FIM MotoGP World Championship Catalunya, Spain June 6, 2008 Combined Results, Free Practice One & Two: 1. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:43.017, crash 2. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:43.023 3. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:43.090 4. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:43.099 5. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:43.233 6. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:43.368 7. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:43.442 8. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:43.479 9. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:43.614 10. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:43.668 11. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:43.707 12. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:43.742, crash 13. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:43.961, crash 14. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:44.043, crash 15. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:44.610 16. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:44.649 17. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:44.678 18. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:44.865 More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA ON TOP FOR REPSOL HONDA Repsol Catalan Grand Prix, Catalunya First day of practice, Friday June 6 2008 Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa set an impressive pace on the opening day of Catalan Grand Prix practice today, topping the first two sessions, just six thousandths ahead of his closest rival Loris Capirossi. Team-mate Nicky Hayden made solid progress, ending the day ninth, less than six tenths off the fastest lap of the day. Track conditions were more slippery than usual today following heavy rain throughout much of yesterday. Seven riders crashed during the morning and afternoon sessions, Pedrosa sliding off in the final minutes of the second outing, after he already had ridden his best lap. Dani Pedrosa, fastest, 1m 43.017s “We started practice this morning using the set-up from Mugello. We tried various different chassis settings and we also tried a few different tyres for the race. This morning the asphalt was quite dirty, and although the track conditions improved a bit this afternoon the surface was still dirty off-line. Also, this track is quite bumpy, from the F1 cars. Late this afternoon I crashed at turn five. There’s a joint in the asphalt there, I hit the bump and lost the front. Fortunately I wasn’t hurt and I was able to continue riding. We had two dry sessions today which was good. Tomorrow we will continue tuning the set-up and testing tyres for the race.” Nicky Hayden, 9th fastest, 1m 43.614s “Today hasn’t been the smoothest. There’s a lot of long corners here, so we’ve been trying to get a bit of rear traction, that’s what we’re working on. We’ve tried a few things and we had something we were going to try on the second bike this afternoon but we lost a bit of time with that bike. There’s been a lot of rain here the last couple of days, this morning the track was a bit damp off line, with a little bit of water sitting in the kerbs, which made them pretty slippery. This afternoon the weather was perfect but the track was still a little slippery off-line.” Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager “Dani and Nicky are working carefully towards their race settings. The set-up here isn’t so different from Mugello, so they are only making minor adjustments plus doing same race tyre testing, of course. Dani crashed late this afternoon but he is okay, no problem. The weather forecast seems okay, so we hope for another dry day tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Bridgestone riders on practice pace in Catalunya Round 7: Catalunya Free Practice Circuit de Catalunya, Friday 6 June 2008 Several Bridgestone-shod riders showed strong practice pace on the opening day of this weekend’s Catalunya Grand Prix with six of the top seven riders at the end of the second practice session using Bridgestone tyres. Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi was the closest man to Dani Pedrosa’s pace-setting lap, but the smallest of margins separated the top four with Capirossi 0.006s adrift, Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi a further 0.067s back and Ducati’s Casey Stoner in fourth, a mere 0.009s from Rossi. Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis, who finished an outstanding fourth in Mugello just one week ago, continued his strong form, claiming the fifth fastest time of the day ahead of Suzuki rider Chris Vermeulen in sixth and his Gresini team-mate Shinya Nakano in seventh. Bridgestone’s priority for today was to evaluate a range of hard compound front and rear tyres, including a new compound, all of which showed encouraging initial performance. As usual for the remaining practice sessions of the weekend, work will be focussed on longer run evaluations, as consistency over the 25-lap race will be key to success on Sunday afternoon. Tyre Talk with Shinji Aoki – Bridgestone Motorsport Assistant Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development What did Bridgestone learn from today’s two sessions? “Today we tried several different hard compounds for both front and rear with all our teams. We were able to find some good solutions which we will use tomorrow for longer run tests. The overnight rain left the track in quite a difficult state this morning with some damp patches still present. With no further rain during the day, the track improved, as we would expect, and the conditions started to reach more normal levels. This afternoon’s performances were more representative and the majority of riders were able to improve their times considerably.” What is the key area for improvement for Bridgestone? “After a good start, our next target is to try to convert the strong initial performance that was seen today into an equally competitive performance over longer runs. The key to success here in Catalunya will be management of the tyres over the full uninterrupted 25 laps, so we must assess durability levels in tomorrow’s practice to allow our teams to select the most suitable tyre for their package. The high-speed right-handers are tough on tyres and will be the most important area for us to improve further.” Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Combined Practice Session Results Pos. Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P2 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m44.251s (P9) 1m43.023s (P2) +0.006s P3 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m43.835s (P2) 1m43.090s (P3) +0.073s P4 Casey Stoner Ducati Corse 1m44.245s (P8) 1m43.099s (P4) +0.082s P5 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m44.021s (P6) 1m43.233s (P5) +0.216s P6 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m43.968s (P4) 1m43.368s (P6) +0.351s P7 Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m44.378s (P12) 1m43.442s (P7) +0.425s P14 John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team 1m44.291s (P11) 1m44.043s (P14) +1.026s P15 Toni Elias Alice Team 1m46.064s (P18) 1m44.610s (P15) +1.593s P16 Marco Melandri Ducati Corse 1m44.649s (P15) 1m44.706s (P17) +1.632s P17 Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1m45.474s (P17) 1m44.678s (P16) +1.661s P18 Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team 1m45.416s (P16) 1m44.865s (P18) +1.848s Weather: Session 1 / Dry Air 22°C, Track 29°C (Bridgestone measurement) Session 2 / Dry Air 26°C, Track 46°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI THE ‘AZZURRO’ GETS CATALAN CHALLENGE UNDERWAY Just five days after his thrilling home victory at Mugello, Valentino Rossi was back on board at the Montmelo circuit in Catalunya today, running a one-off livery on his M1 in celebration of the Italian national football team, the ‘Azzurri’, and their impending European Championship campaign. Rossi’s bike was complemented by his leathers, which have been designed to make him look like an ‘Azzurro’ himself, complete with football shorts, shirt and socks. After heavy rain overnight the track was still wet in places this morning, especially on the long start/finish straight, which is overshadowed by the huge Montmelo grandstand. The rain meant that the notoriously slippery track had even less grip than usual and Rossi spent the day testing Bridgestone tyres and refining the setting of his M1 to suit the demands of the circuit, with improving traction a priority. He was consistently fast throughout the day, finishing second in first practice and third this afternoon, when the drier surface meant that times were well over half a second quicker than this morning. Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo had an unfortunate opening day at his home race, crashing out of this afternoon’s practice. The Spaniard escaped further injuries to his recovering ankles but was taken to hospital in Barcelona for an overall assessment. Valentino Rossi Position: 3rd Time: 1’43.090 Laps: 52 “We’ve got a hard job here because this is one of the most difficult tracks for the surface; you slide so much! It’s very important to try to find the best traction for the long acceleration areas, and so we’ve tried a lot of different tyres today in order to try to understand what’s going to help us the most. The grip is worse than normal here today because of the rain overnight and so this is making it even harder, plus with Bridgestone I need quite a different riding style to last year so we have to think about this too. The setting of Mugello is more or less okay as a base but the important thing is the traction and at the moment we still need to improve this. As for the livery”¦it’s the idea of Fiat and so we decided to make the leathers to go with the bike to make me look like a football player! I think it’s quite funny and it’s just to say ‘in bocca al lupo’ to the Italian team for the European Championships.” David Brivio Team Manager “It looks like we’re already quite close, although we definitely have some things we need to work on. We’ve focused a lot on testing tyres today because this is a very particular track and we have a lot of things to check before we can make our final decision and it will also depend a lot on how hot it gets this weekend. At the moment we’re just concentrating on collecting as much information as we can and adjusting our setting accordingly. Anyway, we’re quite happy with this first day’s work. Our livery is something fun and it’s definitely quite funny to see Valentino dressed like a football player! We want to wish ‘good luck’ to the Italian team for the tournament and now we hope they’ll be doing the same for us on Sunday!” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya – Friday June 6th Report Day 1 Pedrosa fastest on day one motogp The fastest rider in the opening practice session, Dani Pedrosa made it two-from-two in the Friday MotoGP runs at the Circuit de Catalunya by further improving his times in the afternoon. The Spaniard began the preparations for his home race with a 1´43.017 lap of the tricky Barcelona track, which caught out half of the 18-rider field in one form or another. Pedrosa was among the participants to take a fall, crashing his standard engine-powered Repsol Honda RC212V with just over ten minutes to go in the second session, immediately after clocking the fastest time of the day. He was unhurt in the crash. Second fastest in the combined standings was Loris Capirossi, continuing his upturn in form onboard the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R. He trailed Pedrosa by just 0.006, with the top four covered by less than a tenth of a second. Capirossi ran off track twice in the afternoon run. The remainder of the aforementioned top four were Fiat Yamaha´s Valentino Rossi and Ducati Marlboro´s Casey Stoner, after an eventful day for both riders. Rossi attracted attention for his special `Azzurri´ themed livery and leathers, whilst Stoner had early problems with the track that led to his crashing and running-off in the morning. Alex de Angelis maintained his Mugello momentum with the fifth fastest time, ahead of Rizla Suzuki man Chris Vermeulen and his own San Carlo Honda Gresini teammate Shinya Nakano. Learning the Catalunya circuit, James Toseland was eighth fastest, whilst the top ten was completed by American duo Nicky Hayden and Colin Edwards. The biggest crash of the afternoon befell Jorge Lorenzo, local rider and World Championship contender. He hit the ground from a highside at a lower altitude than that of his Shanghai spill, but his momentum made for a bumpy journey through the gravel trap. The Fiat Yamaha man was taken to the Clinica Mobile and took no further part in the afternoon session, with the latest news on his condition indicating a fractured right ring finger and an ankle contusion. Another rider stopping early was John Hopkins, who completed just a handful of laps before a highside on his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR, whilst Randy de Puniet had his second crash of the day in the afternoon outing. 250cc If the Italians were dominant in Mugello, the Spaniards are holding their own thus far in preparations for the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya. With the 250cc riders last on track in the afternoon, Alvaro Bautista completed a Spanish clean sweep by taking provisional pole for Sunday´s race -joining MotoGP rider Dani Pedrosa and 125cc top dog Pol Espargaro in heading the Friday timesheets. Bautista recorded a quickest time of 1´46.547, putting himself in a prime spot for a third pole position of the year. He was two-tenths of a second faster than Marco Simoncelli, the man with whom he battled all the way to an unsatisfactory finale in Jerez and the winner of the last round at Mugello. Also on the provisional front row are Hector Barbera who has his own score to settle with Simoncelli after their controversial collision in Italy- and rookie title contender Mattia Pasini. Hiroshi Aoyama led the KTM qualifying charge at what the Barcelona resident regards as a second home track, and put himself at the sharp end of the second row. Lotus Aprilia´s Alex Debon, World Championship leader Mika Kallio and JiR Team Scot rider Yuki Takahashi. 125cc One of the riders favoured for victory at his home race in Catalunya, Pol Espargaro took provisional pole for the 125cc Barcelona showdown on Friday afternoon. The Belson Derbi rider was as in Mugello- the fastest rider of the opening qualifying session, with a hot lap of 1´51.103. Espargaro was two-tenths of a second quicker than second placed Mike di Meglio, aiming to regain the lead of the championship after conceding it in Italy. Bancaja Aspar riders Sergio Gadea and Gabor Talmacsi join the two frontrunners in pencilling in their names on the front row. Raffaele de Rosa was the fastest KTM 125cc rider of the day, heading the provisional second row ahead of DeGraaf Grand Prix Aprilia´s Stevie Bonsey, Ajo Motorsport man Dominique Aegerter and a rider with plenty of experience in Barcelona, Polaris World´s Bradley Smith. More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer Loris Capirossi was the second quickest rider during today’s free practice sessions at the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona in Spain. Capirossi led the way for a large part of the afternoon session as he made long runs on his Suzuki GSV-R to test the durability of his Bridgestone race tyres. He was the busiest rider on track today completing 53 laps around the 4.7km circuit as he worked hard with his crew to find the most consistent set-up for his machine for Sunday’s 25-lap race. Capirossi’s best time of 1’43.023 was only bettered by 0.006 seconds by local star Dani Pedrosa, towards the end of the session. Chris Vermeulen (P6, 1’43.368) was equally as active as Capirossi, as he too completed 53-laps of the Catalonian circuit during today’s sessions. Suzuki’s Australian racer used the two hour-long sessions to test many Bridgestone harder compound tyres to gauge their durability in the higher temperatures here today. As track temperatures rose to the mid-40ºCs, Vermeulen was pleased with the performance of his tyres and certainly has a good base setting to work from tomorrow. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session to find the optimum set-up in readiness for Sunday’s race. Following that the two riders have the always exciting spectacle of an hour of qualifying on Saturday afternoon to decide grid positions for Sunday’s main event. Round seven of the MotoGP World Championship gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) on Sunday 8th June. Loris Capirossi: “It has not been too bad today; we are quite pleased with how things have gone. When the tyre is new we can set some good times but as it drops off we struggle a bit. We have a good idea for tomorrow though and we will try to modify the chassis to stop this happening so much. We used a different setting here today from what we had in Mugello because always we try to do something to make the bike better. We know that our rhythm when the bike is good is very good, but we have to make the bike go as well at the end of a race distance as it does at the start so we can be more competitive!” Chris Vermeulen: “This is a circuit I quite enjoy and Suzuki has gone quite well here in the past, and we were able to continue that today. Last night we had a lot of rain so the track started out a bit slippery, but the team did a great job and the bike worked well right away. We seemed to get the tyres working well and I concentrated on testing a few of the harder Bridgestone compounds this afternoon to see how they work in the heat and they did a good job. We still have a few steps to take tomorrow, we need to find an extra quarter-of-a-second a lap to be with the front guys, so hopefully we can find that tomorrow and be right up there!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “Loris and Chris have really pushed hard today and the positions reflect their efforts. The GSV-R has also worked well straight out of the box and as we saw at Mugello making a fast lap time is not our problem. What has become clear again this afternoon is that we still have some work to do to maintain the front running lap-times when the tyres drop down. Both sides of the garage have done all they can to get lots of miles under their belts and test the durability of the race tyres as much as possible. Hopefully with some refined settings tonight we will be able to do some long runs with both riders tomorrow morning, and be in reasonable shape for qualifying in the afternoon.” More, from another press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: LORENZO TO MISS HOME GRAND PRIX Jorge Lorenzo will miss his home Grand Prix at Barcelona this weekend after a crash in this afternoon’s free practice. The Spaniard lost the front of his M1 at turn 11 just four laps into the afternoon session and slid into the gravel, before being stretchered off and taken to the circuit clinic. After undergoing an initial check-up at the track, which confirmed that there were no further injuries to the ankles which he fractured in China, the decision was made to take him to hospital in Barcelona for further examination. Doctor Xavier Mir of the University Institut Dexeus in Barcelona commented as follows: “I can confirm that Lorenzo will not be able to compete this weekend after the tests done here at the Institut Dexeus have confirmed the following injuries: “1. He suffered head trauma and lost consciousness. We made a neurological examination with a CAT scan and an MRI scan and from this we can confirm that there is no cranial haemotoma or haemorrage. However, he now needs to stay under observation for between 48 and 72 hours to see how this develops. 2. He sustained an injury to the 4th and 5th finger on the right hand, where he has lost some skin. He also has an abrasion of the extensor tendon. We need to see how this develops but it could be possible that he needs a small skin graft. 3. Various other bruises and grazes.” Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager “Unfortunately today Jorge suffered another crash and it’s clear that the luck is not with him at the moment. This morning we had a good session and things were going very well, we’d found a good base set up from which to work and we were quite happy with our progress. Then this afternoon started well but sadly after four laps we had another crash when Jorge lost the front at turn 11. He was going 130 km so it was quite a fast crash, but we checked the data and we can’t see that he made any particular mistake. We were trying some different tyres and bike setting from the morning and we were feeling quite happy about how things were going so it’s a great pity. Luckily he’s avoided any further injury to his ankles, but the head injury means that he must undergo a period of rest and not take any further risks. We are very disappointed for Jorge, but the important thing now is that he has some rest and takes time to recover properly.” Masahiko Nakajima Team Director “We are very sorry about this matter and about the fact that Jorge is having to miss his home Grand Prix. My feeling is that, after the rain, the track condition today was not normal; it was worse than everyone could have expected. We hope that Jorge recovers quickly and that he will be able to come back in good shape, rested and relaxed, for the next race.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: TOUGH DAY FOR HOPKINS AS WEST SEES IMPROVEMENTS The opening day of practice for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Catalunya was one of mixed fortunes for the Kawasaki Racing Team, with Anthony West finishing 18th fastest, and John Hopkins setting the 14th fastest time, despite a crash that sidelined him for most of the afternoon practice session. Overnight rain meant that track conditions were far from ideal for the opening practice session this morning, but the situation had improved considerably by the time the MotoGP riders took to the track for their second hour of practice this afternoon. Unfortunately, Hopkins was unable to take maximum advantage of the almost perfect conditions due to a crash just seven laps into the session, when he lost the front in the second part of the chicane. The 25-year-old Anglo-American managed to hold the bike up on his knee, but then lost the rear as he tried to recover front grip. The Kawasaki pilot landed heavily on his back, leaving him battered, bruised and unable to ride again for the rest of the hour-long session. Hopkins will face a further examination in the morning by Clinica Mobile staff, who will then make the final decision as to whether he is fit to ride in tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions. West, although frustrated with his fastest lap time today, regained his confidence in the front-end of his Ninja ZX-RR after set-up changes eliminated the problems he encountered during last weekend’s Italian Grand Prix at Mugello. Together with his crew, the 26-year-old Australian will focus tomorrow on improving rear traction on corner exit, which is critical to a fast lap time at Catalunya, where the riders are accelerating hard for long periods on the side of the tyre. John Hopkins #21 – 14th – 1’44.043 “The first few laps on the bike this afternoon felt quite good, but when I started to push the front tucked going into turn two. When I gave it some gas to pick the bike up the rear came round on me and spat me over the highside. I landed heavily on my back, and it was painful enough to stop me riding again during the session. I had the injury checked out at the Clinica Mobile, but they have insisted that I undergo another examination tomorrow before they pass me fit to ride. If I’m allowed to ride then my back is going to be sore, but I’ll just have to grit my teeth and do the best I can.” Anthony West #13 – 18th – 1’44.865 “The position may remain the same, but we have made some progress with the bike today. We’ve all but eliminated the problems I had with the front-end of the bike in Mugello, and that’s given me more confidence to push the front harder. Now we need to refocus on improving rear traction, which is so important here at Catalunya. So, while I’m not yet happy with my lap time or my position on the timesheet, I’m pretty pleased with the small steps we’ve made today, and I hope we can continue in this way tomorrow.” Naoya Kaneko Kawasaki Technical Manager “Anthony has made a big step forward today with the front-end set-up of his machine. He feels more confident, although he’s still suffering with rear grip troubles. It’s important for us to try and improve these issues step by step, and we now must concentrate on giving him the ability to turn and exit corners more smoothly. The situation with John is unclear at this stage, but I am confident that, with the experience of his crew, we can make up for lost time during tomorrow’s sessions if he’s fit to return.” More, from a press release issued by Team Alice Ducati: CHALLENGING DAY FOR THE ALICE TEAM ON THE MONTMELO CIRCUIT First day of work with some complications in Barcelona for the Alice Team riders. Toni Elias has slipped in the third lap of the day. He slighted hit his right leg but the bike has suffered many damages. For this reason the Catalan rider has basically work today with only one bike at his disposal. The other Alice Team rider, Sylvain Guintoli, has worked a lot completing 43 laps in the two hours of work at his disposal today. The French rider has worked well improving his best lap time by almost a second in the afternoon session. The atmospheric condition seems to change in the last hours, in fact the chances of rain are increasing for Tomorrow and Sunday. Fabiano Sterlacchini — Technical Director A pity for Toni that this morning has started well, he looked in good shape, but his fall after three laps has ruined the day. Luckily Toni is fine. It was a banal slipped but the bike, as soon as it touched the gravel, has jumped in the air spinning many times. It was completely destroyed. Therefore we had to completely concentrate on the second bike slowing down the setting up of the bike. In the last laps of the afternoon we found a good compromise and from here we will begin to work tomorrow, always if the weather will be nice because it seems it could rain tomorrow. Toni Elias — Alice Team rider (15th best lap time in 1:44.610 – Total laps 39) Since the first laps the track was very hot and I couldn’t manage to push to the maximum. I always felt at the limit. The fall has surely complicated today’s work, but we didn’t give up and we concentrated the work on one bike. We have sensibly improved in the afternoon and we expect to do the same Tomorrow. I miss a bit of feeling with the rear. I think that some small adjustments could make us take a big step forward. Sylvain Guintoli — Alice Team rider (17th best lap time in 1:44.678 – Total laps 43) It’s always this way, in every new track we go we start too behind compared the others and we must sweat to recover. But thanks to the work of my Team in the afternoon things went better. We have found what it slowed us down the most. We need more grip in acceleration. Tomorrow morning we will concentrate to solve this problem and I am sure that we will be much more competitive. More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Rossi the ‘Azzurro’ gets Catalan challenge underway alone Just five days after his thrilling home victory at Mugello, Valentino Rossi was back on board at the Montmelo circuit in Catalunya today, running a one-off livery on his M1 in celebration of the Italian national football team, the ‘Azzurri’, and their impending European Championship campaign. Rossi’s bike was complemented by his leathers, which have been designed to make him look like an ‘Azzurro’ himself, complete with football shorts, shirt and socks. After heavy rain overnight the track was still wet in places this morning, especially on the long start/finish straight, which is overshadowed by the huge Montmelo grandstand. The rain meant that the notoriously slippery track had even less grip than usual and Rossi spent the day testing Bridgestone tyres and refining the setting of his M1 to suit the demands of the circuit, with improving traction a priority. He was consistently fast throughout the day, finishing second in first practice and third this afternoon, when the drier surface meant that times were well over half a second quicker than this morning. Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo had an unfortunate opening day at his home race, crashing out of this afternoon’s practice. The Spaniardwas taken to hospital in Barcelona where the decision was made to withdraw from his home GP. Valentino Rossi 3rd 1’43.090; “We’ve got a hard job here because this is one of the most difficult tracks for the surface; you slide so much! It’s very important to try to find the best traction for the long acceleration areas, and so we’ve tried a lot of different tyres today in order to try to understand what’s going to help us the most. The grip is worse than normal here today because of the rain overnight and so this is making it even harder, plus with Bridgestone I need quite a different riding style to last year so we have to think about this too. The setting of Mugello is more or less okay as a base but the important thing is the traction and at the moment we still need to improve this. As for the livery, it’s the idea of Fiat and so we decided to make the leathers to go with the bike to make me look like a football player! I think it’s quite funny and it’s just to say ‘in bocca al lupo’ to the Italian team for the European Championships.” Davide Brivio Team Manager; “It looks like we’re already quite close, although we definitely have some things we need to work on. We’ve focused a lot on testing tyres today because this is a very particular track and we have a lot of things to check before we can make our final decision and it will also depend a lot on how hot it gets this weekend. At the moment we’re just concentrating on collecting as much information as we can and adjusting our setting accordingly. Anyway, we’re quite happy with this first day’s work. Our livery is something fun and it’s definitely quite funny to see Valentino dressed like a football player! We want to wish ‘good luck’ to the Italian team for the tournament and now we hope they’ll be doing the same for us on Sunday!” Jorge Lorenzo will miss his home Grand Prix at Barcelona this weekend after a crash in this afternoon’s free practice. The Spaniard lost the front of his M1 at turn 11 just four laps into the afternoon session and slid into the gravel, before being stretchered off and taken to the circuit clinic. After undergoing an initial check-up at the track, which confirmed that there were no further injuries to the ankles which he fractured in China, the decision was made to take him to hospital in Barcelona for further examination. Doctor Xavier Mir of the University Institut Dexeus in Barcelona commented as follows: “I can confirm that Lorenzo will not be able to compete this weekend after the tests done here at the Institut Dexeus have confirmed the following injuries: “1. He suffered head trauma and lost consciousness. We made a neurological examination with a CAT scan and an MRI scan and from this we can confirm that there is no cranial haemotoma or haemorrage. However, he now needs to stay under observation for between 48 and 72 hours to see how this develops. 2. He sustained an injury to the 4th and 5th finger on the right hand, where he has lost some skin. He also has an abrasion of the extensor tendon. We need to see how this develops but it could be possible that he needs a small skin graft. 3. Various other bruises and grazes.” Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager; “Unfortunately today Jorge suffered another crash and it’s clear that the luck is not with him at the moment. This morning we had a good session and things were going very well, we’d found a good base set up from which to work and we were quite happy with our progress. Then this afternoon started well but sadly after four laps we had another crash when Jorge lost the front at turn 11. He was going 130 km so it was quite a fast crash, but we checked the data and we can’t see that he made any particular mistake. We were trying some different tyres and bike setting from the morning and we were feeling quite happy about how things were going so it’s a great pity. Luckily he’s avoided any further injury to his ankles, but the head injury means that he must undergo a period of rest and not take any further risks. We are very disappointed for Jorge, but the important thing now is that he has some rest and takes time to recover properly.” Masahiko Nakajima Team Director; “We are very sorry about this matter and about the fact that Jorge is having to miss his home Grand Prix. My feeling is that, after the rain, the track condition today was not normal; it was worse than everyone could have expected. We hope that Jorge recovers quickly and that he will be able to come back in good shape, rested and relaxed, for the next race.” James Toseland impresses on Catalunya debut James Toseland once again proved his skill at overcoming a lack of track knowledge to finish eighth fastest on the opening day of free practice in Catalunya. Venturing into unchartered territory for the fifth successive race, Toseland excelled by clocking an impressive best time of 1.43.479 this afternoon. More importantly though for Toseland was his time was only 0.462s off the quickest pace set by experienced Catalunya campaigner Dani Pedrosa. Previously at Estoril, Le Mans, Shanghai and Mugello, Toseland has found himself over a second off the fastest pace on the first day of riding at tracks where he has no experience. But exuding confidence with a base setting on his Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1 machine he first used in Mugello last weekend, Toseland acquitted himself to the task of learning the technical Montmelo circuit superbly, knocking nearly one second off his best time set this morning. It was also a productive day for Colin Edwards, who concentrated on finding a consistent pace in race trim. Like Toseland, Edwards was able to post a series of consistent laps in the 1.43 bracket, with both riders opting to focus on finding a good race set-up, while also conducting important tests on a range of Michelin race tyres ahead of Sunday’s 25-lap clash. James Toseland 8th 1’43.479; “To be only four-tenths off on my first day is really pleasing and that shows how well the team has been working and how good this new setting is we found at the Michelin test after Le Mans. At the other new tracks I was over a second slower at this point on a Friday so we have made big progress. We have just about found a really good base setting on the bike and that is helping me learn the tracks even quicker. I can concentrate of fine tuning the set-up rather than turning the bike upside down, while also trying to find my way round the circuit. We have got to a point were we can just tweak the bike rather than look to make big changes. The set-up is a real improvement and it has helped a lot with rear grip. Today I was able to do consistent times on old tyres but that’s because I’ve got the confidence to push. The rear is much more planted and the new set-up puts more weight on the rear tyre. With the rear more planted on the entry you can brake a bit later because there is more contact. I can enter the corner faster and still turn because there is more grip and then get on a better apex to exit better. It is amazing if you don’t have that rear traction how much time you can lose in those points. Now I’m in the ballpark on the first day I’ll check with my guys and Michelin where we can improve. We’ve still got some small issues and those last few tenths are always the hardest to find. I’m really pleased with today though and love the track. Like Mugello, it is so fast, flowing and technical and I love riding through those fast corners.” Colin Edwards 10th 1’43.668; “I’m down in tenth which is not where I want to be, but I’m not worried at all because looking at the times, I’m doing okay. I’ve done a lot of 1.43 laps and I’m right there with the rest of them, but a lot of guys haven’t been able to string many laps together. The tyre I went fastest on I did 20 laps on it and my last lap was only five tenths slower than my fastest. If somebody told me I’ll go out and do 25 laps at 43.7 on Sunday I’ll take it right now. I think some guys will struggle with that pace for that many laps so we are in good shape. All we have been doing is playing around with the bike to get the best set-up for Sunday. We have a little issue with traction but nothing to worry about at all. I’d like a bit more drive on the rear exiting corners but that will come from a setting change because I’m really happy with Michelin, Yamaha and Tech 3. I did a lot of laps to get some information for Michelin and a lot of those laps were around my best time, and that’s probably the fastest I have ever been at this place. With a bit more rear traction we’ll be in great shape, because more traction is more satisfaction.”