From a press release issued by JiR Team Scot Racing: JiR Team Scot enjoys excellent first test day ‘Down Under’ Today marked the start of the three-day Australian MotoGP test at the Phillip Island circuit, near Melbourne. Andrea Dovizioso and his JiR Team Scot squad enjoyed a very positive first day with Andrea further getting to grips with the Honda RC212V machine that he will race in the 2008 MotoGP championship and securing the fourth fastest time of the day. Despite previously not enjoying the mile circuit on the smaller capacity 125 and 250cc two-stroke machines that he’s used to, the 21-year-old Italian found that he loved the circuit and its blend of fast corners and gradient changes much more than previously, thanks in part to the extra power from the four-stroke 800cc machine. The track was in excellent conditions today, with very good Tarmac condition and weather which although a little windy was otherwise very good for testing. Such was the progress of Dovi and his team that they were able to put in 80 laps of the circuit and complete the day’s work and end the session an hour earlier than anticipated. The test continues tomorrow and Friday. Andrea Dovizioso Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA RC212V – Laps: 80 Time 4th: 1’30″.70 “I’m very satisfied with today’s progress. This was a very positive day from the technical point of view and also from the riding point of view. I arrived in Phillip Island a little bit apprehensive as in 250 and 125s I never found myself comfortable on the track and I never enjoyed it too much. With the 800 it’s fantastic! I love to go around on the track and it’s very good going into those fast, long corners getting the bike sliding a lot, too! I still have some small problems in braking at the rear, which is affecting the lap time a little. The whole thing doesn’t bother me too much and we will find a solution. I’m adapting my riding position on the bike, but I would like to have foot-pegs a little to the rear, so we shall change this. Today I concentrated very hard on the track to give a good performance and I’m happy that I have done this. The next two days will be full of intense and very hard work, where the team and myself will work hard with Michelin and try and find the optimum setting for the chassis.” Gianni Berti – Technical Coordinator, JiR Team Scot “The programme of the first day at Phillip Island was to put Andrea in the most confident frame of mind with both the bike and the track especially as the circuit isn’t a favourite of Andrea’s in the smaller capacity classes. So, overall we’re pretty satisfied that we were able to work very well on the general setting of the bike, particularly the setting of the suspension and by testing different Michelin tyres. We had the bike in the same technical configuration that we had in Malaysia. We still have a small problem with engine braking, which still needs to be solved. We shall aim to do this in the next two days. We have enjoyed good weather conditions despite a light wind and in some areas of track this can be affect the rider. Andreas was able to do 80 laps and he ended his testing day one hour before the end of the official session, which shows how satisfied we were with the work completed today.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Testing begins down-under for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen got through a huge amount of testing today, as they completed the first day of the Phillip Island test in Australia. Following on from last week’s positive Malaysian test, both riders had another large workload to undertake to evaluate many new parts and settings onboard their Rizla Suzuki GSV-Rs. Today the two Rizla Suzuki racers focussed their efforts on mainly getting a good base setting for the 2008 machine at Phillip Island – a track which has proved difficult for the Suzuki in the past. Capirossi and Vermeulen also concentrated on improving the aerodynamics of the bike as they tried new fairings around the 4.4km circuit. With a cold wind blowing directly off the sea – as it was today – Phillip Island is one of the best circuits in the world to test new aerodynamics and assess the data collected by both riders. Capirossi completed 82 laps of the track today and team-mate Vermeulen recorded 99. The Italian’s quickest time of 1’31.274 gave him ninth place overall on the time sheets with Vermeulen just behind in 10th, as he set a fastest time of 1’31.317. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has two more days in Australia to continue with its in-depth analysis of the 2008 GSV-R, with further tests on aerodynamics, chassis settings, a comprehensive Bridgestone tyre test, plus a thorough assessment of other mechanical improvements and electronic control strategies. Loris Capirossi: “Today has been quite a tough day, but we have certainly made advances. We set out to get a good base setting for the bike and we have improved it over the day, but we still have quite a way to go. We have lots of stuff to test on the bike and we started to do that today but we still have a lot of work to do over the next two days. My crew worked really hard today and because of them we have made a lot of progress, the bike is improving all the time, but as I have said before this is a difficult track for the Suzuki so we have lots to do!” Chris Vermeulen: “It’s good to be back in Australia to test again, although we could do with it being a bit warmer. I got a lot of laps in today as we need to get through as much work as possible here this week. The Factory has certainly acted on the information Loris and I gave them towards the end of last year, but before we can thoroughly test the new parts we need to get the settings right, and like Loris I spent a large part of today sorting those out. I know there is more to come over the week and I hope we will improve dramatically on those times and positions.” Phillip Island Test Day One Classification: 1. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’29.566: 2: Casey Stoner (Ducati) +0.612: 3. Alex De Angelis (Honda) +1.122: 4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) +1.135: 5. James Toseland (Yamaha) +1.298: 9. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.708: 10. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.751: More, from a press release issued by Repsol Media Service: A TOUGH DAY`S TESTING FOR NICKY HAYDEN AND THE REPSOL HONDA TEAM IN AUSTRALIA Hayden had an intense day out on the track of Phillip Island, doing 107 laps of the Australian circuit Nicky Hayden put in a typically determined day’s work at Phillip Island today, riding an amazing 107 laps of the high-speed Australian circuit aboard his Repsol Honda RC212V. Once again the American tried both Honda’s latest pneumatic-valve engine and the conventional spring engine, focusing on the conventional engine in the afternoon. Fastest at Sepang last week with qualifying tyres, the 2006 MotoGP World Champion only used race tyres today, making plenty of progress in excellent weather conditions with ambient temperature at 21 degrees and track temperature reaching 40 degrees. Tomorrow he will continue working on chassis and suspension settings and he will commence tyre testing Phillip Island is a particularly challenging racetrack for tyres. Hayden is currently Repsol Honda’s sole rider on track. His team-mate Dani Pedrosa is in Europe recuperating from an operation to fix the broken hand he suffered in Malaysia last week. Quotes MotoGP Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 1m 31.226s (lap 96 of 107) This is a completely different track to Sepang so we needed to reconfirm what we learned last week. That’s been the plan today, so we’ve been using reference tyres, we’ve not been doing any tyre testing so far, mainly just checking settings. This morning we checked both engines because the team needs data with the pneumatic valve engine too. The track seems to be in great shape and the weather’s good, so we’ve gotten a lot done. So far preseason is going well for us but nothing really matters till we get to that first race. I’m just working as hard as I can with the team so I can make the most of the opportunities and hopefully when we get to that race we’ll be ready to make some noise. Michelin is definitely working hard and we’ve seen some progress. Right now we’re positive.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: PERFECT START TO PHILLIP ISLAND TEST FOR STONER AND MELANDRI Bright sunshine and 25 degrees celsius temperatures provided perfect conditions for Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri as they took to the Phillip Island circuit for the first of three days of testing alongside the majority of MotoGP teams in Australia. It proved to be a positive day for both Ducati Marlboro Team riders, who recorded impressive lap times on a race setting. Stoner racked up 29 laps in 1’30 whilst experimenting with set-up and tyres, giving highly encouraging feedback on the new Bridgestone rubber. The World Champion is also continuing to regain strength in the shoulder he injured at Jerez towards the end of November, so much so that today he was able to complete a total of 73 laps. Marco Melandri was also satisfied after completing just shy of 100 laps, making good progress with the base setting of his GP8 in both the cycle part and engine. He did not try the Japanese tyre manufacturer’s latest offerings today but will start to do so tomorrow. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team), best time: 1’30.178 (73 laps) “Everything went really well today, the feeling with the bike was perfect almost straight away. The new Bridgestones, which had already given us positive feedback at Sepang, also worked perfectly here at Phillip Island – one of them in particular improves the bike a lot in the exit of the corners, especially in the final section of the track. We’ve also taken a step forward with some small changes to the front, which have made the bike more stable and improved grip to the point where my best time came without pushing, on a tyre that already had 17 laps on it. I’m also really happy with the latest specs of the engine and the way it is responding under acceleration coming out of the corners. The weather was basically perfect all day apart from when the wind picked up a little in the afternoon but the smaller fairing, which we used for the race here in October, meant that it wasn’t a problem. Towards the end of the day my shoulder was a little sore because this is such a physical track, with a lot of fast corners, but it is still better than it was in Malaysia.” Marco Melandri (Ducati Marlboro Team), best time: 1’30.869 (99 laps) “I’m really happy today because I finally feel as though I’m riding the bike more or less as I should. We knew that Phillip Island would be better for us and that’s proved to be the case. The feeling was good from the first lap, thanks also to the things we learnt in the last test. At Sepang I probably changed the balance of the bike too much, trying to make it more similar to what I have ridden in the past, whereas here we’ve just tried to find a good base set-up, which has made it more manageable in the corners and less nervous. I am happy even though we’re still not at 100%. We’ve actually got plans to try something new with the weight distribution tomorrow and we want to continue working on the electronics to try and improve the power delivery even more, then we can start tyre testing. In any case we’ve made a great start here.” Phillip Island info Circuit Record: Marco Melandri (Honda – 2005) 1’30.332 Best pole: Nicky Hayden (Honda – 2006) 1’29.020 Fastest Lap GP 2007: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’30.801 Pole 2007: Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1’29.201 Unofficial lap times 30/01/2008 1. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha) 1:29.566 2. Casey STONER (Ducati) 1:30.178 3. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 1:30.688 4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda) 1:30.701 5. James TOSELAND (Yamaha) 1:30.864 6. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati) 1:30.869 7. Shinya NAKANO (Honda) 1:31.111 8. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda) 1:31.226 9. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 1:31.274 10. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki) 1:31.317 11. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda) 1:31.436 12. John HOPKINS: (Kawasaki) 31.623 13. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki) 1:31.786 14. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati) 1:32.484 15. Toni ELIAS (Ducati) 1:32.573 More, from a press release issued by Honda: MotoGP test Phillip Island – Australia. Day one of three-day test, January 30, 2008. De Angelis is fastest Honda RC212V rider on opening day of MotoGP test at Phillip Island MotoGP winter testing continued at the Phillip Island circuit Australia today, the opening day of a three-day session. In fine, sunny weather, with ambient temperatures just above 20 degrees and track temperature at 40 degrees, the riders and teams began chasing a good base set-up for their Honda RC212V machines, working from data gathered at Sepang last week. The surprise package of the day was Gresini Honda rider Alex De Angelis who set third fastest time even though this is the first time the MotoGP debutant has ridden his RC212V at Phillip Island. De Angelis felt strong all day and made good progress, working on geometry settings. His team-mate Shinya Nakano was also happy, using new front suspension settings to dial out the chatter that had hampered him at Sepang. Andrea Dovizioso started the day with the JiR Scot Honda in the same specification as on the final day of testing at Sepang, working towards finding a reasonable base set-up for his RCV around the superbly fast and flowing 4.448 km Australian circuit. Once the young Italian felt comfortable the team worked on suspension settings in combination with tyres from Michelin. Despite experiencing a niggling engine-braking problem Dovizioso set fourth fastest time for the day. Nicky Hayden is the sole Repsol Honda team rider testing the latest prototype of the factory RC212V that will be campaigned by official factory team in the 18-round 2008 MotoGP World Championship. Hayden’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa is recovering from a fractured second metacarpal of his right hand. Hayden, MotoGP World Champion in 2006, put in an incredible 107 laps testing both the prototype engine machine equipped with pneumatic valves and another engine using conventional valve springs. He ran the whole day with standard race tyres as he established a base for the team to work from over the next two days. Frenchman Randy de Puniet had a slow day by his own rapid standards. The LCR Honda rider experienced some front-end slides in high-speed corners and decided discretion was the best part of valour. His team technicians concentrated on suspension settings in combination with a range of Michelin tyres, allowing de Puniet to gain sufficient confidence in the front end to complete the day with a string of fast, consistent times. Honda rider quotes and lap times. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 31.226s 107 laps. “This is a completely different track to Sepang so we needed to reconfirm what we learned last week. That’s been the plan today, so we’ve been using reference tyres, we’ve not been doing any tyre testing so far, mainly just checking settings. This morning we checked both engines because the team needs data with the pneumatic valve engine too. The track seems to be in great shape and the weather’s good, so we’ve gotten a lot done. “With Dani not here I’m just focusing on my own thing, we’re completely different riders, so I’ve got to keep working on my own stuff. The big difference right now is that I’ve got more engineers working with me, because usually they have to split their time and focus on the both of us. I’m pretty lucky right now to have all the engineers focusing on me. “So far preseason is going well for us but nothing really matters till we get to that first race. I’m just working as hard as I can with the team so I can make the most of the opportunities and hopefully when we get to that race we’ll be ready to make some noise. Michelin is definitely working hard and we’ve seen some progress. Right now we’re positive.” Andrea Dovizioso, JiR Scot Honda: 1m 30.70s 80 laps. “I’m very satisfied with today’s progress. This was a very positive day from the technical point of view and also from the riding point of view. I arrived in Phillip Island a little bit apprehensive as in 250 and 125s I never found myself comfortable at this track and I never enjoyed it too much. With the 800 it’s fantastic! I love to go around the track and it’s very good going into those fast, long corners getting the bike sliding a lot, too! “I still have some small problems in braking at the rear, which is affecting the lap time a little. The whole thing doesn’t bother me too much and we will find a solution. I’m adapting my riding position on the bike, but I would like to move the footpegs a little to the rear, so we shall change this. Today I concentrated very hard on the track to give a good performance and I’m happy that I have done this. The next two days will be full of intense and very hard work. The team and me will work hard with Michelin and try and find the optimum setting for the chassis.” Alex De Angelis, Gresini Honda: 1m 30.688s 70 laps “I have recovered perfectly, my right arm doesn’t hurt anymore and this has helped me a lot. I immediately found a good feeling with the bike on this track, which is one of my favourites, and the track conditions today were almost perfect! I could lap with a good pace from the first laps. We have worked on geometry and my feeling has improved a lot during the day. Every test is like a new adventure for me, I have a good relationship with my team and I like the RC212V a lot. Today we tested only with race tyres and I’m very satisfied.” Randy De Puniet, LCR Honda: 1m 31.436s 103 laps “When I went out this morning, after three laps only, I had the wrong feeling with the front, so we decided to work on suspension setting throughout the day. We focused our work on the front fork setting and race tyre testing, aiming to find a better feeling for this track. We tested many things and I did 103 laps. At the end of the day the feeling was much better and we’ve found the right way to proceed with our set-up work tomorrow.” Shinya Nakano, Gresini Honda: 1m 31.111s 91 laps “We worked hard to solve the problems we had at Sepang, in particular the chatter. We tested a modified fork and we succeeded to minimize the problem. I feel very well fit and motivated and I did my best time of the day at the end of the afternoon when track conditions were not ideal, which means that I’m feeling very good.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: Did not test due to injuries received during last week’s MotoGP test at Sepang. The date of his return to testing has yet to be established. More, from a press release issued by Gresini Honda: Phillip Island – First day of the opening test in Phillip Island with positive results for Team Honda Gresini. Alex De Angelis, finally back to shape after suffering from tendinitis at his right arm in Malaysia last week, ended third overall on race tyres. Japanese Shinya Nakano, 2 tenths slower than his team mate, focused on improving his feeling with the new bike and trying to reduce his chattering problems. Great satisfaction for the whole team at the end of the day. ALEX DE ANGELIS, 70 laps, best time1.30.688 “I feel really great today, the pain in my right arm is just a bad memory. Not only, today I immediately felt at ease since I stepped on my bike: I like this track very much and the weather conditions were perfect for testing. I was quick since the beginning and slowly improved during the day. Each test is a chance for me to stay with my new team and get to know them, I already feel at home. I also quickly adapted to my Honda bike, although I believe there are still plenty of things we need to try: we will keep on working hard in the next two days.” SHINYA NAKANO, 91 laps, best time 1’31″111 “I think I did a great job today, I made many laps trying to solve some of the problems we had last week in Sepang, especially chattering. We are close to the solution now after some small changes to the fork and to the bike set up. I feel in great shape and I realized this at the end of the day when I was able to produce my best time although conditions weren’t the best anymore.” FAUSTO GRESINI, team manager, stated: “I am very pleased with my team’s work today. I was impressed both by Alex, who set some quick laps with race tyres and also by Nakano, detemined to set a fast lap despite unfavourable conditions towards the end of the day. Definitly a good start, I am really proud of their work.” Best lap times 1. Edwards (Yamaha) 1.29.566 41° (77 laps) 2. Stoner (Ducati) 1.30.178 73° (73) 3. De Angelis (Honda Gresini) 1.30.688 68° (70) 4. Dovizioso (Honda Scot) 1.30.701 56° (79) 5. Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3) 1.30 864 49° (81) 6. Melandri (Ducati) 1.30.869 99° (99) 7. Nakano (Honda Gresini) 1.31.111 90° (91) 8. Hayden (Honda HRC) 1.31.226 96° (107) 9. Capirossi (Suzuki) 1.31.274 52° (82) 10. Vermeulen (Suzuki) 1.31.317 60° (99) 11. De Puniet (Honda LCR) 1.31.436 48° (103) 12. Hopkins (Kawasaki) 1.31.623 79° (88) 13. West (Kawasaki) 1.31.786 65° (72) 14. Guintoli (Ducati Alice) 1.32.484 35° (68) 15. Elias (Ducati Alice) 1.32.573 67° (90) More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Start for Edwards and Toseland in Australia Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards continued his impressive pre-season form today by setting the fastest time at the start of a three-day test session at the Phillip Island circuit. Just six days after an exhausting but successful test at the Sepang circuit in Malaysia, Edwards clocked his best lap of 1.29.566 on the first of two Michelin qualifying tyres he tried shortly after 1pm. Evaluating new Michelin tyres and the latest electronics upgrades from Yamaha, the American’s best time on race tyres today was a 1.30.832 set in a seven-lap run this afternoon as the Texan completed 77 laps in close to perfect conditions. That was the third fastest time on race tyres with reigning world champion Casey Stoner quickest in race trim. James Toseland also impressed by setting the fifth quickest time on only his fourth appearance on the Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1. His best time of 1.30.864 on race tyres came on his 46th lap of an 81-lap stint today, with the British rider immediately on the pace as he returned to familiar territory at Phillip Island. Toseland’s extensive track knowledge gained in his World Superbike career at Phillip Island immediately came to the fore as he broke into the 1.32 bracket on only his fourth lap. He then reeled off a series of consistent laps of 1.31 laps and finished just 0.03s slower than Edwards. Today’s action marked the start of the second of four 2008 pre-season tests for the Tech 3 squad, with tests in Jerez and Qatar to follow before the first race in Doha on March 9. Colin Edwards 1st 1.29.566 — 77 laps “It was a good day. I started with the same setting I finished in Malaysia and played around with that for the day. The bike feels good at this track compared to what I raced with a few months ago. Yamaha has been working hard and the new parts are definitely a step in the right direction, particularly with the electronics, which has helped on corner entry and exit. With a qualifying tyre in Malaysia my time didn’t get any better. I had a couple of handling issues with the qualifier in Sepang so once I got a good pace going I chucked a couple of qualifiers in. It is the first day but you never know what the weather is going to do down here, and it could be raining tomorrow. We wanted to make sure with the adjustments we were going to make for the qualifier that it was the right way. In Sepang I had too much weight on the rear. The rear was taking over and running me wide and we made a change to get more weight on the front and get it to turn a bit better. It seemed fine and I’m happy with the lap time.” James Toseland 5th 1.30.864 — 81 laps “The first few laps I was able to hit the exact same six inches of track and I got up to speed much quicker than I did in Sepang and Jerez. It was nice to be at the sharp end of the times and I didn’t realise but track knowledge is even more important with these bikes to help things come together. When you can hit the same spot lap after lap without thinking about it then you can really concentrate on the bike set-up and that makes a big difference to help gradually improve. I’ve got a slight problem with entry to the fast corners. Just as I tip in I get a bit of chatter from the front. I’m losing quite a lot of time because of that problem because they are in such fast parts of the track.I could make up quite a lot of time if it wasn’t for that. I’ll try a new setting tomorrow morning to try and help before I do a race simulation. But it’s nice to be doing decent lap times with a few problems. And I actually passed somebody on the brakes for the first time ever in MotoGP. I passed Chris Vermeulen going into the first corner turn which I was pretty proud of.” Results: 1. Edwards Yamaha Tech3 1’29.566 (77) 2. Stoner Ducati Marlboro 1’30.178 (73) 3. De Angelis Honda Gresini 1’30.688 (70) 4. Dovizioso JiR Team Scot 1’30.701 (79) 5. Toseland Yamaha Tech3 1’30.864 (81) 6. Melandri Ducati Marlboro 1’30.869 (99) 7. Nakano Honda Gresini 1’31.111 (91) 8. Hayden Repsol Honda 1’31.226 (107) 9. Capirossi Rizla Suzuki 1’31.274 (82) 10. Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki 1’31.317 (99) 11. De Puniet Honda LCR 1’31.436 (103) 12. Hopkins Kawasaki Racing 1’31.623 (88) 13. West Kawasaki Racing 1’31.786 (72) 14. Guintoli Alice Team 1’32.484 (68)