportunity to refine set-ups on the new chassis of the KTM 250 FRR and to become accustomed to the floodlighting and lower track surface temperatures which drop to just over 20° Celsius at midnight. The new chassis has proved its worth during tests at slower race tracks like in Valencia or Jerez de la Frontera and now must be measured against the fast Losail circuit with its sweeping bends and its 1.1 km-long main straight. Kallio confident Although Kallio had a couple of falls on the first of three testing days he settled in and confirmed his position as one of the top-contenders in this category. “We established a good base set-up with our new chassis at the tests in Valencia and Jerez, but we had to start all over again here in Qatar. The Losail track is faster. It has higher corner speeds but the overall grip level is lower – partly because of the sand that blow across the circuit and partly because of the lower asphalt temperatures. At first the feeling for the bike was a whole lot different then we made changes to the suspension set-up and the chassis geometry. Making the bike shorter overall helped a lot, I got a good feeling for the front end and I managed to put in a good lap time on a used rear tyre,” Mika, confirming that night riding was “no problem” for him. Highway riding Kallio’s Red Bull KTM factory teammate Hiroshi Aoyama also said he had no problem with the night riding. “It was a strange feeling to go on the race track and ride in the dark in the beginning but I got used to it after three days of testing. It feels a bit like riding on a highway!” He said concerns about lower track temperatures also turned out to be no problem. “We’ve already found the right tyre choice for the race. The different situation with a different track and a completely different ambience also lead to a different feeling for the bike, but we also managed to sort this out, and found a good set-up. There is still a lot of work ahead of us on the race. I want to go faster so we need to improve our set-up further!” Simon adjusts to lights Julian Simon from Repsol KTM said it took him a while to adjust to the floodlit course. He said that under brakes “there are a lot of irritating shadows surrounding you”. “But I rode many laps in these tests and eventually I got used to the conditions.” Simon had a crash on the fast left hand corner of the circuit on the last day but without any serious consequences. He confirmed he had “a great feeling for the bike” after the Jerez tests and underlined that the Qatar circuit needed different set-ups. All three riders said they wanted to reserve their best tyres for the race on Sunday. Strong line-ups for KTM-supported teams Esteve Rabat from Repsol KTM was without teammate Marc Marquez for the Qatar tests, who is nursing an injured arm and his team was also working hard on suspension and gear ratios to suit the Losail circuit. Pablo Nieto and Raffaele de Rosa of Onde 2000 KTM also registered times among the top 10 in the course of the three test days and other KTM riders who will definitely need to be watched are Tomoyoshi Koyama (ISPA KTM Aran team), his teammate Italian Lorenzo Zanetti and Red Bull’s own Randy Krummenacher. He crashed on day two but escaped with a sore foot and reported good progress with setups ahead of the first GP.