BAD WEATHER HITS FIRST DAY OF TESTING AT JEREZ. Loris Capirossi and Casey Stoner were only able to manage a few laps today with the 800cc Ducati Desmosedici GP7. After a couple of exits apiece late in the morning, when temperatures were suitable for the start of testing, a heavy rain shower forced the Ducati Marlboro Team riders into the pits. In the afternoon, despite the fact that the rain had stopped, the track surface was far too wet to allow testing to continue. However the forecasts for tomorrow and the day after are good and hopefully this will allow the Italian squad to continue its preparations for the 2007 MotoGP championship with the Desmosedici GP7. More, from a press release issued by Honda: Rain disrupts opening day of three-day Jerez MotoGP test Unseasonably cool weather and occasional showers disrupted proceedings on the opening day of the three-day MotoGP test at Jerez. Despite the delays and a slow to dry track surface the three Honda RC212V riders in attendance at the test Dani Pedrosa, Marco Melandri and Shinya Nakano made the best of the bleak conditions to gather valuable technical data. Dani Pedrosa took the Repsol Honda out in both wet and dry conditions, his first run on the machine since he underwent minor surgery to his left arm on November 3. The diminutive Spaniard was the busiest of the three Honda men putting in 44-laps of the 4.423 km Andalusia circuit. Pedrosa’s team worked on machine balance playing with spring rates and different suspension settings plus some engine mapping settings for the difficult half-wet and half-dry conditions. However, the team refrained from trying changes to geometry as they have yet to optimise the best base line settings for dry conditions. With the rain persisting Pedrosa tested three types of rain tyre for Michelin and was pleased with their performance. Melandri, a three-time MotoGP race winner in 2006, riding the Gresini Honda RC212V, spent his dry laps fitting himself to the new riding position and learning what he could about the chassis and suspension of machine. There was no time for engine work or mapping changes to the four-cylinder RC212V. The rain offered the team ideal conditions to test the range of wet tyres that new for 2007 supplier Bridgestone brought to Jerez. Melandri, another rider returning from arm surgery, was impressed with his debut on the RC212V. “My initial impression of the new bike is favourable,” the Italian said at the end of his 36-lap stint on the four-cylinder four-stroke. New boy to Honda Shinya Nakano made his first acquaintance with both the RC212V on Michelin tyres and his new Konica Minolta team. Despite the changeable conditions the genial Japanese star was more than impressed with the RC212V. In the opening laps of his dry session Nakano confirmed his riding position and basic balance of the machine plus the Michelin tyres, Nakano’s first MotoGP excursion on the French manufacturers tyres. When the rain came he elected not to test in the wet conditions due to his lack of kilometres on the Honda. Honda rider lap times and quotes: Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 44.030s – 44 laps. 19 dry laps, 25 wet. “Today we didn’t get to test much really because of the weather, but it was useful for me to get back into the rhythm of riding a MotoGP bike after nearly one month off. If the weather is good tomorrow then I will be fine to do a full day’s practice – so today was worth it as a warm up, and the arm felt fine.” Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 44.40s – 36 laps. 10 dry laps, 24 wet. “It was a good day even when it rained. The bike is so much different to the 990cc but I like it. The feeling is almost same in some ways but the driveability much better, basically because there is less power. The 990cc always wants to push into the corners but the 800cc changes direction so much better, you can focus on riding the bike rather than fighting it into turns. I only got in about 10 laps in the dry before the rain came but I felt good on the wet surface with the Bridgestone tyres. We have two more days and I hope it stays dry because I have to learn as much as possible about this bike, we need many laps during the winter tests.” Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 46.200s – 36 laps. “I only did 17-laps so it is difficult to see everything. The engine feels positive, very smooth and the initial feeling is the handling should be good. When I first sat on the bike it didn’t feel so small but riding it did feel small and easy to move around. Tyre grip was good in the dry and I had a good feeling about that but it is far too early to say this or that is OK or not. We have two more days testing here at Jerez and I will have a better understanding of the bike when the test has finished.” Unofficial lap times: 1. Valentino Rossi, Yamaha: 1m 41.745s 2. John Hopkins, Suzuka: 1m 42.161s. 3. Colin Edwards, Yamaha: 1m 42.293s. 4. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 44.030s. 5. Loris Capirossi, Ducati: 1m 44.307s. 6. Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki: 1m 44.394s. 7. Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 44.40s. 8. Casey Stoner, Ducati: 1m 45.574s. 9. Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 46.200s. 10. Jeremy McWilliams, Ilmor SRT: 1m 47.216s. More, from a press release issued by Camel Yamaha: BAD WEATHER HINDERS MOTOGP TESTING IN JEREZ The last MotoGP test of the season got underway at the Andalucian circuit of Jerez today, with unexpectedly cold temperatures delaying the start of activity until late morning for the Yamaha duo of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards. Unfortunately, it then began to rain soon after track temperatures had risen to suitable level and Rossi and Edwards, testing Yamaha’s new prototype 800cc motorcycle side-by-side for the first time, were only able to complete a few laps in the dry. Rossi nonetheless topped the unofficial time sheets at the end of the day, posting a top time of 1’41.745 after 17 laps. Edwards was third fastest in the dry with a lap of 1’42.293 and the Texan also took the chance to try out his new bike in the wet, completing 36 laps in total before calling it a day. Sandwiched between the Yamaha pair was Suzuki rider John Hopkins, who set the second fastest time of 1’42.161 out of a total of 12 riders testing. VALENTINO ROSSI (1st 1’41.745, 16 laps) “I’m very happy to see that we have no chatter here, because we had quite a lot of problems in the first race last season. This is one of my favourite tracks and it’s a great pleasure for me to be able to ride comfortably again at it; it feels like another track compared to last March! Our new bike seems to work well and so far I am very happy with it. Unfortunately we only had time for a few laps before the bad weather stopped us just when we were about to begin to test some different things, but anyway we have made a good start. Even though the bike is clearly going well for both Colin and I at the moment, we know that we have a lot of work to do and so these next two days are going to be very important to us. I have some new stickers on my bike and a new helmet; they’re a reference to the legend of King Arthur and ‘Excalibur’! I want to show everyone that we are ready to fight back and that we’re ready to do our very best throughout these winter tests. Let’s hope the weather is good tomorrow so we can begin our task properly!” COLIN EDWARDS (3rd 1’42.293, 35 Laps) “It was pretty cold this morning, not really what we were hoping for! We had to hang around until about 11.30 before it was warm enough to go out; it’s not really such a great idea for us to ride when it’s only 18 degrees on track! Once we finally got out there things actually felt pretty good straight away and I was happy with how the bike was adapting to a different track. We’d played around a bit with the geometry in Malaysia but I think that for here we probably need to go back a bit to what Valentino had originally, just to calm the bike down a little in some of the fast corners. Once it started raining we decided to get out there and do some laps in the wet, just to get an idea of how the new bike goes in the rain. I think that was the most productive thing we did all day because, once we were running without much traction in the wet, we could see that we do have a few issues to sort out with relation to the engine braking. We did about 15 laps in the rain, played around with a few settings and started to understand what was going on. It definitely hasn’t been a wasted day, despite the weather, and we’ll carry on tomorrow and see what we can do.” Unofficial Lap Times VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Yamaha, 1’41.745 John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki, 1’42.161 COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Yamaha, 1’42.293 Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Honda, 1’44.030 Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati, 1’44.307 Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki, 1’44.394 Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda, 1’44.876 Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati, 1’45.574 Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda, 1’46.200 Jeremy McWilliams (IRE) Ilmor, 1’47.216 Vittorio Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Test Rider, 1’50.386 Alex Barros (BRA) Ducati, 1’59.078 Jerez Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005, 1’40.596 Jerez Best Lap: Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2006, 1’39.064 More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: RAIN STOPS THE KONICA MINOLTA HONDA TEAM WORK AT JEREZ The first day of test finished today at the Spanish circuit of Jerez de la Frontera. The low temperatures of this morning obliged the new KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team rider, Shinya Nakano, to take the first contacts with the new Honda RC212V equipped with Michelin tires only around midday. The Japanese rider entered the track three times and covered seventeen laps in total, then, a rain shower led the Team technical staff to stop the session in advance and postpone the working programme to the next two days hoping in the forecasted weather improvements. The first day of test had to permit Shinya to get a correct position on the new 800cc bike and make comments on the technical package but, the seventeenth laps covered, are not sufficient to give an unbiased opinion. At this point, Nakano and the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team staff will remain in Spain until November 30th and use the third day of test. For the debut of Nakano, the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team presented the Honda RC212V with the new, almost finalized, 2007 livery generating favourable comments among those present. Gianluca Montiron KONICA MINOLTA Honda General Director “Apart from the few laps covered today, we are really satisfied with the first contact we had with the 2007 reality even if we wanted to remain longer on track to get a clearer idea of our potential. I’m grateful to all sponsors for their support throughout the past season and for their will to stay with us for the next championship challenge. Nakano joined our family and we immediately appreciated his professional approach to this new adventure. This represents a great motivation for our working group and incites us to try to make further efforts to obtain remarkable results.” Shinya Nakano KONICA MINOLTA Honda Rider (1’46.200 17 laps) “Early this afternoon, the rain shower did not allow me to carry out the programme of work we planned; anyhow, the seventeen laps I covered permitted me to realize that the new Honda RC212V is very compact and suits my size perfectly. The engine is smooth and easy to control. I was also impressed by Michelin tires positively. I hope in good weather conditions for the coming two days in order to make all we planned to do here.”