FIM MotoGP World Championship Jerez, Spain March 23, 2007 Free Practice 1 & 2 Combined Best Times: 1. Carlos CHECA (Hon RC212V), Michelin, 1:40.851 2. Dani PEDROSA (Hon RC212V), Michelin, 1:40.906 3. Toni ELIAS (Hon RC212V), Bridgestone, 1:40.972 4. Casey STONER (Duc GP07), Bridgestone, 1:41.171 5. Kenny Lee ROBERTS (Hon KR212V), Michelin, 1:41.182 6. Valentino ROSSI (Yam YZR-M1), Michelin, 1:41.198 7. John HOPKINS (Suz GSV-R), Bridgestone, 1:41.245 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suz GSX-R), Bridgestone, 1:41.305 9. Colin EDWARDS (Yam YZR-M1), Michelin, 1:41.339 10. Alex BARROS (Duc GP07), Bridgestone, 1:41.362 11. Loris CAPIROSSI (Duc GP07), Bridgestone, 1:41.409 12. Marco MELANDRI (Hon RC212V), Bridgestone, 1:41.418 13. Nicky HAYDEN (Hon RC212V), Michelin, 1:41.536 14. Randy DE PUNIET (Kaw ZX-RR), Bridgestone, 1:41.666 15. Alex HOFMANN (Duc GP07), Bridgestone, 1:41.835 16. Makoto TAMADA (Yam YZR-M1), Dunlop, 1:42.097 17. Shinya NAKANO (Hon RC212V), Michelin, 1:42.199 18. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yam YZR-M1), Dunlop, 1:42.311 19. Olivier JACQUE (Kaw ZX-RR), Bridgestone, 1:42.402 20. Kousuke AKIYOSHI (Suz GSV-R), Bridgestone, 1:42.549 More, from a press release issued by Ducati: STONER UP FRONT AGAIN, CAPIROSSI CLOSE BEHIND Ducati Marlboro Team men Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi made a promising start at gloriously sunny Jerez today, placing a close fourth and 11th quickest after the first two practice sessions. World Championship leader Stoner was just three tenths down on the fastest man of the day, proving that his Qatar-winning Desmosedici GP7 adapts well from circuit to circuit. Capirossi was a slender two tenths further down amongst the tightly packed leading bunch of MotoGP riders, the top 15 separated by just 0.984 seconds. This afternoon the Italian bettered his morning pace by more than one second and is confident he can move further forward tomorrow. Casey Stoner, 4th fastest, 1m 41.171s “Things are okay but I suppose we shouldn’t really expect any less than what we’ve done today. Everybody is saying how fast the Ducati is and how that’s the only reason we were up front at the last race but here we’re still sticking it in there against the hometown boys, even though there’s no big straight, so the Ducati is proving it’s a good package. There’s a few things we need to improve – we need to find a little bit more rear grip and we need to improve the turning a little bit through the entry and the middle of corners, so for tomorrow we’ll just tweak the suspension and geometry. Otherwise I think we’re already pretty happy with our race set-up. We made the best tyre selection we could for this race and we’re just trying to do the best job we can with it, same as Qatar.” Loris Capirossi, 11th fastest, 1m 41.409s “We started this morning with a very similar setting to what we ran at Qatar and we lost most of the first session because it wasn’t the best choice for this track – we were trying to find more traction but in the end that meant I didn’t have enough feeling from the front. So we completely changed the set-up for this afternoon, going back to more standard settings, and things started to go better. I can now lap easily enough around 41.5 or 41.6 but we need to make another step forward to be really okay because our target is to lap in the low 41s. Tomorrow morning I’ll do a mini race run to check tyre endurance but I can honestly say I’m happy with the direction we took this afternoon and confident that we can improve more for the race.” Elias Takes 3rd on Opening Day in Jerez Round 02 – Jerez – Free Practice Circuit de Jerez, Spain Friday 23 March 2007 Spanish Honda Gresini rider Toni Elias started his home GP weekend in fine style by taking third place after today’s two free practice sessions concluded at the Circuito de Jerez in southern Spain. Elias was one of three riders to lap under 1m41s this afternoon in a closely-packed field which saw little over half-a-second separate the top twelve. Qatar GP race winner Casey Stoner took his Bridgestone-shod Ducati to fourth spot lapping consistently in the 1m41s bracket throughout the day. The Suzuki duo of John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen continued to show good pace after fourth and seventh-placed results in Qatar two weeks’ ago with just 0.060s splitting the pair in seventh and eighth places respectively this afternoon. Rounding out the top ten, Alex Barros was on the pace for the Pramac d’Antin team, lapping a mere 0.057s adrift of Vermeulen’s time. Just behind him came Loris Capirossi in 11th for Ducati and Marco Melandri in 12th for Honda Gresini, both only 0.56s from the fastest time of the day set by Honda LCR’s Carlos Checa. Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet and Olivier Jacque were 14th and 19th, Pramac d’Antin’s Alex Hofmann was 15th and, making a wildcard entry this weekend, Kousuke Akiyoshi rounded off the list in 20th on his Suzuki. Akiyoshi’s participation this weekend ensures that Bridgestone is supplying tyres to more riders than at any other MotoGP event with a total of 11 riders. Tyre Talk with Shinji Aoki Bridgestone Motorsport Assistant Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development What did Bridgestone evaluate with its teams today? “We did some initial tests with some of the different compounds we have brought here this weekend, with mainly a variety of soft and medium specifications for each of our teams. The results have shown that consistent lap times in the mid-1m41s are possible, but through a combination of the tyres, the bike settings and further improving track conditions, we hope to lower this in tomorrow’s practice sessions. What is the plan for tomorrow morning’s practice session? “We have some important work to carry out in the morning. We will do some long runs with our teams to assess the performance differential and durability of the different compounds and from there the teams will be in a better position to close in on their race tyre choice for Sunday.” What have been the biggest differences between the February test and today’s practice sessions? “The riders have generally reported that there is less grip, even if the track conditions appear to be quite similar to the February test. The weather conditions have been roughly the same with ambient temperatures a bit lower but the track temperature rising above 30° this afternoon. Other than that, I think we have a reasonably good correlation between the data we accumulated at the test and the performance of the tyres here today.” Bridgestone Combined Free Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P3 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 1m41.613s (5) 1m40.972s (3) +0.121s P4 Casey Stoner Ducati 1m41.450s (3) 1m41.171s (4) +0.320s P7 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m41.860s (6) 1m41.245s (7) +0.394s P8 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m42.269s (12) 1m41.305s (8) +0.454s P10 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 1m42.383s (13) 1m41.362s (10) +0.511s P11 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m42.427s (14) 1m41.409s (11) +0.558s P12 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 1m41.418s (2) 1m41.477s (12) +0.567s P14 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1m42.892s (16) 1m41.666s (14) +0.815s P15 Alex Hofmann Pramac d’Antin 1m42.515s (15) 1m41.835s (15) +0.984s P19 Olivier Jacque Kawasaki 1m42.997s (17) 1m42.402s (18) +1.551s P20 Kousuke Akiyoshi Suzuki 1m44.168s (20) 1m42.549s (20) +1.698s Weather: Dry – Air 12°C, Track 15°C, Humidity 20% (Session 1) / Air 20°C, Track 31°C, Humidity 15% (Session 2) More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Solid day’s work for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP in Spain Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen recorded the seventh and eighth fastest times respectively during today’s free practice sessions for the Jerez Grand Prix on Sunday. Hopkins (1’41.245, 49 laps) is still suffering from his hand injury, but put together some fast laps on his Suzuki GSV-R as he worked with his team to find the best combination of Bridgestone race tyres to match the new 800cc bike’s performance around the 4.4km track. Hopkins missed the IRTA test at Jerez earlier in the year due to the injuries he sustained at Qatar and had to take a gamble on the correct tyres to use because he had no data as to how the new bike would perform on this circuit. Vermeulen is also not at full fitness this weekend, as Suzuki’s Australian star is suffering from a strong head cold. This didn’t deter the 24-year-old as he went about his work with the usual professional manner and saw his lap times reduce consistently throughout the day. His time of 1’41.305 from his 49 laps was the fastest time he had ever been round Jerez on race tyres. Team Test Rider Kousuke Akiyoshi produced the biggest improvement of any rider at the Spanish track today. He managed to take over one-and-a-half seconds off his lap-times from the morning to the afternoon session. His best time of 1’42.549 gave him 20th place overall, on this his first-ever European Grand Prix practice day. Today’s practice was held in dry sunny conditions with the air temperatures reaching 20°C. The fastest time was set by local Spanish favourite Carlos Checa on a Honda. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session tomorrow morning before qualifying gets underway in the afternoon. Sunday’s race will be over 27 laps and the light will turn to go at 14.00hrs local time (13.00hrs GMT). John Hopkins: “We’re off to a pretty good start for the weekend. We are working through the tyres with Bridgestone as I had to throw the dice and take a bit of a gamble with which tyres to choose for the new tyre rule. I never made it here for the IRTA test so I didn’t have a lot of information. It seems like what we’ve got is pretty good, but we are still going to work on some settings to get the best grip we can. I still have a bit of pain and this is a more physical track than Qatar so I am really feeling it. But I’ll ride around that and I am expecting to have a pretty good weekend. Everything has got off to a good start and if we get that bit more grip and get a good qualifying position tomorrow anything can happen come Sunday!” Chris Vermeulen: “The weather has changed a bit for this weekend and it was quite cold this morning. That made it a bit difficult to anything on the track in the beginning because the air and track temperatures were so cool. We made some changes with the bike and tried a different tyre this afternoon that gave us a bit more grip. I was consistently going quicker and after we made some small changes to the suspension I managed to do my fastest ever lap around here on race tyres. The bike is feeling pretty good and I can do one minute 41 second laps quite easily, so if I can do that come Sunday we might be quite near to the front!” Kousuke Akiyoshi: “I am pleased with my day today as I managed to improve my time in both sessions. I now know the track a bit better and cannot wait to get out there again tomorrow. I am really looking forward to the race as it will be my first GP in Europe and I have been told that Jerez is a great place to race at in a MotoGP.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “Jerez always produces very close lap times and today was no exception. The top 15 riders were covered by less than a second, which means that the fine details of the settings for the Rizla Suzuki, and how we get the best out of the Bridgestone tyres, will be even more critical than usual. Point two of a second in tomorrow’s qualifying will make a big difference to where you start from on Sunday. “We can’t be too displeased at our positions today, we have John still carrying his wrist injury and Chris with a quite heavy cold, but they are still both inside the top eight! Hopefully with some improvements in their conditions tomorrow and some changes in the settings of the GSV-R we’ll be able to take some more steps forward” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: KAWASAKI LOOKING FOR INSPIRATION IN JEREZ Kawasaki Racing Team riders, Randy de Puniet and Olivier Jacque were left looking for inspiration at the conclusion of today’s free practice at Jerez, after problems during both hour-long track sessions left them down in 14th and 19th place respectively. The Kawasaki Racing Team enjoyed a successful three-day test at the Jerez circuit less than one month ago, but the change in track temperature and surface conditions between then and now meant that both riders were struggling to find useable grip around the tight and technical 4.423 km track during today’s two, one-hour free practice sessions. After the disappointment of failing to finish in the opening race, de Puniet worked tirelessly today to find a solution to his rear traction problems. The 26-year-old Frenchman worked his way through a number of different combinations of chassis and suspension set-up, as he sought a solution to the problem of the rear tyre spinning up under acceleration. His efforts, combined with a rise in track temperature, paid dividends during this afternoon’s free practice period, with the Kawasaki pilot posting a lap time more than a second faster than this morning’s best effort. A lack of rear traction was also a problem for de Puniet’s Kawasaki teammate, Olivier Jacque. In addition to the problems at the rear, the 33-year-old Frenchman also struggled with a lack of confidence in the front end of his Ninja ZX-RR. A slight improvement to the set-up of the bike meant that Jacque was able to test the tyre options available late in this afternoon’s session, but will hold off on making a decision about a race tyre until he’s had another chance to work with his crew to refine the set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR during the final free practice session tomorrow. Confident that track conditions will be better suited to their Ninja ZX-RR machines tomorrow, both Kawasaki pilots will continue to work on set-up, before switching to qualifying tyres at the end of the second track session in order to secure a good grid position for Sunday’s 27-lap Spanish Grand Prix. Randy De Puniet: 14th – 50 Laps – Best Lap 1’41.666 “Well this weekend definitely didn’t start as we hoped or expected. It was a hard practice day today, as we experienced a lot of problems with the rear. The bike was sliding a lot in almost every corner. We tried different tyres from the choice we have for this weekend, but the performance was not what we were hoping for. The bike improved a lot in the afternoon and, looking at the timesheets, the gap with respect to the front guys is not so big. We are still confident, as we just need to adapt to the situation and we know our bike is capable of going well here.” Olivier Jacque: 19th 48 Laps Best Lap 1’42.402 “This morning we didn’t have any rear grip at all. I was expecting it to be better in the afternoon, as the track temperature increased, but even though it improved a little, it was not enough. The rear wheel kept spinning a lot and I had no traction, which prevented me carrying good corner speed. We tried different suspension settings, mainly on the rear, but also on the front as well. It looked to be better, although we need to confirm it tomorrow. The new engine mapping seems to make the power delivery friendlier at the bottom, but it still needs to be adjusted for full throttle.” Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager “If we look just at our position, we are far behind the top riders, but looking at the lap times, we are not. Certainly, we need to be faster but with surface conditions improving tomorrow and some adjustments in the machine’s balance, I think we will be ready for the race, which will be held under warmer conditions. The new ignition mapping seems to work and we have already decided the tyres. Though the temperature is a little higher now, I don’t think we will have problems.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Home trio reign in Spain at opening Jerez sessions Gran Premio bwin.com de España – Friday 23rd March Report Day 1 The opening practice sessions for the Gran Premio bwin.com de España took place today, with temperatures pleasantly warm at the Circuito de Jerez in Andalusia. The riders were able to make the most of every moment on track, in contrast to some of the preseason tests in Spain which were hit by adverse conditions. On a day of surprise timesheet-toppers at Jerez, Carlos Checa took the early advantage at today’s practice session to complete an all-Spanish fastest three. The LCR Honda rider clocked a time of 1’40.851, with little more than a tenth of a second separating him and countrymen Dani Pedrosa and Toni Elias. After Valentino Rossi’s triumph at the ‘qualifying’ session of last month’s Official MotoGP Test, and the awesome top speeds reached by Ducati at the opening race in Qatar, Honda will be pleased to have their trio at the head of the timesheets today. Casey Stoner, who so impressed with his performance at Losail less than two weeks ago, was fourth fastest ahead of Kenny Roberts Jr., the morning’s quickest rider. Five-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi was the final rider in the top six, although by no means off the pace in a tightly packed hour long final session. John Hopkins, who missed the final preseason test at Jerez due to a hand injury, was still obviously suffering from the after-effects during the session, clearly in pain as he sat in his pit in the early stages of the session. He was ahead of team-mate Chris Vermeulen, Colin Edwards and Alex Barros, whilst World Champion Nicky Hayden once again couldn’t quite find his rhythm at the Spanish circuit down in 13th. The American was a mere seven-tenths of a second off Checa’s best time, but must use tomorrow’s final day of practice to get into the groove before he kickstarts his title defence in earnest in Sunday’s race. 250cc Last year’s 250cc racewinner Jorge Lorenzo followed up his victory in round one at Qatar with a storming performance in the opening qualifying session. The reigning World Champion was nearly a second faster than second placed Marco Simoncelli after a hot lap of 1’43.145, laying down the gauntlet for his quarter-litre rivals. Hector Barbera and Roberto Locatelli were the final two riders on the provisional front row which, apart from Lorenzo, were separated by just one hundredth of a second. They headed the factory Honda duo of Shuhei Aoyama and Julian Simon, with 2006 125cc victor Alvaro Bautista in seventh. Fabrizio Lai, Andrea Dovizioso and Thomas Luthi completed the top ten. There was a light crash for Imre Toth, whilst Aleix Espargaro ran off track in the session. 125cc Mattia Pasini took charge at Jerez to take provisional pole for Sunday’s 125cc race, with a time of 1’47.371 putting him ahead of morning pacesetter Gabor Talmacsi in the opening qualifying session. The Italian was less than 2 tenths ahead of his Hungarian rival, with the duo the only riders to go round in under 1’48. Tomoyoshi Koyama and Lukas Pesek rounded off the provisional front row, with the latter suffering a spectacular crash late on in the session in which his bike highsided, colliding with Sergio Gadea as it came to a stop. The session also saw incidents involving Stefano Bianco and Randy Krummenacher, with a number of riders also experiencing lowside tumbles at the Spanish track. Simone Corsi, World Championship leader Hector Faubel, Raffaele de Rosa, Michael Ranseder, Alexis Masbou and Andrea Iannone completed the top ten in the lower cylinder category. Riding after the three MotoGP classes, the youngsters of the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup took to the track for their first ever practice sessions. Johann Zarco was the fastest of the rookies, ahead of Luis Salom, Cameron Beaubier and Cyril Carrillo. The competition is running alongside the MotoGP World Championship at seven European races this season. The riders will be back on track from 9am local time tomorrow, with final qualifying sessions for the Gran Premio bwin.com de España taking place in the afternoon. More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI AND EDWARDS LOOK FOR GRIP AT CHILLY JEREZ The first European race of the season got off to a slightly shaky start for Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards today, with the Fiat Yamaha Team riders struggling for rear grip at the Andalucian circuit of Jerez. The Italian and the American finished the day in sixth and ninth respectively and the weekend promises to be a close battle, with the top 12 riders all within half a second of each other after two free practice sessions. Despite clear skies and sunshine, this morning’s first practice was run in cold temperatures and, with the track temperature reaching a maximum of only 15 degrees, the conditions did not provide the riders with much chance to really get to grips with bike and tyre set-up. This afternoon was considerably warmer and both Rossi and Edwards improved their times and their general race-pace, but neither rider was able to find the perfect tyre combination with the current setting on their M1 and will hope to make considerable improvements tomorrow. The best time of the day was recorded by Honda rider and Spanish favourite Carlos Checa, who set a best lap of 1’40.851. Valentino Rossi Position: 6th Time: 1’41.198 Laps: 52 “Today was quite difficult for us, compared to how we began in Qatar! Unfortunately the situation with the tyre is not perfect, we don’t have enough grip and the problem is made worse because the condition of the track isn’t so good either. We have a lot less grip than we had at the test here so now we need to work more on the setting of the bike in order to improve the grip with the tyres we have. This morning the problem was a lot worse and we were quite worried after the first session, but we’ve worked very hard today and the situation this afternoon is a lot better. Anyway we’re not that far away at the end of the day, only sixth, and all the riders are very close together so I don’t think we need to worry yet. It’s clear that some of our rivals are very strong and it’s going to be a hard battle, so we need to make the most of the time we have left. I hope that the track grip will improve tomorrow as more rubber is laid down and I hope it will also be a little bit warmer in the morning so we can work properly during free practice.” Colin Edwards Position: 9th Time: 1’41.305 Laps: 52 “We’ve definitely got a little bit of a problem to deal with and I can’t say we’re in the same shape we were in at this stage of the Qatar race! We know what tyre worked here at the test and the bike is basically the same, with a few improvements, but the conditions here today are pretty different and it seems things aren’t quite working the way we expected. The main problem is that we can’t get the rear to hold on and we’re just sliding around a bit. It’s disappointing because at the test here our grip and our speed through the corners was our best thing, but here it seems we’ve lost that a bit and we’re not entirely sure why at the moment! We’ve tried quite a few different tyres but we couldn’t find something that worked perfectly today. We’re obviously restricted with our tyre choice because of the new rules, so now we’re going to need to make some changes to the bike in order to get it to work with what we’ve got. The bike feels great and I’m happy with it, it’s just a matter of grip. We’ve got a lot of ideas and we’ll have a good chat about it tonight and start again in the morning. I am sure we’ll be able to come up with something!” Davide Brivio — Team Director “Compared to the test we have a lot less grip so now we have to work at 100% to find a way to make the bike work with the tyres we’ve got. The team and riders are working hard together to find the right combination between the elements and tomorrow we will keep going. Obviously the situation isn’t perfect and we need to come up with some good ideas as at the moment we’re not in the best race-shape, but we’re confident we can make some big improvements tomorrow. This morning was very cold and it was difficult to work properly like that so really we only had the afternoon. Let’s hope it’s warmer tomorrow!” More, form a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: KONICA MINOLTA Honda confident of qualifying comeback KONICA MINOLTA Honda finished in a lowly 17th place in an admittedly close-fought opening practice session for the second race of the 2007 MotoGP season. KONICA MINOLTA Honda rider Shinya Nakano was 10th during the morning free practice, but following the timed afternoon session he slipped down the order. Now the Team will be working hard and looking at the data to ensure that the 29-year-old Japanese rider is much further up the grid tomorrow during the afternoon’s timed qualifying session. Many riders failed to equal their promise shown a month ago at the official IRTA test, including Nakano. In testing, Shinya did a 1’40.242″ on qualifying tyres but on race tyres he set a best of 1′ 41.269″ showing that there should be more to come from the former 250cc championship runner-up tomorrow. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “We have to be positive when we look at these results as tomorrow is another day. It wasn’t so easy for us as Shinya wasn’t able to make the same lap time as during the IRTA test here a month ago. Obviously none of us expected to face this situation, so we need to check the data and support our rider to get back to the front of the field. We will consider going back to the same set up as winter testing and hopefully get closer to that test lap-time. We have to consider that we tested some different tyres today so we’re confident to improve our performance and aim for a grid slot on the first few rows. We have some more tyres to test tomorrow and Shinya will try to be more aggressive in riding.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (50 laps 1’42.199″) “Quite simply it was not my day today. We now have to look forward and I’m looking for the same sort of times as from the IRTA test or better. We also need to understand why we are in this position. The feeling from the bike is a little different, even with the setting being similar, but the bike doesn’t turn as well and I’m not getting such a good feeling from the front-end of the machine. We had a similar problem in the morning and adjusted the suspension settings for the afternoon, so maybe we’ve not gone in the right way. I need more confidence in the front tyre but I’m sure the Team and I can find it.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “We are not satisfied because if we were making the same lap time from the test we could have been in 6th or 7th position at the end of today. We started from same set-up as the test but the lap-time was not so good in this morning’s cold temperatures. The afternoon session had similar temperatures to the IRTA test, so our position is puzzling for us. Shinya said his feeling is not so good on the entry of the corner as he reaches his limit quickly and from then he finds it hard to improve over time. He also finds it hard to hold his line in the corner. Today we tested two completely different settings for the number one bike and the spare bike, so our first decision tomorrow will be look at our settings and work with our tyre partner Michelin to find a way to get more feeling with the front tyre for Shinya.” More, from a press release issued by Gresini Racing Honda: TONI ELIAS SHOWS FRONT ROW POTENTIAL AT JEREZ The MotoGP World Championship returned to Europe today as the second round of the season got underway in Spain at Jerez de la Frontera. The Grand Prix of Spain looks like being an even closer affair than usual, with fifteen of the twenty riders in the field separated by less than a second. The free practice programme started in the best possible way for the Gresini Honda rider Toni Elias setting the third fastest time – just one tenth off pacesetter Carlos Checa (Honda), with Dani Pedrosa completing an all-Honda and all-Spanish top three. Elias immediately felt comfortable in the morning session and in the afternoon he was able to continue working on set-up, improving his feeling with the bike and tyres. It was also a good day for Marco Melandri, who was second fastest in the morning but dropped to twelfth in the afternoon despite only being six tenths off Checa’s best lap of 1’40″851. Melandri, who arrived in Jerez with flu, has focused on finding a set-up and tyre choice for the demanding circuit conditions, which change dramatically from the morning to the afternoon. TONI ELIAS (3rd 1’40″972): “To set the third fastest time on the first day is a good way to start, even though we are all very close and we need to keep working. The test after the race in Qatar was really useful and today I found a good feeling straight away. I have got a good rhythm and it will be important to keep working with the Bridgestone technicians to choose the right tyres for the characteristics of this circuit.” MARCO MELANDRI (12th, 1’41″477): “We’re all very close. I’m happy with the way the bike is working with the tyres. The track conditions changed a lot from the morning to the afternoon, making it difficult to find a good set-up. Tomorrow we have to continue to work on the suspension to improve the feeling. I tried to do a run of a few laps but I was still struggling with the flu and it was hard to breathe properly. In any case I’m really confident about the rest of the weekend.”