SUPER-FAST DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM AT JEREZ. Capirossi and Gibernau ahead of everyone both on race and qualifying tyres in the last of the three MotoGP test days. A very positive day for the Ducati Marlboro Team today at Jerez. In warm and sunny conditions, Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau put the finishing touches to their Desmosedici GP6s before the World Championship opener on this same circuit in 2 weeks time. Using qualifying tyres, Loris improved on his new lap record and also lowered last year’s Pole Position time. Sete also did a very good job, continuing to bond with his new team. Both riders now can’t wait for the racing to start. It was also the last work day in Spain for the factory test rider, Vittoriano Guareschi, riding with the Development Team. Livio Suppo, Ducati MotoGP Project Manager “We can only be happy with how things went in these three days of tests. We must thank Loris and Sete who once again proved just how strong they are! We are now getting ready for the first race, we are aware that it’s not going to be as easy as it might look after today, but we are certainly confident. The Ducati Corse engineers did a great job, back at the factory and at the tracks, and so did the Bridgestone engineers who made remarkable progress during the winter. However, this championship level is so high that we just cannot relax. I would also like to thank all our technical partners and Shell Advance in particular.” Loris CAPIROSSI (laps: 56 – Best time on qualifying tyres 1’39.411 – Best time on race tyres: 1’40.296) “Three very positive days for us. We are well prepared for the season opener and I am very happy. My Desmosedici responded well to all the set-up modifications that we introduced and now it’s perfect on this track. It is not easy to find the perfect set-up for our GP6, but once it’s done, we have a great bike. In any case, I think that the work done in the past few days will be important and useful on other tracks too, and it will be a good starting point for the season that is about to begin. Today we’ve been a little bit faster than yesterday: doing 40.2 on race tyres is quite an achievement! We improved our pace too, I’m satisfied. I enjoyed riding on qualifying tyres and I was fast. We must keep our feet on the ground because the others will improve also but, now we can only enjoy this good ending to our winter tests! I’d like to thank Bridgestone for the great job done in these months and everyone at Ducati Corse. Our boys are really strong!” Sete GIBERNAU (laps: 87 – Best time on qualifying tyres 1’39.663 – Best time on race tyres: 1’40.744) “It was a long, hard day and we tested a lot of new things on the bike and with the tyres. Generally speaking, it went well although we took a bit too long finding the right way to go and there was a little confusion at some point. I would like to thank my team for the very good job done, I’m happy with the way the pre-season testing ended. Bridgestone also proved to be very competitive and very responsive. They brought the right material to allow us to be both up to pace on race tyres and very fast on qualifying tyres here. I would like to thank everybody because we’re working so well together. Now I can’t wait for the new season to start!” Temperatures: Air 24°, Track 38° More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Capirossi confirms candidature at final MotoGP preseason test On a day in which preseason testing drew to a close for MotoGP, the crowds at the Jerez circuit in southern Spain saw veteran Loris Capirossi demonstrate why he is a serious title contender for 2006. The Ducati rider today earned the fastest lap of the three day MotoGP Official Test, a 1’39.411 which knocked eight milliseconds off Valentino Rossi’s 2005 pole position record. “The truth is that a lot of things have changed since we tested in November. We have improved in many areas and now we have a bike which is very competitive here, we can go round fast and have a good rhythm. We are hoping that things go well for us at the Grand Prix in less than two weeks,” explained Capirossi. The Italian was also fastest on Friday’s session at the Andalusian circuit, just ahead of team-mate Sete Gibernau, a feat which was mirrored in today’s final outing. Gibernau was the only other rider to break the 1’40 barrier, and the Ducati one-two is a positive sign for both the team and their tyre suppliers Bridgestone. Further good news came for the Japanese tyre brand in third place, as after topping the timesheets yesterday, Shinya Nakano was once again in fine form onboard the Kawasaki Ninja. He was joined in the top five by fellow Kawasaki rider and MotoGP rookie Randy de Puniet, who was fifth. Another rookie to place highly was Spaniard Dani Pedrosa. The reigning 250cc champion put in the fourth fastest lap a second off that of Capirossi, but will be pleased at the amount of miles he has been able to put in on the RC211V this weekend. Team-mate Nicky Hayden was the next highest Honda rider in sixth, ahead of countryman Colin Edwards. Edwards’ Yamaha was part of a group of three bikes to go round within a tenth of each other. Immediately behind the Texan was Toni Elias, at his home circuit and the final Honda to place in the top ten, who in turn was closely pursued by yet another strong rookie showing, Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen. Completing the top ten on the timesheets was reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi. The charismatic Italian was one and a half seconds behind Capirossi on a day where many teams were focusing their energies on tyre testing. It will only be with the first free practices and race of the season, which will take place at the Circuito de Jerez in two weeks’ time, that the true potential of the title contenders will become apparent. However today’s final day of testing, under dry sunny conditions with a temperature of around 25 degrees, has served as a tasty appetiser ahead of March 26th’s main course, the Gran Premio betandwin.com de España. More information on today’s results and tomorrow’s final day can be found at www.motogp.com More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: HARALD ECKL: “WE ARE READY TO GO!” Shinya Nakano again proved the competitiveness of Kawasaki’s all-new Ninja ZX-RR, by finishing with the third fastest time overall, as the final day of the IRTA test at Jerez saw a dramatic increase in pace by the frontrunners. Nakano was closely followed by his Kawasaki teammate, Randy de Puniet, who waited until the closing stages before putting in a flying lap that saw him jump up the timesheet to finish an impressive fifth fastest. Conditions were perfect at Jerez today, with warm and sunny weather greeting the teams and thousands of fans, as they arrived at the Jerez circuit for the final MotoGP pre-season test before the championship gets underway in two weeks time. With tyre choice at Jerez critical, Nakano again started his test schedule working together with the Bridgestone technicians to confirm his choice of potential race tyres for the opening round of the season. The 28-year-old Japanese rider also evaluated some small changes to the fuel injection system on his Ninja ZX-RR, before trying two different qualifying tyres in the last 30 minutes of the test. On his second run on a qualifier, and with just five minutes of the test remaining, Nakano shaved over half-a-second off the lap record, to finish this final test with the third fastest time overall. De Puniet used this morning’s test session to evaluate different suspension options on his Ninja ZX-RR, but switched back to his previous set-up after struggling to match his pace from yesterday. The 25-year-old Frenchman lapped consistently throughout the afternoon, bettering his previous best time on race tyres at the end of his final ten-lap run. Like his teammate, de Puniet waited until the very end of the test before trying two different qualifying tyres, with his final flying lap elevating him to a position on the timesheet that few expected the MotoGP rookie to achieve in such a short space of time. The Jerez IRTA test brings to a conclusion an exhausting series of winter tests for the Kawasaki Racing Team, the intensity of which has been magnified with the introduction of the all-new Ninja ZX-RR at Valencia back in November last year. During the course of the winter the Kawasaki Racing Team have travelled three times to the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, and once to Phillip Island in Australia, to test with regular Grand Prix riders Nakano and de Puniet. Almost simultaneously development tests have been ongoing in Japan, with former 250GP rider Naoki Matsudo shouldering the testing duties. European Test and Development rider, Olivier Jacque, has also completed two test sessions at the Doha circuit in Qatar since the MotoGP testing ban ended in January. The results of this intensive test schedule have been clearly seen during the IRTA tests at Catalunya and Jerez, with the latest version of Kawasaki’s Ninja ZX-RR providing Nakano and de Puniet with a competitive package that is capable of running consistently in the top six on race tyres. After three days of testing and fine-tuning, both Kawasaki riders leave Jerez confident that, when they return for the opening race of the season in just two weeks time, they’ll be able to run at the front of the race, with a podium finish a more realistic prospect than at this same race 12 months ago. Shinya Nakano: 3rd – 1’39.776 (82 Laps) “Yesterday I felt like we still needed to take another step forward, so today we spent a lot of time looking for the last small improvements from the suspension, the fuel injection system and also from the tyres. I’m happy to say we found it, but then everyone else improved towards the end of the test, so we now need to make another small step during practice and qualifying for the opening race here. We know that some of the guys who didn’t have such a good test here will be quick to improve once the season starts, so we can’t afford to rest on our laurels. Having said that, after such a successful test schedule over the past months, we will arrive at the first race with higher expectations than we have had in the past, and I’m confident that, in the 2006 Ninja ZX-RR, we have a package that will enable me to improve upon my fifth place in this race last year.” Randy de Puniet: 5th – 1’40.468 (95 Laps) “Today was quite hard. This morning we tried some different suspension components and settings on the bike, but it wasn’t so easy to find a good feeling with the bike set-up this way, even after 55 laps. In the afternoon we switched back to the previous set-up and that definitely improved things. I managed to improve my lap time on race tyres, and my times were pretty consistent throughout. At the end of the day I tried two different qualifying tyres, and again I was able to improve my time from yesterday. I’m happy to finish fifth fastest today, but I know that I still have a lot of work to do this season; learning the circuits again on a MotoGP bike, and also learning how best to manage the race. The whole team have done a great job helping me adapt to the Ninja ZX-RR during testing, and I’m looking forward to returning to Jerez for my first MotoGP race, where I hope I can repay all their hard work with a good result.” Harald Eckl: Team Principal “What can I say, other than that we are ready to go! Both the team and the riders are in excellent shape for the start of the 2006 season. We’ve done our homework, confirmed everything during a successful winter test schedule, and now we’re ready to start racing. I’m looking forward to travelling back to Jerez for the first race, and I’m confident that the team will acquit themselves well.” More, from a press release issued by Camel Yamaha: RE-SEASON TESTING DRAWS TO A CLOSE IN JEREZ Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards completed their final pre-season test in Jerez today in front of hordes of Spanish fans, after riding thousands of kilometres during a total of fifteen days’ testing since January. Following a strong showing at the Barcelona Test last week, the Camel Yamaha Team’s preparations have suffered something of a set back here and both riders have been hampered by vibration problems throughout the three days of this test. Despite not making as many improvements as they had hoped today, important information has been gathered over the three days which will hopefully enable the Yamaha engineers and Michelin to come up with a solution for the impending race. The time-sheets were topped today br Ducati duo Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau, with Capirossi lapping under Rossi’s pole-time from 2005 with a lap of 1’39.411. Rossi, Edwards and the Camel Yamaha Team now have the chance to relax at home for ten days before they return to this circuit for the season-opening Spanish Grand Prix on 26th March. COLIN EDWARDS (7th, 1’40.721, 82 laps) “It would be nice if I could say that we’ve solved all our problems today, but sadly it’s just not the case and we’re still struggling a bit. I think we’ve really gone in circles a bit here. We’ve changed a lot of things and we haven’t really concentrated on a race simulation or the endurance of the tyre, we’ve just been trying to find ways to dial out the problems we have. To be honest our pace isn’t bad but it’s certainly not a winning pace, which is frustrating when we saw in Barcelona last weekend how great our package is when it’s all working! Yamaha and Michelin have more than enough information after three days and I am confident that they will come back with something to solve our problems. Anyway, that’s it for testing! I’m heading home for ten days to chill out a little bit and let’s hope that the new stuff we have when we come back for the race will help us out so we can challenge for a win.” VALENTINO ROSSI (10th, 1’40.907, 83 laps) “There were so many people here today, it was like a race! Of course it’s really nice to have so many spanish fans, but today it’s been quite difficult for me even to go from the hospitality to the team truck! Yesterday I was confident that we could find some big improvements today but honestly that hasn’t happened and now I am quite worried. The vibration has remained and at the moment we don’t know how to solve it. Yamaha and Michelin have done a lot of good work today and we’ve tried many different tyres and settings, but we are still slow. This is the last test and throughout the whole pre-season period we’ve always been fast and the bike has felt good, but this test has been completely different. At the moment I am not sure what will happen in the race, we’ll have to wait and see. I hope that Jeremy, together with the Japanese engineers and the Michelin technicians, can use all the data they have now to understand the problem and see how to solve it.” DAVIDE BRIVIO CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR “After this test we don’t know how the race will go, but it’s been very important to have this chance to test before it. As the riders say, we’ve tried many different things and collected a lot of information. Now our engineers will have ten days to work on this and come up with some new ideas and solutions. This is the end of winter testing and we’ve seen that our bike can work very well at different tracks. We need to understand why this hasn’t been the case here, but we’re convinced we can find a way forward and we know that we still have a very good package.” Lap Times: 1. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1’39.411 2. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1’39.663 3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1’39.776 4. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’40.416 5. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1’40.468 6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’40.570 7. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’40.721 8. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 1’40.732 9. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1’40.750 10. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’40.907 11. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1’41.134 12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1’41.208 13. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1’41.208 14. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 1’41.380 15. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts, 1’41.673 16. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) D’Antin Pramac, 1’41.761 17. Alex Hofmann (GER) D’Antin Pramac, 1’42.034 18. James Ellison (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1’42.686 19. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati, 1’42.759 20. Tadayuki Okada (JPN) HRC, 1’43.513 Jerez Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 1’40.596 Jerez Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 1’39.419 More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Honda: THE FORTUNA HONDA RIDERS END PRE-SEASON TESTING IN SATISFYING STYLE AT THE CIRCUIT OF JEREZ FOTUNA HONDA riders Toni Elias and Marco Melandri today completed their pre-season testing schedule ahead of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship. The riders made the most of excellent conditions and spent the entire day lapping at the final IRTA session of the pre-season. The Fortuna duo both spent the day working on a set-up for the first GP of the season to be held at this same track in a couple of weeks time. Toni Elias ended a very positive day by testing different Michelin compound tyres which performed well, although the Spaniard’s main aim was once again to improve his own rhythm. In general terms things went very well for Elias who got through 100 laps and posted the eighth quickest lap of the day with a time of 1’40.753. TONI ELIAS (100 laps, 1’40.753, 8th fastest lap): “Today we concluded our pre-season testing plans. My evaluation of the work done by all the team is very positive, in that respect I’m very satisfied. We have improved steadily which has allowed us to lap faster and also helped me feel more comfortable on the bike which I think is the most important thing. I must thank Michelin for all the work they have done. I can’t wait to race here at Jerez in front of these great fans – the atmosphere here during race weekends is really fantastic.” MARCO MELANDRI (82 laps, 1’41.208, 12th fastest lap): “Overall we are very satisfied with the close work we have done with Michelin. I must say I am very happy with the performance of the 2006 tyres. In the afternoon i covered part of the race distance and i posted my best time of the day, (1’41.208) on my 12th lap. our race rhythm has improved and i think we are not too far from what can be the race pace during the gp. We still have to improve further, but I am confident.” More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing Information: Pedrosa and Hayden end final MotoGP test in positive mood MotoGP pre-season testing came to a close when the teams and riders ended their three-day IRTA test at Jerez today. The next time they fire up their 990cc four-stroke grand prix machines it will mark the start of the 17-round world championship which opens on the same 4.423 km Jerez circuit on March 26. Honda fields its youngest ever senior class line up for a championship campaign this year. The six RCV riders have a good balance between youth and experience averaging 23 years of age, with Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner the youngest at 20, Makoto Tamada the elder statesman at 29. Nicky Hayden 24, Marco Melandri 23, and Toni Elias, a 24 year old complete the line up. In addition Team Roberts have chosen Honda power for their all-new for the 2006 season KR211V. The RCV engine housed in a Team Roberts built rolling chassis. Kenny Roberts Jnr will race the machine he has helped develop since the drawing board stage. On the last day of the three-day test the Repsol Honda pairing of Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden set the pace for their fellow RC211V riders to chase. Pedrosa ended the day with a flourish setting fourth fastest time of the day, Hayden a tenth of a second behind in sixth. Both riders worked hard on race simulations using the latest Michelin rubber. While Hayden feels he improved the rear end of his all-new 2006 factory machine he hopes for more feeling from the machine at the grand prix. MotoGP debutante Pedrosa is on a fast learning curve but ends winter testing in better shape than he could have hoped for. The young Spaniard has improved each time out on the 240 hp plus RC211V but the real test comes when he returns to Jerez to race. Fortuna Honda riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elias emerged from the final day of testing in confident mood. Both men spent the day tyre testing running a series of tests on 2006 race rubber. Melandri set his fastest time of the day on lap 12 of a 15-lap session on race tyres. While Elias worked his way through an intensive tyre testing programme ending the day more as one with his RCV than at any time during winter testing. Makoto Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda) ended the day faster than yesterday but the gritty Japanese rider is still searching for the optimum base setting for his RCV. He is still trying to eliminate the chatter problems he ran into yesterday. Kenny Roberts Jnr ended the test with fifth fastest time aboard the KR211V. Roberts spent the day gathering as much data as possible for the team before they return to their UK base to decide upon the next phase of chassis development. Honda rider Lap times and quotes. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 40.570s – 109 laps. “Well all the testing’s all over and now it’s time for the real deal. Next time we get on the bikes it’ll be showtime. I’d like to say we’re right there and everything’s all gravy but the truth is still couldn’t quite get the bike to stay in line and get hooked up as good as we wanted. We’ve made some progress today and at the end we put on some soft tyres, not qualifiers, just to see what it would do and that definitely helped my lap time a lot. And I did a full race run to get a feeling but I it was hard to maintain the pace. Nonetheless, I’m excited to go racing. Testing’s cool but going toe-to-toe with the boys is the fun part!.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 40.416s – 81 laps. “It’s been a very good pre-season for me because each time on the bike I’ve been able to improve step-by-step. I did a lot of laps over the winter and this is very useful to get to know the bike because the step up from the 250 to MotoGP is much bigger than the step from 125 to 250. Physically I’m getting stronger and this will continue throughout the year. I’m starting to understand how the tyres work, though I need more experience with the electronics, on race starts and qualification tyres. I don’t know if I’m ready for round one – we’ll have to wait and see!” Makoto Tanaka – Repsol Honda Team Manager. “We have worked through a demanding menu of testing here, in readiness for the up-coming Spanish GP. Both Nicky and Dani have done lots of laps. Thanks to all of our staff, they all worked very hard during this pre-season test schedule. Dani showed very good progress today, especially with his consistency during the long run with race tyres. Dani made good progress, more than what we hoped, so we are very much looking forward to the opening race. We are the quickest Michelin runner throughout three days of testing here and Nicky showed good speed and he gave us the top two times of the Michelin runners. But Nicky hasn’t got the perfect set-up yet and we still have a lot of work to do to improve his machine for the race. We have some positive feeling from a good race tyre pace but still need more hard work. We’ll do our best to ensure a good race here in Jerez.” Toni Elias, Fortuna Honda: 1m 40.753s – 101 laps. “Today we concluded our pre-season testing plans. My evaluation of the work done by all the team is very positive, in that respect I’m very satisfied. We have improve steadily which has allowed us to lap faster and also helped me feel more comfortable on the bike, which I think is the most important thing. I must thank Michelin for all the work they have done. I can’t wait to race here at Jerez in front of these great fans the atmosphere here during race weekends is really fantastic.” Marco Melandri, Fortuna Honda: 1m 41.208s – 82 laps. “Overall we are very satisfied with the close work we have done with Michelin. I must say I am very happy with the performance of the tyres. At around midday I posted my best time of the day, (1m 41.208s), on my 12th lap. We still have to improve further, but I am confident.” Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolts Honda: 1m 41.380s – 88 laps. “These three days test have been useful to define the setting to use for the race but I am not completely satisfied because we did not completely solve the chattering problem I felt yesterday. Actually, today I have been able to slightly improve the performance and, above all, I run more constantly on the 1’41” pace. In order to be absolutely competitive, in the two days of Grand Prix tests we should find the way to better our performance of approximately 0.5seconds a lap.” Giulio Bernardelle – Konica Minolta Honda Technical Director “Even today we have continued testing different suspensions setting solutions, working in particular on the swing arm and attempting to solve the chattering problem annoying Makoto in the last braking phase. As concerns the choice of the race tyres, we have nearly defined the front one while we still have to work on the rear tyre. We have tried to make the most of the time we had at our disposal to define the race setting deciding not to test with a qualifying setting. Apart from this, we still have some work to do that we intend to complete in the first two free practice hours of the first Grand Prix of the Championship.” Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR Honda: 1m 41.673s – 108 laps. Team Manager Chuck Aksland said: “We ran with pretty much the same stuff we ran yesterday just confirming a few things we learned so far and we got some quality data at the end of the day. The chassis is working well but now we have to study what we have before moving forward.” More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki: Vermeulen continues impressive learning curve at Jerez Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer Chris Vermeulen continued his consistent pre-season improvement today as he set his fastest time of the weekend, during the last day of testing at Jerez in Spain. Vermeulen clocked a best time of 1’40.750 using a Bridgestone qualifying tyre and recorded the ninth quickest time overall. The young Australian rider was at Jerez for the first time in his career and continued to impress over the three day test. He completed 77 laps today and worked tirelessly with his technicians to improve chassis settings and rear grip on his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R. John Hopkins tested a completely new experimental chassis on his bike today. The Anglo-American was so determined to concentrate on getting the best results from the GSV-R in race spec, that he gave up the chance of using qualifying tyres to make sure that the team and factory technicians will have as much data as possible to evaluate before the start of the season. His best time of 1’41.305 was set on Bridgestone race tyres and gave him 13th place overall from his 71 laps although his time was still one and a half seconds quicker than his fastest race lap from last year. Today’s quickest time was set by Loris Capirossi on a Ducati, also on Bridgestone tyres. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will now re-visit and analyse all the results from the pre-season tests to make sure that everything will be the best it can be when the 2006 MotoGP World Championship kicks off at Jerez on Sunday 26th March. Chris Vermeulen: “I’ve enjoyed this test, even though I felt I hit a bit of a brick wall today. I managed to get consistently in the high one minute 41 seconds bracket on race tyres but I just couldn’t find that extra bit to bring my times down further although my team did keep reminding me that this is my first visit to the track and should be pleased with what I have achieved. I am happy with the way the bike and I have improved over the three days and I am sure I can make further advances when we return here for the race. I now can’t wait for my first Grand Prix as a Rizla Suzuki MotoGP rider.” John Hopkins: “It’s been a hard three days work here at Jerez. The Rizla Suzuki was not as well suited to the circuit as it had been to Sepang, Qatar and Catalunya. I feel a bit battered and bruised from fighting the bike around the track for over 200 laps but it was worth it because we now have a definite direction to follow when we come here in two weeks for the race. I am really positive about the steps that we have taken as a whole team and I know there is a lot of potential in the new bike and I am now really eager to get back here for the race.” Paul Denning – Team Manager: “Both riders and the whole team have worked really hard not only at this test but over the last few weeks. We are now looking to re-group over the next week or so in time for the first Grand Prix at Jerez and make sure that we are in the best condition for the race. Chris has continued his fantastic growth and he is starting to show his true potential that I am sure will se him pushing John and other established riders right from the start of the season. “John has again given a faultless performance at this test and sacrificed a fast lap time on a qualifying tyre to make sure he got every bit of testing possible from today. This is the sort of commitment and dedication that I am sure will take him forward this season.”