MotoGP test Losail, Qatar. Day one of a three-day test. March 1, 2005.

Nicky Hayden fastest man on opening day of Qatar test

The Repsol Honda team riders, Nicky Hayden and Max Biaggi, together with Konica Minolta team rider Makoto Tamada, had flown to Qatar directly from Tokyo. All three plus many stars of both two and four wheeled racing had taken part in the annual Honda Motor ‘Kick off party’ where the company officially announced the Honda racing programme for the 2005 season.

Both riders set times inside the official lap record as they sought the ideal set up for their RC211V V5 990cc MotoGP machines. Hayden quickly established a good base line and went on to set a time faster than pole position time set at the Qatar GP in October of 2004. The young American ended his 82-lap stint around the 5.400kms desert circuit confident there is more to come over the next two days of testing.

Biaggi struggled to find his way early on but by the end of the day was beginning to feel comfortable with his RCV and the direction the team are working in.

The Telefonica MoviStar Honda team stole the show at the inaugural Qatar GP with a superb one – two finish for Sete Gibernau and his, now departed, teammate Colin Edwards. Gibernau has a fever and elected to sit out day one. His new teammate, Marco Melandri, did test and put in his best performance since switching to the Honda RC211V for the 2005 campaign.

Following three full test sessions prior to Qatar Melandri has worked step by step towards finding a base set up he was comfortable with before he thought about setting fast lap times. Today everything worked well for the young Italian and he was second fastest man behind Hayden, but more importantly he set consistently fast times while tyre testing.

The Camel Honda team of Alex Barros and Troy Bayliss were restricted to just 53 laps between them due to a shortage of fuel. Brazilian Barros continued his experiments with the new front fork while Bayliss chased a
sound base set up to work from for the remaining two-days of the test.

Makoto Tamada made a cautious start to the test still feeling the effects of his big crash at the last test. The Konica Minolta rider worked on confirming what the team had learned about the new RCV before getting down
to serious testing tomorrow.

Honda rider lap times and quotes:

Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 58.36s – 82 laps.
“Pretty happy after first day. More grip than we had here last time but still real slippery; especially off-line. The wind was the real problem today. In the morning it was hard to find a setting I felt totally comfortable with; things came much better in the afternoon. I’m looking forward to the next few days here. We raced here for the first time last year and a few days here will certainly make it easier when we come to the GP here in the fall.”

Max Biaggi, Repsol Honda: 1m 59.20s – 67 laps.
“We had big set-up problems today that effectively destroyed the tyres so we had no grip for most of the time. We tried several different shock settings but we still didn’t find the right way. Tomorrow we’ll work again on the suspension geometry. It is important to get the base right and build on that. This is what we need to do to make the rest of the test a success I have a great team around me and I am confident we will move forward!”

Marco Melandri, Telefonica MoviStar Honda: 1m 58.48s – 72 laps
“I’m very satisfied of the work done today. I have lapped more relaxed and focused on myself without the pressure of making a good time and things have been easier. Today the track conditions were quite good even if I expected more grip. This afternoon the wind has disturbed a bit but at the end of the session conditions have improved. Today we made some tyre testing and small changes on the bike to understand better the bike and see how small regulations can affect it. I’m impressed by my RC211V because the bike doesn’t need many changes from one
track to the other and my feeling with the bike is improving every time.”

Sete Gibernau, Telefonica MoviStar Honda: Gibernau is suffering from a high fever and decided to sit out day one of the test. His condition improved as the day wore on and he has high hopes of being fit to test tomorrow.

Alex Barros, Camel Honda: 1m 58.90s – 27 laps.
“We didn’t do that many laps today, because we didn’t have that much fuel, but we still began well. The conditions are definitely better than when we came here for the race, also because the Superbikes raced here on Saturday which laid some good rubber down on the track. I felt comfortable pretty much straight away, the bike is set-up well and we went quickly straight away, even though 28 laps doesn’t give you much opportunity to test too much.”

Ramon Forcada, Camel Honda: Alex Barros’s Technical Director.
“We have only been to this track once before, for last year’s GP, and the conditions were completely different back then, both in terms of the weather and the track itself. Nevertheless we began from the settings from October, and continued with the work on the forks which we had begun in Australia. We also tried two new fronts from Michelin and tomorrow we will do tyre tests and more set-up work.”

Troy Bayliss, Camel Honda: 2m00.68 – 26 laps. 8
“I’m quite satisfied with the first sensations at this track, even though we couldn’t ride too much. We have been lucky to get such good conditions, but there is still a little bit of wind around. If only it could be like this when we come back here to race, but I don’t think it will be. However we will try to make the most of these days here and tomorrow apart from the set-up work, we will work alongside Michelin to try some new tyres.”

Santiago Mulero – Camel Honda (Troy Bayliss’s Technical Director)
“Today was quite a good day, Troy is already riding at his race pace from last year and he doesn’t have too bad a feeling with the bike. We started from the position we were in Australia as regards base set-up and tomorrow we will continue to work in that direction.”

Konica Minolta Honda:
Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 59.47s – 60 laps.
“We have started pretty calm this morning since I had to find back the right feeling with the bike after the unlucky slip in Phillip Island. I still feel pain in the parts of my body that I have hit in the fall in Australia, but I can consider my self satisfied on how the day has gone, because I immediately perceived every permutation that has been made to the setting of the bike, and this means that we can concentrate on the tweak of the bike by working on every single detail.”

Giulio Bernardelle – Konica Minolta Honda Technical Director
“Since on this circuit we didn’t achieve great results during the past season, today we decided to develop the bike as we were competing here for the first time. This solution permitted us to reach at the end of the day a good setting of the bike’s suspension and frame. Makoto really helped us out during this developments, as it seem like he found a good feeling with the Honda RC211V 2005 and the Michelin Tyre, and this have allowed us to make changes with great precision after hearing what the rider told us.”