Lap Times 1. Marco Melandri, Honda, Bridgestone, 1:40.383 2. Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, Michelin, 1:40.408 3. Dani Pedrosa, Honda, Michelin, 1:40.581 4. Alex Hofmann, Ducati, Bridgestone, 1:40.748 5. Toni Elias, Honda, Bridgestone, 1:43.687 6. Casey Stoner, Ducati, Bridgestone, 1:42.634 7. Carlos Checa, Honda, Michelin, 1:41.096 8. Randy de Puniet, Kawasaki, Bridgestone, 1:41.151 9. Colin Edwards, Yamaha, Michelin, 1:41.204 10. Makoto Tamada, Yamaha, Dunlop, 1:41.234 11. Nicky Hayden, Honda, Michelin, 1:41.259 12. Shinya Nakano, Honda, Michelin, 1:41.269 13. Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki, Bridgestone, 1:41.363 14. Loris Capirossi, Ducati, Bridgestone, 1:41.590 15. Olivier Jacque, Kawasaki, Bridgestone, 1:41.777 16. Kenny Roberts, KR212V, Michelin, 1:41.783 17. Alex Barros, Ducati, Bridgestone, 1:41.845 18. Sylvain Guintoli, Yamaha, Dunlop, 1:42.364 19. Shinichi Ito, Ducati, Bridgestone, 1:43.209 20. Kousuke Akiyoshi, Suzuki, Bridgestone, 1:43.610 21. Vittoriano Guareschi, Ducati, Bridgestone, 1:44.143 22. Jeremy McWilliams, Ilmor, Michelin, 1:44.458 23. Andrew Pitt, Ilmor, Michelin, 1:44.589 Top Speeds 1. Stoner, 274.2 kph (170.4 mph) 2. Pedrosa, 273.8 3. Ito, 273.5 4. Barros, 273.3 5. Capirossi, 272.9 6. Guareschi, 272.9 7. Hofmann, 272.2 8. Edwards, 271.6 9. Hayden, 271.4 10. Nakano, 271.2 11. Vermeulen, 271.2 12. Elias, 270.9 13. Tamada, 270.9 14. Rossi, 270.1 15. Guintoli, 269.1 16. Melandri, 268.7 17. Checa, 267.5 18. McWilliams, 267.3 19. Akiyoshi, 267.1 20. Roberts, 266.9 21. Jacque, 266.8 22. de Puniet, 266.2 23. Pitt, 262.4 (163.1 mph) More, from a press release issued by Dorna Sports: Penultimate day of MotoGP tests conclude with Melandri quickest Saturday 24th February – Jerez, Spain – MotoGP Official Test Having experienced some of the most changeable conditions of any preseason, the MotoGP premier class was once again hit by unpredictable weather at their penultimate opportunity to test the new 800cc prototypes before the season curtain-raiser on March 10th. Riders arriving at the Jerez Circuit for their second day of Official Test action were greeted by thick fog, which didn’t shift until midday and meant that none of the MotoGP field were on track until around 12.15pm. The 23 participants began their work in earnest at 1pm, and as the skies cleared they put in marathon sessions on their 800cc bikes. Carrying on from yesterday, Marco Melandri clocked the fastest time of the day, with a storming lap of 1’40.383 in the dying moments, reaffirming his excellent recent form on a Honda RC212V that he still maintains has the potential for more horsepower. The Honda satellite rider just edged out five time World Champion Valentino Rossi to top the timesheets, his fellow Italian having laid down the gauntlet for the rest of the field during the session. He was less than a tenth of a second slower than Melandri, improving significantly on his time and placing from yesterday. Dani Pedrosa was third quickest, and was consistently fast at the circuit where he led the way at the final test of 2006. Alex Hofmann also had one of his best ever testing performances, taking his satellite Desmosedici GP07 to fourth place. The German’s superb run means that all four of the regular Ducati riders have on any given day been the fastest of the Italian machines in preseason. Echoing team-mate Melandri, Gresini Honda’s Toni Elias also made a late charge, just behind Hofmann’s time on the last of 84 laps. The top six was completed by Casey Stoner, one of the emerging favourites for tomorrow’s 40 minute ‘qualifying session’. A top ten all within a second of the day’s fastest lap also included Carlos Checa, Randy de Puniet, Colin Edwards and Makoto Tamada. The latter suffered a crash just after 3pm, but was unhurt and continued to ride until the end of the session. World Champion Nicky Hayden was again outside the top ten, but will not be worried at a test where he is avoiding unnecessary risks. Still rehabilitating a shoulder injury, ‘The Kentucky Kid’ is expecting to be on top form when he arrives at Qatar for the rapidly-approaching season opener. The final opportunity to prepare for the Qatar date comes tomorrow, as the 2007 preseason undertakes its final day. Aside from continuing their 800cc fine-tuning, the riders will also put their names into the hat for a brand new BMW M as they compete against each other in a 40 minute shootout from 2.05pm local time. MotoGP Official Test Jerez Day 2 Official Times 1. Marco Melandri (Honda Gresini) – 1’40.383 2. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha Factory Racing) – 1’40.408 3. Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) – 1’40.581 4. Alex Hofmann (Pramac d’Antin) – 1’40.748 5. Toni Elias (Honda Gresini) – 1’40.952 6. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) – 1’41.071 7. Carlos Checa (Honda LCR) – 1’41.096 8. Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki Racing Team) – 1’41.151 9. Colin Edwards (Yamaha Factory Racing) – 1’41.204 10. Makoto Tamada (Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3) – 1’41.234 11. Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda) – 1’41.259 12. Shinya Nakano (Konica Minolta Honda) – 1’41.269 13. Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) – 1’41.363 14. Loris Capirossi (Ducati Marlboro Team) – 1’41.590 15. Olivier Jacque (Kawasaki Racing Team) – 1’41.777 16. Kenny Roberts Jr. (Team Roberts) – 1’41.783 17. Alex Barros (Pramac d’Antin) – 1’41.845 18. Sylvain Guintoli (Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3) – 1’42.364 19. Shinichi Ito (Ducati Marlboro) – 1’43.209 20. Kousuke Akiyoshi (Rizla Suzuki MotoGP) – 1’43.610 21. Vittoriano Guareschi (Ducati Marlboro) – 1’44.143 22. Jeremy McWilliams (Ilmor GP) – 1’44.458 23. Andrew Pitt (Ilmor GP) – 1’44.589 More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: Saturday Feb 24 2007 MotoGP Official Test – Jerez – Free Practice 2 DUCATI MARLBORO MEN MAKE PROGRESS AT JEREZ Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi made good use of today’s much-improved weather at Jerez, Stoner making excellent progress with his GP7 while Capirossi learned much in his efforts to find the best settings for this track. Stoner ran up front throughout most of the day, improving his GP7’s corner-exit behaviour and clocking some consistently fast times on race tyres. Unlike some riders who used qualifying tyres today to achieve quick one-off laps, both Ducati Marlboro Team men preferred to stick with race tyres as they continued working towards finding the ideal bike set-up and tyre choice for the Spanish GP which takes place here a month from now on March 25. Tomorrow’s final day of Jerez action includes an official 40-minute timed and televised ‘qualifying’ session, billed as an hors d’ouevre to MotoGP’s long-awaited first 800cc season which gets underway with the Qatar GP on March 10. Casey Stoner, 47 laps – 6th fastest – 1m 41.071s “We worked well today, we made a lot of changes and most of them have been quite positive. We got down and down in the lap times and have been reasonably consistent too. And we largely fixed the rear pumping problem we’d had with a rear tyre and by improving the engine management. I’m really happy with the way that’s gone today. Tomorrow we need to come back with the settings we’ve got and make some more improvements because although the race pace we’ve got now isn’t too bad we could probably improve a few tenths a lap. I didn’t really get enough track time today because we had a couple of little glitches, nothing major, so I could’ve done with a few extra laps before the conditions started to turn a bit cold.” Loris Capirossi 65 laps – 14th fastest – 1m 41.590s “Today has been a difficult day. We tested a few things but we haven’t found the right set-up yet, I can’t seem to get really good traction. To tell the truth I’m not really worried because I saw Casey going faster, so I know we have a margin for improvement and I’m confident we will be able to improve the set-up tomorrow. We won’t think too much about the afternoon’s ‘qualifying’ session, which is fun and a good show for the public, because we want to concentrate again on preparing the bike for next month’s race here. We haven’t tested any qualifying tyres because it’s pointless when you’re not yet totally okay with the settings. We’ll see tomorrow, we have room for improvement”. Jerez Official Record : Valentino Rossi (Yamaha – 2005), 1’40.596 Jerez Pole Record : Loris Capirossi (Ducati – 2006), 1’39.064 More, from a press release issued by Ilmor: Official MotoGP Test Jerez Day Two Circuito de Jerez de la Frontera 24.02.07: Where rain hampered track time yesterday, today it was a heavy mist that delayed the on-track activity at the Andalusian circuit. As soon as visibility was restored and the damp patches had dried out, Ilmor GP riders Jeremy McWilliams and Andrew Pitt once again took to the track in the hope of clocking up some serious mileage. Both riders were running in a new engine specification giving the Ilmor GP electronics crew plenty to play with as they adjusted the engine mapping accordingly. And whilst both McWilliams and Pitt experienced an overall improvement in the bikes performance, there is still a lot of work ahead for the final day of the test tomorrow. Honda Gresini rider Marco Melandri set the fastest lap time out on track today for a second consecutive day the Italian rider managed a 1.40.383 lap time with a top speed of 268.7Km/h Jeremy McWilliams #99 Laps: 26 Fastest Lap: 1.44.458 Top Speed: 267.3Km/h Andrew Pitt #88 Laps: 57 Fastest Lap: 1.44.589 Top Speed: 264.4Km/h Jeremy McWilliams, Ilmor GP Rider: “I have mixed emotions on the one hand, I didn’t do enough laps today so I’m disappointed but on the other the new engine is without doubt a step in the right direction. We had a lot of down time in the garage making adjustments but that’s normal with a new engine frustrating but normal. I’m hoping for much more track time tomorrow.” Andrew Pitt, Ilmor GP Rider: “We had good dry conditions today, so the riding was better. We made good progress particularly on the electronic side. I managed a good long run at one point and clocked up some consistent lap times. I think we’re in better shape today.” Mario Illien, Team Principal: “All in all it was a productive day for us. It was a real shame that we couldn’t start earlier we lost out on a lot of time over the past few days due to bad weather conditions. We are not quite where we want to be time-wise but we have definitely made progress and hopefully that can continue for tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Factory Racing Team: Final Test Gets Underway for Yamaha at Rain-Hit Jerez Yamaha Factory Racing riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards started their final pre-season preparations today as the Official MotoGP Test began in Jerez. The Andalusian circuit, which will play host to the second round of the MotoGP World Championship in March, will provide the teams with the last chance to fine-tune their 800cc MotoGP motorcycles before the season gets started in Qatar. After three consecutive races in warmer climes, it was a wet return to European shores this morning when the MotoGP paddock was subjected to a heavy rainstorm and as a result Rossi and Edwards were not able get out on track until the early afternoon. However even after that the low temperatures meant that track failed to dry properly and it remained quite damp in places, causing the Yamaha pair to take it gently throughout the afternoon as they concentrated on trying to find the right set-up ahead of a hopefully drier day tomorrow. The timesheets were topped today by Honda rider Marco Melandri, who set a time of 1’42.563, a full two seconds off Rossi’s old 990cc lap record, which still stands from 2005. Edwards came in at 11th position with best lap of 1’43.845 with Rossi behind him in 13th after a lap of 1’44.494. Colin Edwards, Position: 11th Time: 1’43.845 Laps: 38 “Actually that was a really useful day for us, despite the weather! Obviously the times don’t really show it, but I’m not worried about those because the conditions really limited what we could do with regards to going fast. It wasn’t nice out there with the patchy conditions and it was really quite dangerous; it was obvious that whoever took the most risks was going to be fastest today! Anyway, we came here with our ‘smooth-track’ setting which worked so well in Qatar and tried it here, which is much bumpier. The good thing about today is that we think we now understand why it doesn’t work so well on bumpy tracks and so tomorrow we’re going to work on changing that and getting it to work everywhere. That’s the aim for tomorrow and hopefully we’ll be successful in that task, which will put us in much better stead as far as adjusting the bike to different tracks goes. We were obviously nowhere near our times from December today but we know the bike is better than it was then so I am sure that once the track dries out properly and it gets a bit warmer, we’ll get a lot faster.” Valentino Rossi Position: 13th Time: 1’44.494 Laps:36 “The most important thing about this test for us is that it gives us the chance to see how our new bike has changed from the test here in December to now. We’ve had three tests in between and the bike has changed quite a bit, plus we’ve had some new parts for the engine and the bike is a bit faster. Today wasn’t great because the conditions were bad, it didn’t really dry out all day so it wasn’t possible to go so fast. Anyway though, I am impressed at some of the times of my rivals in these conditions! I was quite fast at the start when it was quite wet, but really it wasn’t enough to do a real wet-weather test. So after today we still can’t see how much we’ve improved from the last test, but hopefully tomorrow will be better. We’ve found some interesting things though and I think it will be better tomorrow. Of course the objective of this weekend is to be ready for the race when we return here and I hope we will also be able to go faster than we did here in December. The biggest changes since we were here last have been made to the suspension, especially in the front, but today we couldn’t really see the potential of these changes. If it becomes warmer we will also try to find some good tyres for this track, so let’s hope for sunshine!” Davide Brivio, Team Director “Today was a bit disappointing because we obviously have a lot of work to get through here and the weather really delayed us, but anyway both riders found out some interesting things about their bikes in these conditions and gathered some good information. We hope that the weather will be better tomorrow so we will be able to see how much our bike has improved since the last test here. It’s a bit cold at this time of year, but hopefully the sun will come out and we will be able to really get started!” More, from a press release issued by Gresini Honda, which we think claims Melandri is on provisional pole even though this is a test, but we’re not sure, because we speak and read ENGLISH: POLE PROVVISORIA PER MARCO MELANDRI, QUINTO TONI ELIAS Dopo l’ottimo inizio di ieri, Marco Melandri si è ripetuto, piazzandosi davanti a tutti nella seconda giornata di test MotoGP con una Bridgestone da qualifica dopo una giornata non semplicissima. Una scivolata, fortunatamente senza conseguenze, accaduta sull’ora di pranzo, ha infatti rallentato il lavoro del pilota del Team Honda Gresini, lasciandogli anche un po’ di dolore alla mano destra e all’anca. Nel pomeriggio Marco è tornato in pista. Ha lavorato con la gomma da gara per poi dedicarsi alla gomma da qualifica che gli ha permesso di centrare la pole provvisoria che lo fa sperare per la macchina in palio domani. In crescita anche il compagno di squadra Toni Elias che ha lavorato sulla messa a punto della moto e testato molte gomme da qualifica prima di centrare il quinto tempo. Domani gran finale con l’ora cronometrata (in diretta su Italia1, ore 14), per aggiudicarsi una fiammante BMW. MARCO MELANDRI (1°, 64 giri, 1’40″383): “Oggi abbiamo lavorato moltissimo, peccato per la scivolata che mi ha fatto perdere quasi due ore. È stato un mio errore, una cosa banale Abbiamo lavorato con le gomme da gara ed infine abbiamo provato due gomme da qualifica perché in Qatar sarà molto importante partire dalle prime file. Sono contento del risultato di oggi anche se credo che occorrerà essere più veloci per conquistare la macchina! Scherzi a parte, quello che mi interressa è prepararmi per la gara. Dobbiamo migliorare ancora un po’ il passo”. TONI ELIAS (5°, 84 giri, 1.40″952): “Oggi abbiamo effettuato un intenso e proficuo lavoro con Bridgestone e sono contento perché stiamo migliorando. Abbiamo trovato alcune soluzioni che mi piacciono molto. Nel pomeriggio abbiamo lavorato su sospensioni e messa a punto della moto. Sono contento di questo risultato ma spero di fare un ulteriore passo in avanti”. I TEMPI: 1. Melandri (Honda Gresini) 1’40″383; 2. Rossi (Yamaha) 1’40″408; 3. Pedrosa (Honda) 1’40″581; 4. Hofmann (Ducati) 1’40″748; 5. Elias (Honda Gresini) 1’40″952; 6. Stoner (Ducati) 1’41″071; 7.Checa (Honda) 1’41″096; 8.De Puniet (Kawasaki) 1’41″151; 9. Edwards (Yamaha) 1’41″204; 10. Tamada (Yamaha) 1’41″234; 11. Hayden (Honda) 1’41″259; 14. Capirossi (Ducati) 1’41″590. More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing: MotoGP test Jerez, Spain. Day two of three-day test. February 24, 2007. Melandri and Gresini Honda hold sway on day two of Jerez MotoGP test. Marco Melandri continued his impressive pre-season form aboard the Gresini Honda RC212V setting fastest lap time for the second consecutive day at the final MotoGP test before the season opens at Doha, Qatar on March. In bright sunny weather, with much improved track conditions, Italian Melandri slashed over two seconds off his best time of yesterday ending the session ahead of former MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi with Repsol Honda factory rider Dani Pedrosa third. Time sheet topper Melandri set consistently fast lap times all ay as he worked his way through a strenuous Bridgestone tyre test in preparation for the race here on March 25. Once he had found a good base line set up for race tyres Marco put in a set of Bridgestone qualifying tyres to record his fastest lap of the day at 1m 40.383s. Melandri had a low side crash at themed afternoon point but escaped with just a bruised arm. The RC212V was not so lucky sustaining serious damage that the mechanics worked hard to have the RC212V ready for the 40 minute timed ‘Shoot out’ that will determine which MotoGP wins the sports car on offer for fastest lap. Dani Pedrosa was again close to top spot on the time sheets. The Spaniard, a former three-time world champion in the smaller capacity classes, worked mainly on chassis settings before moving on to testing rear tyres for Michelin Despite only taking to the track at around 13.00. MotoGP World Champion Nicky Hayden put in 91 hard laps of the 4.423 km Jerez track ending the day as the most improved lap time of all on the grid. The Champion’s day was even better than the times indicate and he set his lap times on race tyres in preparation or the GP in one month’s time. Toni Elias, Gresini Honda, was in scintillating form all day while testing the range of Bridgestone tyres designed to help him get the best out of his RCV. Testing the tyres in combination with a variety of front and rear suspension settings Elias’ best lap was 2.7s faster than his best of yesterday. Carlos Checa, LCR Honda, spent his day chasing the base set up so important for the grand prix at Jerez on March 25. The Spaniard and his technicians worked hard while chasing a better overall balance on theRC212V. Once satisfied with the base set up Checa moved on to tyre testing. Shinya Nakano decided to run with only race settings and tyres and not try for a quick lap on qualifiers. For the Konica Minolta Honda team it was much more important to try race tyres and settings that will be relevant to the grand prix at Jerez in a month’s time than go for that one quick lap. The team also worked on the suspension settings as they worked their way through a range of Michelin tyres. Despite improving his lap time by over two seconds Nakano was disappointed to end the day in 12th position. The KR212V in the hands of Kenny Roberts Jnr made considerable progress today. Riding the Honda powered Team Roberts rolling chassis Roberts was able to lower his lap time of yesterday by the huge margin of four seconds. This, in part, due to the team technicians overcoming the difficulties caused by the damaged in transit triple clamp problems of yesterday. The team concentrated the day on improving front-end grip. Honda rider quotes and lap times. Nicky Hayden, Repsol Honda: 1m 41.259s – 91 laps. “We made a lot of improvements today and, even though we had fog this morning, when it cleared up we still got in a pretty full day. I know we’re still quite a long way from the top of the timesheets and our position doesn’t look stellar but I was a lot closer today. We made a good amount of progress and I think I’m a lot better off than it looks because I stayed on race tyres – I didn’t try a qualifier. I enjoyed riding my bike today and working with the team – and that’s important. We’ll come back in here tomorrow, finish things off and get ready for the opening race.” Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 1m 40.581s 76 laps “Today we tested mainly chassis things with a view to improving the race set-up. We had some options to try and we found some positive results so I’m happy with that because we improved our basic set-up. Also we tested some rear Michelins tyres – maybe two or three – to narrow down our options for the race. Because of the late start we didn’t do a long run today. Tomorrow will be an unusual day with the qualifying session in the middle of the test so we have to find the moment to make a longer run if we can.” Marco Melandri, Gresini Honda: 1m 40.383s 64 lap. “Today we did a good job, testing different things in preparation of the race. We tested many race tyres finding interesting solution and only in the end we tested two qualifying tyres because in Qatar it will be very important to start from the first rows. I’m happy with this result but I think that we will need to be faster if we want to get the car! I’m joking. I think we still need to improve because I think that tomorrow everybody will go faster”. Toni Elias, Gresini Honda: 1m 40.952s 84 laps. “We tested many tyres that Bridgestone brought me and we did an important step forward both with race and qualifying tyres. We also worked on the suspension to adapt the set up with the new tyres. I hope that tomorrow I can improve also my race pace”. Carlos Checa, LCR Honda: 1m 43.206s 83 laps. “Today’s conditions were pretty good and I completed 83 laps working on race set-up. I am quite satisfied about the improvements we had in the chassis set-up and the test of the tyres gathered us important information for the future. Anyway I still need more balance on the bike both in the front and in the rear but this is not a big problem. Honestly our main objective now is to improve the engine power because I could go faster than this. I raced on Honda machines in the past and my pace was pretty good so I hope that HRC can support me in the best way shorter”. Shinya Nakano, Konica Minolta Honda: 1m 43.817s 76 laps. “We tried some different rear tyres today and some tyres were an improvement and I was quite happy with front tyre performance also. We finally found a good front and rear tyre combination, this wasn’t with the front tyre I liked in Qatar, but it felt good. I’m not happy with my final position of 12th, but I understand that the other guys were using qualifying tyres. We didn’t use them, as we wanted to check race settings, which is more important. I was happy to be so far up the order until just before the end, we are hoping to maybe do a long run tomorrow, but it depends on the weather and track conditions. I think we’re approaching the limit with the front-end of the bike now as I’m pushing that much harder than before so we’ll make some adjustments there I think. I’m still getting used to the corner speed of the 800cc bike, which is faster than the old 990cc machine.” Kenny Roberts Jnr, KR212V: 1m 45.937s – 82 laps We were looking for more front end grip and have been working on the trail and suspension, stuff like to get it better. We got it pretty close with both the front and rear working but we now have more work to do on the rear end. So we had a better day and go into the final day looking to get a good set up and feeling ready or the race next month.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing: ANOTHER POSITIVE DAY AT JEREZ FOR KAWASAKI It was another delayed start for the Kawasaki Racing Team this morning as persistent fog at the 4.423 km Jerez circuit meant that, like yesterday, Randy de Puniet and Olivier Jacque were forced to await an improvement in the weather before commencing their planned test schedule. Once the sun had finally burnt through the mist, de Puniet was straight out on track to continue work on refining the set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR, as well as testing a number of different race tyre options from Bridgestone. The 26-year-old Frenchman was quick to settle into a good rhythm around the tight and technical Jerez circuit, staying close to the top of the timesheet for most of the day. The Kawasaki pilot then completed a race distance run to confirm his race tyre selection, posting consistent lap times throughout. Late in the afternoon de Puniet switched to a qualifier on the rear of his Ninja ZX-RR, and despite being held up towards the end of his flying lap, it was on this tyre that the Kawasaki pilot set his fastest time of the day, to claim eighth position on the final timesheet. For Olivier Jacque and his crew, today’s test provided yet another opportunity to further the development of Kawasaki’s new 800cc MotoGP racer. Working with just one bike, after his number one machine suffered a mechanical problem early on in the session, the 33-year-old former World Champion worked his way through an intensive test and evaluation programme with Kawasaki’s development engineers. Tomorrow the Kawasaki pilot will put aside his development responsibilities to concentrate fully on the annual televised qualifying shoot-out, which will be the highlight of this last pre-season test. Jacque goes into tomorrow’s final day of testing in confident mood, and is looking forward to taking part in his first MotoGP timed session since his last race appearance for Kawasaki in 2005. Randy de Puniet: 8th – 83 Laps – Best Lap 1’41.151 “It was a long but interesting day. We found a good base set up on the bike, and we’ve also identified some options on race tyres for this circuit. I was happy with my lap times today; the speed was good, but so was the consistency, and this is important. The race simulation was my best so far in the run up to the new season, but I still think there is room for further improvement tomorrow. I tried a qualifier late in the session, on which I set my fastest lap, but I was slowed by another rider, so I know I can go faster here. Anyway, the performance of the bike on race tyres is more important, and I’m happy with what we’ve achieved today. Tomorrow we will focus on set-up for the qualifying session; sure I’d like to win the car, but I guess I won’t be the only one out there with the same idea!” Olivier Jacque: 15th – 62 laps – Best Lap 1’41.777 “The characteristics of the Jerez circuit are very different to those of Sepang and Qatar where we’ve tested previously, and this means that we’re experiencing some problems we’ve not had up to now. My feeling is that, at this track and on the gearing we ran today, the power delivery is a little bit too aggressive. This makes it difficult to find traction out of the turns, and it’s also making the bike more prone to lifting the front wheel under acceleration. However, we know what changes we need to make for tomorrow; it just wasn’t possible to make them today because we had some problems with my number one bike and we didn’t want to lose out on track time while we made the necessary changes to my spare machine. Tomorrow I need to switch from development to race mode for the qualifying session. I need to stop being so analytical on track and, instead, concentrate on finding a good rhythm on the bike in the morning, before switching to a qualifying tyre for the timed session. Today was hard, but we learnt a lot and I hope this will work to our advantage tomorrow.” Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager “Once the track had dried completely this afternoon both riders were able to work their way through our planned test programme, and the lap times improved with every track session. More track time today meant that we were able to evaluate several different race tyre options, and Randy’s times and consistency during his race simulation show that we’ve made some progress in this area. Tomorrow we will focus on further refining the set-up, ahead of the first timed session of the new season. There is still some work to do, but we know we are working in the right direction and I’m confident that we will see further improvements before this final test concludes tomorrow afternoon.”