2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Sepang, Malaysia October 19, 2007 Free Practice One & Two Combined Results: 1. Randy DE PUNIET (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 2:02.917 2. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 2:02.928 3. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), Bridgestone, 2:03.661 4. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 2:03.767 5. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 2:03.825 6. Toni ELIAS (Honda), Bridgestone, 2:04.031 7. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yamaha), Dunlop, 2:04.094 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 2:04.455 9. John HOPKINS (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 2:04.494 10. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 2:04.752 11. Carlos CHECA (Honda), Michelin, 2:04.770 12. Alex BARROS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 2:04.774 13. Loris CAPIROSSI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 2:04.940 14. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 2:05.162 15. Nobuatsu AOKI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 2:05.234 16. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Michelin, 2:05.421 17. Chaz DAVIES (Ducati), Bridgestone, 2:05.897 18. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Michelin, 2:05.939, crash 19. Makoto TAMADA (Yamaha), Dunlop, 2:06.429 20. Kurtis ROBERTS (KR-Honda), Michelin, 2:07.033 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: De Puniet impresses as Bridgestone gets to grips with resurfaced Sepang Round 17 Malaysia Free Practice Sepang International Circuit, Friday 19 October 2007 Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet set a searing pace under cloudy skies at the Sepang International Circuit this afternoon to lead the opening day of practice in preparation for Sunday’s Malaysian GP with an impressive time of 2m02.917s. 2007 MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner was right on De Puniet’s tail at the end of the second session, just 0.011s slower than the Frenchman aboard his Ducati. De Puniet and Stoner’s best times today were just 0.8s slower than the best race pace set by Loris Capirossi on a Bridgestone-shod 990cc Ducati in last year’s event. Marco Melandri completed the top three after a solid day’s work, while his Honda Gresini team-mate Toni Elias was in an encouraging sixth place. One place ahead of Elias was an equally impressive Anthony West, who was classified in fifth, making it two Kawasakis in the top five. Both Suzukis also got off to flying starts with Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins in eighth and ninth. Bridgestone has brought harder specification tyres to this weekend’s Malaysian Grand Prix in order to combat the demands of the new asphalt, which has resulted in a Sepang track that is more aggressive on tyres than in the past. Also considering the stresses placed on the central part of the tyre down the two ultra long straights, Bridgestone will continue to analyse the performance of the tyres over longer runs tomorrow as the track continues to pick up pace ahead of Sunday’s 21-lap race. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development What work has Bridgestone focussed on today? “As usual we have used the two Friday sessions to compare the different compounds that we have available this weekend. The morning session was important to understand how the new asphalt affects tyre performance because it was quite a step into the unknown for everyone today. The lap times were quite slow as we all began to understand the subtle differences in the track characteristics. The second session was cut short really by the lunchtime rain and the track did not dry out until half way through the hour. Once the track improved, the lap times dropped compared to the morning session with Randy lapping only 0.8s slower than last year’s race best.” How has the recently resurfaced asphalt affected tyre performance? “The new surface is very smooth and initially lap times were around five seconds slower than the best race pace that we saw in last year’s GP (2m02.127s set by Loris Capirossi), but these times were greatly reduced in the afternoon. From today’s results we can see that the newly laid track is more abrasive on tyres, so we have to use harder specs compared to last year and pre-season testing. There are different specs within the hard range, but generally the tyres we have are among the hardest tyres we will use this season. There is a lot of work to be done but, from a tyre point of view, the most important job is to understand the performance and consistency of the rubber over the 21 lap race distance. This is something we will work on tomorrow, weather of course permitting.” Bridgestone Combined Free Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P1 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 2m06.270s (5) 2m02.917s (1) Fastest P2 Casey Stoner Ducati 2m04.542s (1) 2m02.928s (2) +0.011s P3 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 2m06.872s (10) 2m03.661s (3) +0.744s P5 Anthony West Kawasaki 2m06.721s (9) 2m03.825s (5) +0.908s P6 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 2m06.995s (13) 2m04.031s (6) +1.114s P8 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 2m06.898s (11) 2m04.455s (8) +1.528s P9 John Hopkins Suzuki 2m05.846s (4) 2m04.494s (9) +1.577s P12 Alex Barros Pramac D’Antin 2m06.519s (6) 2m04.744s (12) +1.857s P13 Loris Capirossi Ducati 2m06.631s (8) 2m04.940s (13) +2.023s P15 Nobuatsu Aoki Suzuki 2m06.952s (12) 2m05.234s (15) +2.317s P17 Chaz Davies Pramac D’Antin 2m09.892s (19) 2m05.897s (17) +2.980s Weather: AM Session / Dry – Air 29°C, Track 32°C, Humidity 67% PM Session / Wet – Dry – Air 29°C, Track 31°C, Humidity 70% More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Randy de Puniet opened proceedings for the Polini Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix as the fastest MotoGP rider of the day, clocking a time of 2’02.917 onboard the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR800 in the afternoon session in Sepang. The Frenchman stayed in his garage for the early part of the second free practice outing, alongside many other MotoGP stars holding out for a drier track and the ceasing of a light shower. As happened yesterday, an early afternoon downpour left the track wet after some early humidity, something which could make qualifying for the penultimate race of the 2007 season very eventful indeed. New MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner was inevitably amongst the early frontrunners, just 11 thousandths of a second slower than De Puniet’s marker. The Australian was the fastest rider in the first free practice session, although all riders improved upon their times on their second opportunity to adjust to the track. Marco Melandri, Dani Pedrosa, Anthony West and Toni Elias complete the top six, separated by just over a second in the early going. Practice sessions perhaps took extra importance today, with last year’s grid organised by combined times after a torrential downpour on the Saturday afternoon. Sylvain Guintoli was seventh fastest onboard the Dunlop-shod Tech 3 Yamaha, trailed by the Suzuki duo of Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins. The third Suzuki bike, the base model for the 2008 GSV-R800, was ridden for the first time alongside the entire MotoGP field by test rider Nobuatsu Aoki, and the Japanese wild card was less than a second off Vermeulen’s time in 15th. 2006 MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden rounds off the top ten on day one. 250cc The only two riders still involved in the fight for the 250cc World Championship, it was almost inevitable that Jorge Lorenzo and Andrea Dovizioso would come out all guns blazing in the opening qualifying session at the Sepang circuit. The duo were separated by just nine hundredths of a second as reigning World Champion Lorenzo took provisional pole for Sunday’s race. Dovizioso made a late charge to reclaim the second spot from Alvaro Bautista, putting in a flying lap after the chequered flag had fallen. The Italian is depending on a slip-up from Lorenzo to allow him any chance of closing the 45 point gap that divides them in the overall classification, and he saw his rival experience a light crash this morning on the final corner in the wet. Dovizioso now just has to go all-out for the victory and hope that the normally unflappable Lorenzo buckles under the pressure. Thomas Luthi rounded off the provisional front row, still in search of his maiden 250cc podium despite a number of close calls. Mika Kallio, Marco Simoncelli, Hiroshi Aoyama and Roberto Locatelli make up the second line of attack. 125cc Wet conditions in the early afternoon saw riders in the 125cc category having only a brief run out in Sepang. Of those undertaking a reduced workload on a slippery surface, Pablo Nieto surprised by taking provisional pole on his final lap with the Blusens Aprilia machine. The 27 year-old was hardly on blistering pace with a 2’23.886 lap eleven seconds slower than the circuit record for a 125cc machine, but still carved out a sizeable gap of nearly three seconds on Polaris World’s Mattia Pasini, his closest rival on the board this afternoon. Lukas Pesek, title challenger Gabor Talmacsi, Stefan Bradl and Mike di Meglio complete the provisional top six, ahead of Sandro Cortese, Esteve Rabat, Michael Ranseder and Bradley Smith. In the running for the World Championship this season, Hector Faubel suffered a minor setback when he failed to meet the 107% qualifying cut-off point. Drier conditions tomorrow would suit the Spaniard well, as he looks to put himself in a prime spot to take on team-mate Talmacsi for the title. More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Comfortable first day for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP at Sepang Rizla Suzuki completed a full day’s practice at Sepang in Malaysia despite tricky conditions caused by the track surface and the weather. Chris Vermeulen (2’04.455, 38 laps) and John Hopkins (2’04.494, 32 laps) finished the day in eighth and ninth places respectively and both riders are confident that they will be able to improve on those times tomorrow. Team Test Rider Nobuatsu Aoki (2’05.234, 34 laps) was 15th overall on the early prototype version of the 2008 GSV-R that he was using here this weekend. Aoki’s bike showed an impressive top speed today as he finished fourth overall in the speed-trap on the long start-finish straight at the Malaysian circuit. The recently re-surfaced track at Sepang and intermittent showers made traction very difficult for long periods of both sessions and all three riders worked hard with Bridgestone to find the correct combination of tyres to suit the varying conditions. Vermeulen, Hopkins and Aoki will all be hoping for dry sessions tomorrow as the more rubber that is laid down from all the bikes’ tyres will assist with grip and improve overall handling and rideability. Today’s quickest time was set by Randy de Puniet on his Bridgestone-shod factory Kawasaki. The Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers will have one more free practice session on Saturday morning with the qualifying session in the afternoon. Sunday’s race is round 17 on the MotoGP calendar and the 21-lap race gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (07.00hrsGMT). Chris Vermeulen: “It was a bit of a strange day here at Sepang, there was a new surface and it was quite slippery in the beginning, not just for me but for everyone. Bridgestone did a great job with the tyre selection and we found some compounds that worked in our allocation – they seemed to behave very well on this surface and have a good durability. This afternoon started wet and it was hard to find a dry line, but my team improved the bike a lot during the session and every time I went out it seemed better and more comfortable to ride. Every lap I felt like I was getting quicker as I got used to the new surface. Hopefully we can improve more tomorrow and move further up the order!” John Hopkins: “The track surface this morning was extremely bad, it was very slick and like glass out there. This afternoon with the wet weather we only really got half a session with a dry track, but once we got up to speed the surface was a lot better than this morning and as more rubber gets down on it it will just improve more. We went through some tyre testing and a bit of set-up, but we will be working hard tomorrow and hopefully it will stay dry and we will be a lot stronger. I am pretty positive that we will be able to improve on our position by a decent amount!” Nobuatsu Aoki: “We have brought the 2008 prototype here to race for the first time; the reason is to get the chassis set-up for race conditions. We have tested a lot in Japan but that is nothing like setting it up at a race weekend. Right now it is working pretty good and as you can see the top-speed is good because the engineers have been working hard on the aerodynamics of the bike, so that helps with the speed. We still have space to improve tomorrow and to try and race with Chris and John over the weekend is our target. We need to get some good settings for tomorrow and see where we can go from there.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It was a pretty average day at the office today for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP. No big dramas but nothing too exciting to shout about either. However, we know the potential of the GSV-R and our riders at this track and, despite the new surface, without question we didn’t quite perform at our maximum today. Tomorrow we should have a better starting baseline for the bike in chassis setting and various other areas and I believe we can be a lot closer to the fastest times than we were today.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: DE PUNIET FLIES TO THE TOP OF THE TIME SHEET Typically hot, humid weather greeted the arrival of the MotoGP paddock to Sepang as the first practice sessions of the Malaysian Grand Prix took place today at the 5.55km circuit, near Kuala Lumpur. The Kawasaki Racing Team’s resident French speed demon, Randy de Puniet, launched himself in to the spirit of things straight away, with an impressive performance in the morning session, resulting in his coming fifth fastest on the time sheets. However, his efforts in the afternoon saw the 26-year-old taking his 800cc ZX-RR to the top of the leader boards, finishing the day with a best time of 2’02.917 after 17 laps. De Puniet claimed the lead just over half way in to the hour-long session and even this year’s new world champion, Casey Stoner, whilst able to close in, had to settle for second, unable to catch up. Only four riders were able to come within a second of de Puniet’s time and his team mate, Anthony West, having a similarly good day at Sepang, was one of them. He ended the second practice in fifth place, with a best run of 2’03.825. It seems that his earlier concerns at not knowing the circuit as well as the rest of the MotoGP field, who practice here during winter (West only joined MotoGP in June), may be unfounded. With only Stoner, Marco Melandri and Dani Pedrosa separating the 26-year-old Australian and his fellow Ninja rider, West showed today he’s more than capable of running with or, indeed, faster than, many more experienced premier class pilots. With both Kawasakis looking so strong, and their Bridgestone tyres offering plenty of reassuring grip on the newly-resurfaced track, the weekend has got off to an excellent start for the squad, who hope to continue in this vein during tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions and on into Sunday’s 21-lap race. Randy De Puniet #14 – 1st – Best Lap 2’02.917 “During the first part of the practice session the track conditions weren’t so easy, which is why I stayed in the pits, but I went out on track after about 20 minutes. The surface was becoming dry and I feel I did a good job. I tried a hard compound race tyre, which gave me a really good feeling, so I’m pleased with that, and I did some really good, consistent lap times so it’s not been such a bad day! I think we can improve the bike a little bit for tomorrow but I think, for the first day, we’ve not done badly.” Anthony West #13 – 5th – Best Lap 2’03.825 “It was my first time here on this bike and I’m really pleased with the way it went today. The track’s okay but there are some slippery areas which never seem to completely dry out and, while grip’s not perfect, it should get better over the weekend when the surface gets some more rubber laid down on it. However, my tyres have been feeling pretty good. At Phillip Island, I had a lot of problems with the rear but today I had loads more grip, so things have already improved and hopefully we can keep getting better tomorrow.” Christophe Bourguignon De Puniet’s Crew Chief “Conditions this morning meant the new surface was really slippery so we couldn’t really set up our machine. The lap times were really slow and we decided not to touch the bike during lunchtime, keeping the morning set up to see what it would do when it was drier. At the beginning of the afternoon session, the track was still not completely dry so we decided that Randy would stay in for the first 20 minutes. The weather is due to be bad tomorrow so we planned for him to do just two, long runs on two different-spec race tyres, so we could get a thorough evaluation of them. Obviously we will slightly adjust the set up: the mapping, engine braking and suspension, but it looks like both Randy and the bike are at a good level after only one day.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: REPSOL HONDA TEAM TACKLE NEW SURFACE AT SEPANG The Malaysian Grand Prix began today with two hours of MotoGP free practice in typically tropical conditions at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur. The Repsol Honda Team riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa used the morning session to begin tailoring the set-up of their factory RC212Vs to the newly-laid surface at the World Championship’s longest circuit. A rain shower curtailed the final moments of the morning hour with Dani Pedrosa lying in a promising second place and Nicky Hayden just behind in third. Heavy rainfall at lunchtime saw the afternoon session starting with a partially wet track and the MotoGP field progressing from full wet tyres to intermediates to slicks as the surface slowly dried. Dani Pedrosa was quick again and spent a significant portion of the session at the head of the timesheets, before slipping to fourth when the chequered flag came out just before 3pm. Hayden improved his pace from the morning by a full second, though the 2006 World Champion felt he delayed the switch to slick tyres for too long and wasn’t fully satisfied with his finishing position of tenth. With new asphalt covering several sections of Sepang’s 5.548km (3.447-mile) lap, the track’s surface grip is expected to increase throughout the weekend. Practice continues on Saturday morning with the one-hour qualifying session beginning at 1.50pm local time, when the Repsol Honda Team will be looking to record their fourth consecutive pole position. The 21-lap Malaysian Grand Prix begins at 3pm local time on Sunday (9am CET, 8am UK). Dani Pedrosa 4th Fastest lap: 2m 03.767s “The day went pretty well and we’ve made a lot of progress with the set-up today. The new surface here seems ok. There are some sections of the new track where there are many small bumps but they are not too severe so we should be able to deal with them. Also the grip is not bad, although the feeling is slightly strange through some sections of the track I think because it is a new surface. We’re expecting the grip to improve as more rubber is laid down over the course of the weekend. I think we were pretty lucky with the weather today. We lost some time in both sessions, but we missed the worst of the rain. Tomorrow we’ll continue with the set-up work and hopefully get a good starting position in qualifying. It would be nice to have three pole positions in a row of course, but our rivals look strong again so we’ll have to work very hard for it.” Nicky Hayden 10th Fastest lap: 2m 04.752s “This morning wasn’t bad at all and we got on the pace straight away. This afternoon wasn’t that stellar though. I probably wasted too much time on full wets and intermediates. In those conditions, especially on intermediates, is where I need to step up my game because we could get these conditions really easily on Sunday. Once we got going we improved our speed from this morning but we’re quite a way from where we need to be. Parts of the track feel ok but we’ve got to find something more with the tyres if we want to be competitive, otherwise we could be in a little bit of trouble. Maybe the track will clean up and start being kinder on the tyres. It’s quite strange coming here with a completely new surface because we’ve done so many practice laps on the old surface and we were very familiar with it. The surface was quite dirty and slippery this morning to start with. It’s definitely getting a bit better so it would be nice to get some more dry weather tomorrow, put down some rubber and move things forward.” Makoto Tanaka Repsol Honda Team Manager “We had 50 minutes of dry practice this morning and 40 minutes this afternoon and we should be grateful for this considering the rain that fell at lunchtime. Dani went quite well today and his feeling from the new surface and the machine was good. Nicky went well this morning but struggled to get a rhythm this afternoon after perhaps staying out on wet and intermediates a little bit too long. Some of our rivals look strong again today so we must examine the data from today’s sessions and prepare to make some adjustments to the machine settings we use tomorrow. The afternoon weather here is so unpredictable, but we expect the track surface condition to continue to improve and our lap times to come down further.” More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: Difficult conditions for KONICA MINOLTA Honda at Malaysian GP Changeable weather conditions have once more hampered the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team’s progress during the first practice day for this weekend’s MotoGP race. Team rider Shinya Nakano also suffered two harmless crashes today one a result of a mechanical problem for the rider ahead of him when the 30-year-old Japanese rider collided with Chaz Davies and crashed. The second crash in the afternoon session happened at the end of the timed hour when the former 250cc GP runner-up was pushing hard to improve his time in the tricky conditions. It is hoped that the weather and temperature will improve in time for tomorrow’s qualifying session at the 3.447-mile circuit. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “This morning Shinya was unlucky as there was a problem for Chaz Davies ahead of him and they touched and Shinya crashed. This compromised his practice session in the morning. Once more we have seen conditions during practice that haven’t been easy to handle for the riders! We’ve had some rain, then it’s stopped, then it’s dried out and we’ve gone onto slick tyres again. The feedback is that Shinya needs more feeling from the front tyre because he simply doesn’t have the feeling with the machine. In the last two laps of the afternoon session he was making his best lap time but was not able to finish the last lap as he crashed at turn four. It seems likely that the weather and temperature conditions will probably change again tomorrow and this along with the fact 70% of the track has new asphalt on it will mean that we will probably have to start again to find a good setting. We hope these conditions will change for the better so that Shinya will hopefully get some more grip from the front tyre.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (29 laps 2′ 05.939 “) “It’s not been my day today! This morning Chaz Davies was ahead of me and he had a problem with his engine and suddenly slowed in front of me and I hit him from behind. This afternoon I was pushing hard and lost the front, maybe because of the combination of our tyres and suspension not being perfect. The new asphalt and weather conditions makes things very difficult for all the riders. There are fewer bumps than before, which is good, but much less grip. Tomorrow we will work hard to improve our situation.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Conditions have again been so difficult for us and we’ve had the two crashes, but these things happen. In the afternoon conditions were finally coming better and better. We started with rain tyres and then slicks, but the track was not completely dry, as it had wet patches in some corners. Shinya had problems with both the contact feeling and grip from the front tyre and this was the reason behind his second crash. He was behind Dani Pedrosa and trying to push hard, but lost the front. Whatever the conditions it seems we have to find more feeling and grip from the front-end of our Honda RC212V. Conditions have been difficult for all the riders today with the wet and the new asphalt, so if the weather improves tomorrow we will all be starting again to find a good setting for the race.” More, from a press release issued by Gresini Honda: GOOD START FOR MELANDRI AND ELIAS AT SEPANG Melandri sets front row pace with Elias sixth Team Honda Gresini’s two riders made the most of the first day of free practice in Malaysia, the penultimate Grand Prix of the season, as they worked on the set-up of their bikes at a circuit that was resurfaced only a few weeks ago. Rainfall at the end of the morning session made track conditions difficult for the afternoon, whilst further complications are expected tomorrow with uncertain weather conditions again the forecast. Marco Melandri was on front row pace, lapping third fastest – 0.7 seconds behind Randy De Puniet, the fastest man of the day. Toni Elias lapped sixth fastest and felt much more comfortable than he did a week ago in Australia, with this being one of his favourite circuits. MARCO MELANDRI (3rd, 2.03.661): “It has been a positive day overall for me. The new surface is still a little bumpy but the grip is good. The track conditions changed a lot from the morning to the afternoon and hopefully they should be better tomorrow. We worked well with the set-up and our tyre choice seems to be right. We’re satisfied to have found a good feeling with the rubber on this surface and we still have another tyre to try tomorrow. The weather forecast is uncertain tomorrow but hopefully it will settle down for the race.” TONI ELIAS (6th, 2.04.031): “I’m happy to be in sixth place but we still have a lot of work to do on the set-up. The rain slowed us down and the damp track in the afternoon was difficult to ride on because it seems the new surface doesn’t drain very well. Anyway, I really like the layout here and we’ve done a good job today.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI AND EDWARDS STRUGGLE FOR GRIP IN SEPANG The Malaysian Grand Prix, the penultimate round of the 2007 season, got off to a poor start for Fiat Yamaha Team riders Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi today, the pair finishing the day a lowly 14th and 16th in the standings. The combined timesheets were topped by Randy de Puniet after a best lap of 2’02.917. With the track having been completely resurfaced since preseason testing the riders spent this morning’s session getting a feel for the new surface, with Rossi and Edwards 7th and 15th fastest at the close of the hour. Rain at lunchtime meant this afternoon’s session began on a wet track, with the asphalt drying steadily in patches throughout the practice. Rossi and Edwards worked hard on set-up and tyres but lacked grip throughout and neither rider was able to come up with a magic formula, leaving the team with work to do overnight if they are to be in a position to challenge during tomorrow’s qualifying. Colin Edwards Position: 14th Time: 2’05.162 Laps: 39 “Today was pretty embarrassing to be honest! Michelin have brought me a rear tyre that I know works for me here and there’s no problem with that, but unfortunately I’ve got no grip or confidence in the front. It’s not for lack of trying, I’m riding pretty hard out there, but we haven’t been able to fix it yet. The new surface doesn’t feel good at all, it seems very inconsistent to me, and this is just making things harder. Hopefully it’ll improve as more rubber gets laid down tomorrow. We need to have a good look at things tonight and start over again tomorrow.” Valentino Rossi Position: 16th Time: 2’05.421 Laps: 38 “Today has been very hard work for us and it’s very disappointing for me to be here, at one of my favourite tracks where we know our bike goes well, in 16th position! We don’t have any grip, especially in front, and we were very slow today. We’ve tried a lot of tyres and different settings but so far we haven’t been able to make much progress. The new asphalt is not so good but we can’t blame this because other riders don’t seem to have the same problems as we do. We need to find some way to improve things and make the difference for tomorrow, so now we will have a meeting tonight and try to come up with some ideas. Hopefully it will be dry tomorrow because the rain makes it even harder!” Davide Brivio Fiat Yamaha Team Director “We definitely have a lot of work to do with both of our riders. This is a track which we know very well and at which we have a great record, but the new surface means the conditions are quite different and we are suffering from a lack of grip. We need to look at what we’ve found out today and come up with some ideas tonight in order to find a combination of settings and tyres which works on this surface and in these conditions. It’s only Friday and hopefully we can make a big step forward with both Valentino and Colin tomorrow morning.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM’S STONER A CLOSE SECOND QUICKEST AT SEPANG, CAPIROSSI 13TH Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi finished today’s opening two Malaysian GP practice sessions second and 13th fastest. Changeable conditions dominated the day with rain falling in the closing minutes of this morning’s session and the track still damp as the afternoon outing got underway. Both riders sensibly waited a few minutes before venturing out this afternoon, World Champion Stoner taking to the track 15 minutes into the session and taking just three laps to go fastest. He ended the hour second quickest, just 11 thousandths of a second off the best lap of the day, while Capirossi struggled with bike set-up and ended the day 13th. CASEY STONER, 2nd fastest, 2m 02.928s “I waited a little bit before I went out this afternoon because we wanted quality laps, not quantity – there’s no point destroying a set of tyres when the track’s not right. It seems like there’s been a lot of races where we’ve had to contend with wet practices this year. Today was also quite difficult because the new track surface isn’t so good, it’s much bumpier and more slippery than in the past and there’s a lot of dust and dirt on it, so we can’t seem to find a lot of grip, though maybe it’ll get better with some more laps. Anyway, we’re pretty happy with the bike set-up, we’ve not changed so much since this morning, and we’ve almost done race distance on the tyres because this afternoon we used the same tyres, so things are looking good and we’re quite happy with the day.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 13th fastest, 2m 04.940s “The new surface isn’t very grippy in some areas and in others it’s very bumpy. But the big thing for me today was that my bike was moving around a lot and we aren’t sure why, we aren’t sure whether it’s coming from the engine set-up or the chassis set-up. Anyway, today is the first day so we’ve got some time to work out how to improve the bike, so long as we have some good dry track time tomorrow. This afternoon we didn’t go out at the start the session because it was neither wet nor dry, so we wanted to save my tyres. We are looking forward to improving tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Media Service: DANI PEDROSA, FOURTH ON THE FIRST DAY OF PRACTICE FOR THE MALAYSIAN GRAND PRIX The Repsol Honda Team rider set the second best time in the morning and the fourth best in the afternoon. His teammate Nicky Hayden, was third in the morning and tenth in the afternoon. The new track surface played a big role on the first day. The high temperatures and humidity that are typical in Malaysia welcomed the World Motorcycling Championship to the circuit of Sepang today. An overcast sky this morning brought the threat of rain at any moment. It appeared right at the end of the morning MotoGP practice session, and so the 250cc riders had to ride the first session in a heavy downpour. After that the 125cc riders had the track in the timed session in an especially complicated state, with some wet and some dry zones. The Repsol Honda Team MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa set the fourth fastest time in the free practice in the afternoon, when the French rider De Puniet was the fastest. Pedrosa, who was third here last year after a bad fall on the Friday, dedicated the day to preparing the set up on his Honda RC212V for the race on Sunday. The resurfaced track complicated the suspension and tyre work done by all the engineers today. His teammate Nicky Hayden, after finishing the first free session in third position behind Stoner and Pedrosa, fell down the field to 10th position in the afternoon. In 250cc, a complicated day for the Japanese Repsol Honda Team rider Shuhei Aoyama, who did not feel comfortable on his bike during the whole day of free practice. He was 24th in the morning and in the afternoon Aoyama was 15th but with a lot of problems on the front wheel of his Honda. More positive news came from Julián Simón, who although he set the 5th best time in the morning fell back to 9th place in the afternoon session. A positive performance from the young Repsol Honda Team 125cc riders. In the morning Bradley Smith set the 16th best time on his first ever ride at the Malaysian track. The young Briton, who missed last year`s race because of an injury, had a satisfying first time out at what is a new track for him. His teammate Esteve Rabat, 18th in the morning had problems with his rear tyre on the final laps, was one of the riders fighting to set the best time in the first timed session of the afternoon. He was one of the three fastest riders on first two sections of the circuit, on the third section Rabat still has a lot of room for improvement, and this in the end stopped him from setting a better time. In the end Esteve Rabat was 8th and Bradley Smith 10th at the end of the first day`s work at the resurfaced track of Sepang. Quotes MotoGP Nicky Hayden >> 2’04.752 seg, 43 laps, 239 Km. “This morning wasn’t bad at all and we got on the pace straight away. This afternoon wasn’t that stellar though. I probably wasted too much time on full wets and intermediates. In those conditions, especially on intermediates, is where I need to step up my game because we could get these conditions really easily on Sunday. Once we got going we improved our speed from this morning but we’re quite a way from where we need to be. Parts of the track feel ok but we’ve got to find something more with the tyres if we want to be competitive, otherwise we could be in a little bit of trouble. Maybe the track will clean up and start being kinder on the tyres. It’s quite strange coming here with a completely new surface because we’ve done so many practice laps on the old surface and we were very familiar with it. The surface was quite dirty and slippery this morning to start with. It’s definitely getting a bit better so it would be nice to get some more dry weather tomorrow, put down some rubber and move things forward.” Dani Pedrosa >> 2’03.767 seg, 36 laps, 200Km. “The day went pretty well and we’ve made a lot of progress with the set-up today. The new surface here seems ok. There are some sections of the new track where there are many small bumps but they are not too severe so we should be able to deal with them. Also the grip is not bad, although the feeling is slightly strange through some sections of the track I think because it is a new surface. We’re expecting the grip to improve as more rubber is laid down over the course of the weekend. I think we were pretty lucky with the weather today. We lost some time in both sessions, but we missed the worst of the rain. Tomorrow we’ll continue with the set-up work and hopefully get a good starting position in qualifying. It would be nice to have three pole positions in a row of course, but our rivals look strong again we’ll have to work very hard for it.” 250cc Julián Simón >> 2’10.528 secs, 36 laps, 200 Km. “This was a positive practice. Today the truth is that the weather was not the best for us, we have now had two races with bad conditions. Although this morning was the first time that I have felt OK in the wet and I rode quite well. We got 5th place and I was satisfied. This afternoon I began strongly and quite fast, and I soon saw a few things that I could improve on the bike, above all the tyres as they were too soft. We changed to a hard one, which gave me a couple of problems on part of the circuit. During the final part of the session, when we put the tyres on to get a good time, I kept losing the front wheel. We did not know why perhaps because it was too soft, so for tomorrow we have quite a few things clear concerning things to work on and that means we are thinking positively as we have quite a lot of room for improvement. I like this circuit and I think we can do well tomorrow.” Shuhei Aoyama >> 2’11.484 secs, 32 laps, 178 Km. “This afternoon we were able to ride in the dry, but I did not get any good sensations from the front wheel, because I noticed that the steering was always locking on me, so I could not go fast. It was a difficult day, I think it was because of the new asphalt, although it is the same for all the riders, so I will just have to improve. I will have to change some things tomorrow, both on the bike and my riding style, if I want to be up with the leaders.” 125cc Bradley Smith >> 2’28.478 secs. 29 laps, 161 Km. “This is the first day at a circuit that is new for me. From the beginning I liked the track and I did not feel too bad. This morning, if I had had another lap I think I could have gone one second faster which would have been good enough to finish 8th or 9th. This afternoon the conditions changed, first dry then wet and then dry again, but it did not go too badly. Obviously it could have gone a little better. I am sure that Nieto used slicks, so perhaps that would have been better, but compared to the rest of the riders I am more or less the same as them. So with it being the first day I am pleased and I can`t wait for tomorrow. I hope it does not rain and we can improve a bit more.” Esteve Rabat >> 2’28.059 secs, 29 laps, 161 Km. “The truth is that this was a very difficult day, because in the moorning the tyre broke up completely and I had to make a pit stop before the session finished, that meant I finished well down the field. So we were not able to set the bike up. In the afternoon it began to rain, we put wet tyres on and it was difficult to get the feeling because the asphalt is new. I had a lot of problems getting the right line and opening the throttle but we will try and solve that tomorrow”