Catalunya MotoGP test Day two, Saturday March 4 2006 GIBERNAU IMPROVES, CAPIROSSI RECUPERATES Ducati Marlboro Team riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi had very different days at Catalunya today. While Gibernau was able to ride 82 laps and improve on his Friday best by 0.772s, Capirossi spent most of the day recuperating from a nasty stomach virus. In cloudy and slightly cooler conditions, Gibernau was happy with progress, improving the consistency of his Desmosedici GP6 by careful work on set-up and tyres. This allowed him to ride his fastest lap at the end of the day when track conditions were past their best. Capirossi only completed 15 laps after a sleepless night. Despite severe stomach pains he did ride two outings, immediately improving his best time by 0.672s and verifying the front-end geometry adjustments made to his GP6. Test rider Vittoriano Guareschi focused on engine braking to better understand yesterday’s engine-braking issues. FILIPPO PREZIOSI, Ducati Corse director “Loris wasn’t able to do much today but he did try different front-end geometry for more high-speed stability. My thanks to him for testing even when he was sick. Sete meanwhile worked his way through many different things. He tried different front-end geometry for more stability and better front feel, plus different rear-shock settings, different handlebars and, of course, different tyres. Most importantly the bike is now more consistent on lap times. We solved our engine-braking problems by going back to the set-up we used at the previous test for Loris, while Sete was able to test some new software which worked to his satisfaction. Loris will try this software tomorrow when we also hope to continue our set-up work because we still have a lot more things to try.” SETE GIBERNAU, 82 laps, 5th fastest, 1m 43.784s “Today was a tough, tough day, very physically and mentally demanding but it’s been good. We went through a lot of stuff and I’d like to thank the team and Bridgestone for giving 100 per cent and doing a great job. We are still working hard on the bike, we’ve still a way to go but we’re definitely chipping away. We worked on geometry, electronics, tyres, everything. We are making the whole package better, more predictable, more consistent, and the tyres are giving me more driveability now, which is the whole ballgame.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 15 laps, 13th fastest, 1m 44.581s “What a bad day. I didn’t sleep all night, I was sick and had stomach pains, probably because of a virus. This morning the Clinica Mobile put me on a drip, but they advised me not to ride. Anyway, I wanted to test the set-up changes we’d made. I did just two outings and that was enough to realise we had taken the right direction because I faster straight away, even though I’m sick. This is very important for tomorrow. If the dry weather stays and I’m feeling better we will be able to fully exploit our last day here.” Temperatures: Ambient: 19 degrees C. Track: 20 degrees C More, from a press release issued by Dorna: Rossi and Checa continue to impress at MotoGP Official Test Valentino Rossi was once again the fastest rider at the MotoGP Official Test, with a dominant display at the Circuit de Catalunya. Already yesterday’s fastest on track, he took just under twenty minutes to top the timesheets today, with a fast lap of 1’43.704 coming at 1pm local time. Amongst those to take to the track early this morning were Sete Gibernau, Alex Hofmann and Hopkins, with Rossi the last to make an appearance at the Spanish circuit. Weather conditions all day were gloomy and overcast but luckily no rain fell, although the cloudy skies caused temperatures to drop from yesterday on the track. With many riders breaking for lunch, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa crashed out on turn four. The incident left the Spaniard uninjured, but forced him to ride on his second bike for the rest of the session. Rossi continued to ride fast, but later in the afternoon the top spot on the leaderboard was exchanged rapidly between four riders. Colin Edwards set a lap of 1’43.388, but just minutes later Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano put in a flying lap of 1’43.245 to snatch the position. Carlos Checa continued his tremendous preseason form by breaking the circuit record. The Spaniard has so far been the surprise story of the Official Test, yesterday completing an all-Yamaha top three and today going one better. Fifteen minutes after setting his fastest lap though, Checa saw Rossi break the 1’43 second barrier and pip him to first place. Behind the top four of Rossi, Checa, Nakano and Edwards, there were three other riders to lap quicker than 1’44: Ducati’s Sete Gibernau, French rookie Randy de Puniet on the Kawasaki and Suzuki’s John Hopkins. Completing the top ten were the three fastest Honda riders of the day. HRC rider Nicky Hayden clocked the eighth fastest lap of the day ahead of Makoto Tamada and Dani Pedrosa. Some light rain is predicted for tomorrow, which will be both the final day of the Official Test and the scene of the BMW M Award competition, which starts at 2pm local time and will see the riders compete to earn the fastest lap in a 40 minute session. The winner of this action-packed race against the clock will receive a brand new BMW Z4 M Roadster. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing: TOP THREE FOR NAKANO IN CATALUNYA Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano mastered difficult conditions today, at a cold and windy Catalunya, to finish the second day of the annual IRTA test with the third fastest time overall. Nakano started the day with shakedown tests on the latest specification Ninja ZX-RR engine, before switching to his second bike, and an earlier version motor, to continue tyre testing with Bridgestone. The 28-year-old Japanese rider lapped consistently throughout the day, rarely dropping outside of the top six, before securing third position on the timesheet with his final flying lap. Despite still suffering from the effects of a heavy landing after highsiding his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR yesterday, Randy de Puniet also made significant improvements to his lap time, eventually finishing sixth fastest and ahead of a number of more experienced factory MotoGP riders. Like his Kawasaki teammate, de Puniet also dedicated most of today’s session to tyre testing, as the 25-year-old Frenchman and Bridgestone worked to complete their test schedule in the dry, but cold, conditions. Today saw a strong performance from both Kawasaki riders, and one that stands Nakano and de Puniet in good stead for tomorrow’s traditional qualifying competition. The fastest rider during a timed, one hour session tomorrow afternoon will leave Catalunya with a brand new car, courtesy of series sponsors, BMW – a prize both Kawasaki riders have said they would be happy to collect! Shinya Nakano: #56 – 3rd (1’43.245) “This is a new experience, both for me and the team. In the past we have struggled to achieve a good result at this first European test, but today everything came together and we finished top three on the timesheet. For sure, we have to do the same tomorrow during the last day, but this result has provided a real boost to the team, all of whom have worked so hard to get us to this point. And we think there is more to come, because we still have a further evolution of the Ninja ZX-RR engine to test in Jerez next week. I also managed to do some tyre testing for Bridgestone today, but it is difficult to evaluate tyre performance when the track temperature is so low. Hopefully we can continue to improve tomorrow, although it looks like the rain that we managed to avoid today will definitely make an appearance for tomorrow’s qualifying session.” Randy de Puniet: #17 – 6th (1’43.847) “This morning I was a little bit sore from my big crash yesterday, but the only place it was really noticeable was through the first split, where I was losing a little bit of time. This morning we concentrated on tyre testing with Bridgestone; with most of the tyres we tried offering some improvement despite the cold track conditions. Last thing this afternoon I tried a couple of laps on a qualifying tyre, and I’m happy with the lap times, but again I was losing a little bit of time on the first part of the track because of the soreness in my lower back and my ankle. I hope that it stays dry for tomorrow, as I’m confident that I can make further improvements before we head for the next test at Jerez.” Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager “Today we ran shakedown tests with Shinya and Randy on the latest specification engine, with positive results, and we’ll continue testing with this engine when we move on to Jerez for the second IRTA test next week. Conditions today haven’t been ideal for testing, but both riders are happy with the base set-up on their respective bikes and we have managed to collect development data for Bridgestone, despite the low track temperature. We’ve pushed to complete our test schedule as quickly as possible because of the threat of rain, so tomorrow we have a few things to evaluate, but the main focus will be on the qualifying session in the afternoon.” More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Honda: FORTUNA HONDA COMPLETE SECOND DAY OF OFFICIAL TESTS MOTOGP TEST CATALUNYA, day 2 FORTUNA HONDA riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elías completed their second day of official testing duties at the Circuit de Catalunya in cold weather conditions today. The two riders worked hard throughout the day although at the end they were forced to settle for twelfth and seventeenth position respectively. Marco was able to complete the programme he had for today although he was unable to reach the desired results. The Italian, who produced a stunning run of form at the end of last season to seal second place in the championship, knocked a fraction of a second off his time from yesterday but that was not enough to leave him satisfied at the end of the day. His team-mate Toni Elías, who is riding a MotoGP bike for the first time at this track, was unable to improve on the 1’44.672 he clocked yesterday. Tomorrow the riders will have the opportunity to demonstrate their potential in front of thousands of spectators, who will flock to the track to enjoy the timed BMW Award session which runs from 14:05 until 14:45. MARCO MELANDRI (76 laps, 1’44.512) 12th fastest: “They’ve been two very tough days for us but we’ve still got a long way to go. I’m struggling to find the ideal feeling to enter the corners comfortably and I still need to improve my corner speed and line. Fortunately we’ve still got four days of tests left before the first race at Jerez. I’m disappointed we are not at the level we would like to be at but I still look forward to this season with optimism.” TONI ELIAS ( 70 laps, 1’45.782 ) 17th fastest “Yesterday we saw one side of the coin and today we saw the other. This wasn’t a great day for us even though we worked really hard to make it that way. We had a few grip problems and the track temperature didn’t help much either. We can’t use that as an excuse though because it was the same track for everybody. We tried a few different tyres without finding the ideal one but I’m sure we will find it through hard work. I actually felt more comfortable on the bike yesterday.” More, from a press release issued by Camel Yamaha: YAMAHA MEN CONTINUE TO DOMINATE ON SECOND DAY AT CATALUNYA Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi clocked the fastest time once again on the second day of MotoGP Official Test at the Catalunya Circuit in Spain, after another encouraging session for Yamaha. With Rossi again setting the pace for much of the day, closely followed by his team-mate Colin Edwards, the pair took advantage of the warm afternoon conditions to continue to run through their pre-season testing programme at an impressive rate. Edwards ended the day with the fourth fastest time after briefly leading the time sheets in the closing stages, shaving seven tenths of a second off his best time from yesterday and making continued progress with the race set-up of his YZR-M1 machine. Rossi lapped 1.2 seconds faster than he had managed yesterday, closing in on lap record time as both riders prepare an assault on tomorrow’s timed 40-minute session, which will reward the fastest lap with the prize of a new car. Meanwhile, Yamaha Tech 3 rider Carlos Checa continued his impressive pre-season form with the second fastest time of the day. VALENTINO ROSSI (1st, 1’42.477, 72 laps) “To go so fast so early in the test yesterday was the big surprise to us, so today we have just built on that and continued to make improvements. We completed some more important tests and the base setting is good now – we had a few problems with chatter earlier in the pre-season but we seem to have solved those now and today the lap times became faster and faster. I’m also really happy because, to me, this bike feels like my daughter and now I can see it is going well for other riders Colin and Carlos both love it. Looking at the time sheets this evening of course I am in with a good chance for the new car, but tomorrow is another day and we will have to see what happens. Hopefully the weather will stay as it has done for the last couple of days and we can complete the whole programme we had planned for this test in a positive way.” COLIN EDWARDS (4th, 1’43.388, 65 laps) “We had a few things to test today and every step we made seemed to take us in a positive direction, so I couldn’t be happier really. The bike is getting better and better and we just keep improving so that is all I can ask for. The cool track temperatures mean that we can’t do much for Michelin here so we’re just focusing on the bike and refining the setting as much as we can before Jerez. We played with the suspension and the engine mapping a little today but we had no major dramas and the 65 laps went by really quickly. Right now I feel we’re ready to go racing so it’s just a case of adding the finishing touches.” DAVIDE BRIVIO CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR “Another good day for Yamaha! It is nice to see our bikes at the top end of the time sheets the riders are doing a great job and the team are able to stick closely to the testing programme. We had some items to test for Michelin and Yamaha today mainly with the chassis setting to try and improve the variables of the bike. We got some good information together and now we’re ready for the challenge tomorrow. Really the car is not so important but it would be nice to start the year in a positive way and both our riders are ready to compete for it.” Lap Times 1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’42.477 2. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1’43.142 3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1’43.245 4. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’43.388 5. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1’43.784 6. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1’43.847 7. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1’43.970 8. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’44.029 9. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 1’44.246 10. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’44.369 11. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts, 1’44.407 12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1’44.512 13. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team,1’44.581 14. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1’45.001 15. James Ellison (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1’45.488 16. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) D’Antin Pramac, 1’45.582 17. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 1’45.782 18. Alex Hoffman (GER) D’Antin Pramac, 1’46.185 19. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati, 1’48.205 Catalunya Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 1’43.195 Catalunya Best Lap: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005 1’42.337 More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing: MotoGP test Catalunya. Day two of three-day test, March 4, 2006. Nicky Hayden again fastest RCV rider at IRTA Catalunya test. Repsol Honda rider was again the fastest Honda RC211V rider of the day at the IRTA test at Catalunya. Hayden shaved two-tenths of a second off his best time of yesterday despite struggling to find rear wheel grip in the cold and blustery conditions at the 4.727 km Spanish GP circuit, close to Barcelona. American Hayden is putting in a mammoth stint each day of testing as he runs through a heavy HRC test programme with the 2006 RCV. Despite the low temperatures and high winds Hayden managed to get in a staggering 107 las today. Dani Pedrosa, on the second Repsol Honda, improved his time by over half a second but crashed just after lunch. The youngster lost the front end of his RCV entering turn four but escaped injury and was quickly back on track and up to pre-crash speed. The Fortuna Honda riders experienced mixed fortunes with their efforts to improve performance. Italian Marco Melandri was faster than yesterday but he struggled to come to grips with the new Michelin rear tyre. Melandri had been the Honda man to catch during the winter test series but the ideal RCV set up on the previous best Michelin rear proved to be way off the mark for the latest upgraded product from the French tyre supplier. Melandri’s team-mate, Toni Elias was a full second off his best time of yesterday struggling from a lack of rear wheel grip. The young Spaniard tried a range of Michelin tyres but was never comfortable on his RCV today. Japanese star Makoto Tamada improved his performance on the Konica Minolta Honda taking half a second off his best time of yesterday. Tamada tried the new Michelin rear tyre but found he needed to do a lot of work on the base set up of his RCV before he began to get the best out of he tyre. Despite some improvement Tamada feels he still has a lot of work to do if he is to get the best out of the new tyres. Team Roberts had an up and down day with the KR211V. The team started the day with the all-new third generation Roberts chassis but struggled to find grip in the morning and decided to test the old chassis in a bid to determine where their problem lay. They made progress with finding grip around mid-day transferring the data to the new chassis and ended the close to where they need to be at this stage of the three-ay test. Honda rider lap times and quotes. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 44.029s 107 laps. “We spent a lot of time working with the new chassis today and testing some improved parts that Honda has brought from Japan. The bike’s now really stable on the brakes and turning into the corner is much better, so we’re getting there. It’s still moving around a bit on the exit of corners and better traction is something we’re working on. We’re moving forward though and we’ve still got a lot of stuff to try.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 44.369s 71 laps. “Today was good and not so good because we were making some progress, I was getting a better feel with the bike on this track, and then I crashed. Physically I’m ok but I think the bike is not in such good shape! I lost the front entering turn four and I think maybe it’s because I was using too much brake into the corner. I went out again and I was able to get up to speed again so I feel ok.” Makoto Tanaka Repsol Honda Team Manager “We had quite a busy and a hard day today. Nicky did a very good job, especially working on the frame, and he did a lot of laps just like yesterday. Dani, I think he learned a lot today! He continued to build up his MotoGP experience and tried some chassis set-up work today. His speed improved well but unfortunately he fell off this afternoon when he tried to up the pace. But I’m happy because he is ok. We are not totally satisfied with the result today but we did some good testing here and I’m looking forward to seeing both Nicky and Dani ride well tomorrow.” Marco Melandri, Repsol Honda: 1m 44.512s 76 laps.”They’ve been two very tough days for us but we’ve still got a long way to go. I’m struggling to find the ideal feeling to enter the corners comfortably and I still need to improve my corner speed and line. Fortunately we’ve still got four days of tests left before the first race at Jerez. I’m disappointed we are not at the level we would like to be at but I think I can still look forward to this season with optimism.” Toni Elias, Repsol Honda: 1m 45.782s 70 laps. “Yesterday we saw one side of the coin and today we saw the other. This wasn’t a great day for us even though we worked really hard to make it that way. We had a few grip problems and the track temperature didn’t help much either. We can’t use that as an excuse though because it was the same track for everybody. We tried a few different tyres without finding the ideal one but I’m sure we will find it through hard work. I actually felt more comfortable on the bike yesterday.” Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 1m 44.246s 63 laps. “The performance of today has got better, but we are still far from the top standing positions. It seems the fastest riders have found the right setting to obtain the best performances of the new 2006 tyres. Today, we have started testing the new rear Michelin tyres but, to be effective as I would like to be in the central phase of the corner, I still have some little problems to solve. At this juncture, the bike behaviour is completely different from last year and we need much more time to find the best configuration. Anyway, I am satisfied because I could verify that the global potential of our technical package is definitely high.” Giulio Bernardelle Konica Minolta Honda Technical Director “Today, for the first time in 2006, we could use the new rear Michelin tyres. For sure, a good step ahead in the global performance has been done but the first impression is that the bike needs an absolute specific setting in order to obtain all its potential. In the second half of this afternoon, we have only been able to start this work getting a first improvement in performances. The problem to be solved is that the grip increase of the rear tyre leads to a non-perfect balance of the bike up to the corner central phase. For this, we should attain to adjust our Honda RC211V bike.” Kenny Roberts Junior, KR Honda: 1m 44.407s 71 laps. “We just couldn’t find grip with the new chassis early this morning and went back to the chassis we ran at the last Sepang test. That chassis has been modified and brought up to close on new bike spec. We got it too work pretty good and used the data on the new bike and ended the day with both chassis’ working pretty much the same. But I don’t think we will have two bikes with the same frames and performance before we get to the Jerez race.”