DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM SET QUICK TIMES ON RACE TYRES IN ONE-DAY AT JEREZ Just 24 hours after the celebrations over the victory of Loris Capirossi in the opening round of the 2006 MotoGP season, the Italian team was back at work today at Jerez for a one-day scheduled test on the Andalusian circuit. The Italian rider focussed mainly on testing new Bridgestone tyres and continuing the Ducati Desmosedici GP6’s development schedule. Loris lapped consistently around the 1m41s mark, ending the day with a best time of 1m40.798s. Sete Gibernau put aside his Jerez race disappointment to immediately set the quickest time of 1m40.504s on the fourth lap of his opening run of the day. A harmless slide interrupted the Spanish rider’s session for a few minutes but the Spanish rider was able to successfully conclude the test in preparation for the next round of the championship in Qatar. Temperatures: air 23° / track 31° C 1) Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1:39.910 2) Sete Gibernau (Ducati) 1:40.504 3) Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 1:40.798 4) Casey Stoner (Honda) 1:40.821 5) Daniel Pedrosa (Honda) 1:40.845 6) Carlos Checa (Yamaha) 1:40.932 7) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:40.966 8) John Hopkins (Suzuki) 1:41.096 9) Shynja Nakano (Kawasaki) 1:41.178 10) Toni Elias (Honda) 1:41.193 11) Makoto Tamada (Honda) 1:41.234 12) Marco Melandri (Honda) 1:41.400 13) Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1:41.442 14) Cris Vermullen (Suzuki) 1:41.554 15) Kenny Roberts (KRHonda) 1:41.861 16) James Ellison (Yamaha) 1:42.924 More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Honda: MARCO MELANDRI AND TONI ELIAS BACK AT WORK Jerez, Motogp test The protagonists of the MotoGP class came back to work today for a testing session after the Spanish GP, the opening race of the 2006 Championship. The Fortuna Honda riders started around 12.30 and tested till 18.30 using all the opening hours of the track. Marco Melandri who yesterday conducted intelligently a difficult race, concentrated on comparative test in order to understand better his RC211V. Marco tested different solutions in order to improve his feeling with the front and consequently his speed in the turn. Positive day for his team mate Toni Elias who, in his home GP, produced yesterday a superb ride, demonstrating once again his undoubted potential.. A small crash without consequences didn’t stop him from testing the whole afternoon. TONI ELIAS (1’41.16, 67 laps): “Today we worked a little bit on the setting in order to improve my pace. We worked mainly on the suspensions without changing too much yesterday configuration. In fact we have found a good base that I like a lot. In the afternoon we started the preparation of the GP of Qatar. I leave Jerez satisfied and confident for the second race of the season.” MARCO MELANDRI (1’41. 400, 78 laps ): “I’m quite satisfied because compared to yesterday I lapped consistently improving my lap time. Unfortunately, at the moment, I am still not able to use all the potential that the bike has.” Temperatures: air: 23°- asphalt: 31° UNOFFICIAL LAP TIMES 1) Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1’39. 910 2) Sete Gibernau (Ducati) 1’40.504 3) Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 1’40.798 4) Casey Stoner (Honda) 1’40. 821 5) Daniel Pedrosa (Honda) 1’40. 845 6) Carlos Checa (Yamaha) 1’40. 932 7) Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’40. 966 8) John Hopkins (Suzuki) 1’41.096 9) Shynja Nakano (Kawasaki) 1’41.178 10) Toni Elias (Honda) 1’41.16 11) Makoto Tamada (Honda) 1’41. 234 12) Marco Melandri (Honda) 1’41. 400 13) Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’41. 442 More, from a press release issued by Camel Yamaha: YAMAHA FIND SOME SOLUTIONS TO THEIR JEREZ TROUBLES DURING TEST The Camel Yamaha Team remained in Jerez today for an intense afternoon of testing in an effort to find some answers to the problems they faced over the course of the season’s opening weekend. Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards completed 72 and 76 laps respectively and made some positive steps towards understanding the cause of the vibration that kept their lap times down during the weekend’s practice sessions and forced them to start from the fourth row of the grid for yesterday’s race. Rossi, who was brought down by another rider at the first corner of the race after a lightening start, also completed one run today on the 2005-specification YZR-M1, in order to compare its performance with the 2006 bike and gather more data to help the engineers find a final solution ahead of the next race. The Camel Yamaha Team now have a week’s rest before they travel to Qatar early next week for the second MotoGP race of the season. DAVIDE BRIVIO CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR “After such a disappointing opening weekend to the season, it was important for us to have the chance to test today. It was a very useful and interesting day for us and we were able to collect a lot of important information which we believe will help us. It was good to be able to go back to some of the settings that we tried over the weekend and to evaluate them in a more relaxed atmosphere, without the time pressure of a race weekend. “In addition we decided to have Valentino ride the 2005 M1 for a few laps so we could compare its performance at this track with that of the new bike. It was interesting to see the difference a few things about the ’05 bike are better at the moment, but overall it seems the ’06 bike is still a more improved package and Valentino’s fastest times today were on the 2006-spec M1. Anyway the data from this comparison should help us a lot as we continue to develop the new bike. Valentino was able to make some good improvements to the performance of the ’06 bike so this is encouraging for Qatar. Colin’s test wasn’t quite as positive but after today we now have a better idea of what to do in order to bring him back to the level he was at in Barcelona. It’s been an important day for us and now the Yamaha engineers will work hard to evaluate the data gathered so that we can come to Qatar and fight at the front with both riders where they belong.” Times: Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’39.910 Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1’40.504 Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team,1’40.798 Casey Stoner (AUS) Team LCR, 1’40.821 Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’40.845 Carlos Checa (SPA) Yamaha Tech 3, 1’40.932 VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’40.966 John Hopkins (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1’41.096 Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1’41.178 Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 1’41.193 Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 1’41.234 Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1’41.400 COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’41.442 Chris Vermuelen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1’41.554 Kenny Roberts (USA) Team KR, 1’41.861 James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha Tech 3, 1’42.924 T. Okada (JPN) 1’43.265 More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing Information: Nicky Hayden fastest at Jerez post race MotoGP test. Honda MotoGP teams completed a valuable one-day post race test at the Jerez circuit on Monday following an impressive display in the opening race of the 17-round world championship held at the circuit on Sunday. Repsol Honda rider Nicky Hayden was the fastest of the RC211V riders on Monday. Hayden, from Kentucky, struggled to find rear end grip during Sunday’s 27-lap race and the HRC engineers made changes to the geometry of the RCV in a bid to eradicate the problem without surrendering the advances made with front end performance. The hard charging young American was happy with the results and feels the 2006 factory RCV is beginning to fulfil its potential. Hayden set fastest time of the day while testing a newly developed Michelin qualifying tyre. Hayden’s team-mate Dani Pedrosa made a dream MotoGP debut on Sunday when he raced his RC211V to second place to give the team a podium double. Pedrosa, the reigning double 250cc World Champion, experienced a few front wheel slides in the closing laps of Sunday’s race and spent Monday working on the front end of his RCV and made some progress towards improving front end feel. Fortuna Honda riders Marco Melandri and Toni Elias worked hard on improving base settings for their RCVs. Melandri, world championship runner up in 2005, is taking time to adjust to his new mount machine and despite setting consistently improved lap times he still has to get the best from the bike. Elias grows in confidence each time he takes the RCV out on track. The young Spaniard was involved in a first corner clash in Sundays race but battled through the field to take fourth place at the finish. The team experimented with suspension settings that improved the base line settings of the machine as they prepare for the Qatar GP on April 8. Young Australian Casey Stoner (LCR Honda), another MotoGP debutant in 2006, finished sixth in the GP a magnificent effort considering he had undergone shoulder surgery in February and sitting out the last nine days of winter testing. Stoner tested suspension settings in combination with several Michelin tyres as he improved his understanding of the big five-cylinder 990cc four-stroke. He lapped faster than in qualifying for the race and is confident the knowledge gained on Monday will help him perform well in the Qatar race. Japanese star Makoto Tamada has yet to find sufficient front end grip on his Konica Minolta Honda. The problem is affecting his normally high corner entry speed. Various front and rear suspension combinations were tried out in a bid to improve the base line set up. Tamada goes into the Qatar race with more work to do in order to find that elusive front end feedback he needs if he is to be successful in 2006. Team Roberts used Monday’s test to evaluate several chassis and suspension options they had hoped to try in practice and qualifying for the GP. Poor weather on the opening day of practice and a crash on oil in final qualifying prevented them making any progress. Kenny Roberts Jnr gave the KR211V an impressive GP debut finishing eighth in Sunday’s race and goes to round two of the series in better shape following on the back of a successful days work on Monday. Honda rider lap times and quotes. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 39. 910s – 77 laps. “Today we’ve been doing a lot of geometry changes to try to get some more weight on the rear and get better traction. I was able to get into the 1m 40s lap times on the exact same tyre that I was on in yesterday’s race which is definitely an improvement. We tried some settings I liked, although I don’t think we found anything that’ll make up the nine seconds we finished behind the leader yesterday. We weren’t testing new parts today but we confirmed a few things that we’d tried over the weekend. At the end of the day Michelin had a new qualifying tyre they wanted to check and so that’s where my best lap time came from and it’s always nice to finish on top.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 40. 845s – 65 laps. “Yesterday was a great result but I know we still have a lot of work to do for the season. This was only one race and the other riders will be working really hard to beat us next time. Today we were working on race set-up and trying to improve the slight lack of front end grip we had in the race yesterday. We also tested some Michelin tyres to help this and we found some improvements, but today the conditions were much better than yesterday and we had more grip because it was a little bit colder so the tyres were working better for the conditions. The rear tyre especially was working better and we got some good information for the race at Qatar and the next few races.” Marco Melandri, Fortuna Honda: 1m 41. 400s – 78 laps. “I’m quite satisfied because compared to yesterday I lapped consistently improving my lap time. Unfortunately, at the moment, I am still not able to use all the potential that the bike has.” Toni Elias, Fortuna Honda: 1m 41.16s – 67 laps. “Today we worked a little bit on the setting in order to improve my pace. We worked mainly on the suspension, front and rear, without changing too much on yesterday’s configuration. In fact we have found a good base that I like a lot. In the afternoon we started the preparation of the GP of Qatar. I leave Jerez satisfied and confident for the second race of the season.” Casey Stoner, LCR Honda: 1m 40. 821s. Stoner unavailable for comment due to his tight post race travel schedule. Makoto Tamada, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 41. 234s “After we changed front and rear suspension, the machine handling was good and I could ride well much better than yesterday. Next race in Qatar, During Rd1 weekend, I struggle machine set up until the last minute. It was not possible to enter the corner smoothly because handling was heavy. In today’s test the investigation of the cause and also we had tried the second machine’s basic set up and tyre testing. It came to be able to run well by changing the front and rear suspension compared with yesterday. I think today’s track condition was not bad and I think my lap time was good. As for the following race at Qatar, the track has less grip and I will need a different set up which priority more control ability. I think it’s might be suitable for the characteristic of the machine today. So, I’m looking forward next race.” Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR Honda: “We used the test to try some of the stuff we brought for the GP but didn’t get the chance to test. We were not looking for lap times today just working on the overall balance of the bike trying a few suspension options with a lot of work on the front forks. When we got a better feeling Michelin gave us a really good front tyre and we had a lot more feed back from the front and got rid of the slides we had during the race. We are ready for Qatar and really looking forward to qualifying with the stuff we have now.”