FIM MotoGP World Championship Motegi, Japan September 30 Free Practice Two Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:46.790 2. Casey STONER, Australia (HONDA), 1:46.844 3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:46.952 4. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:47.188 5. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:47.310 6. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:47.381 7. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:47.785 8. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:47.975 9. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:48.055 10. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:48.076 11. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:48.097 12. Randy DE PUNIET, France (DUCATI), 1:48.374 13. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Great Britain (YAMAHA), 1:48.379 14. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:48.567 15. Toni ELIAS, Spain (HONDA), 1:48.743 16. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (DUCATI), 1:49.305 17. Kousuke AKIYOSHI, Japan (HONDA), 1:49.464 18. Shinichi ITO, Japan (HONDA), 1:49.673 19. Damian CUDLIN, Australia (DUCATI), 1:51.349 More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Bautista with work to do after first day at Motegi Rizla Suzukis lvaro Bautista recorded the 11th fastest time at Motegi in Japan today, but knows there is more potential to come from rider and machine. Bautista completed 38 laps of the 4,801m Japanese circuit, recording his quickest time of 148.097 on his last lap of the day. He will continue to work through a number of various set-up changes tomorrow and carry on searching for the best tyre choice, as he prepares for Sundays race. Todays practice sessions were held in warm and pleasant conditions with track temperatures reaching 41C. Dani Pedrosa clocked the best time, with current championship leader Casey Stoner second. Rizla Suzuki has one more free practice session at its home Grand Prix tomorrow morning, before an hour of qualifying will determine grid positions for Sundays 24-lap race. lvaro Bautista: We tested a different setting this morning and compared it against the one from Aragon. We used the new set-up in the bike with the new swinging-arm and it was definitely better. This afternoon we tried the harder option tyres, because although the softer ones were not too bad this morning, I still had a bit of movement entering the corners. This track has a lot of hard braking and the harder front tyre is much better for that because it gives me more stability. We still dont know which compound we will use for the race, so we have to test a bit more tomorrow and it will also depend on the temperature on race-day. At the end I got into a fairly good rhythm, but I still dont feel 100% with the bike. I had a little gear-shift problem and this made judging the braking points quite difficult, and I had a lot of movement because I was moving my whole body to change down a gear. We improved at the end, but not enough and I think that we can make some big steps tomorrow. With some hard work we can make the bike perform better and improve our lap-time. Paul Denning Team Manager: We didnt get up to speed as quickly as we would have liked to here in Motegi. lvaro has had a number of small restrictions that have held him back, but on the positive side his best lap-time wasnt faster than his regular rhythm and was very repeatable. By the end of FP2 the gap to the top-six had reduced to a level which will hopefully allow us to make in-roads during tomorrow and the team will improve the bike overnight. After much debate which in the end I am glad we as Rizla Suzuki stayed away from its a pleasure to be back in Motegi and find the circuit and the Japanese fans so welcoming to the MotoGP circus! More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Leaders under lap record already after first day at Motegi Round 15: Japanese GP Free Practice One & Two Twin Ring Motegi, Friday 30 September 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Soft, Medium, Hard. Rear (asymmetric): Soft, Medium Fittingly for Honda at their circuit, the leaderboard was dominated today by Honda machines: the Repsol Honda trio of Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso in first, second and third respectively and San Carlo Honda Gresini Marco Simoncelli fourth fastest. The lead trio all finished the afternoon’s 45-minute free practice session faster than the existing lap record, set by Stoner back in 2008, and were separated by just 0.162seconds. The fastest non-Honda was the Factory Yamaha machine of Jorge Lorenzo in fifth. After the earthquake that shook the region back in March, part of Twin Ring Motegi was damaged and extensive work has been undertaken to fully restore the MotoGP circuit, which was also used by the IndyCar Series two weeks ago. This means that the track was partially resurfaced at the end of June and is now very smooth, and clearly very fast. In the morning many riders used the medium compound front slick and in the afternoon all riders tested the hard compound which was favoured in these conditions because of its increased stability which is important in the hard braking zones at Motegi. This year Bridgestone have selected softer rear tyre compounds for Motegi, based on data from last year and in response to calls from riders for improved warm-up and safety in the opening laps. In the morning session the soft compound rear worked well and was used by some riders throughout the session, but in the afternoon as the laptimes improved the harder rear was favoured. It shows though that both rear compound options are well suited to these conditions. Hirohide Hamashima Assistant to Director, Motorsport Tyre Development Division “Firstly after all the conjecture this season I am pleased that we are running here in Japan and everybody can see that the situation at the circuit is quite safe. The organisers have done a very good job in repairing the damage that was done to the circuit, and the new surface is really very good. The laptimes at the front are both close and very fast, with the top three already all under the lap record which has stood since 2008, so this gives a measure of the level of performance. “The harder front is clearly preferable here for its improved stability in the heavy braking areas, but in the two sessions today we saw riders using both rear tyre options, indicating that our allocation this weekend is well suited to these conditions and that going one step softer was a good decision. The weather forecast shows that it will be cooler from tomorrow, around 20 degrees Celsius, and this will be the most important factor in tyre compound choice.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: GRAND PRIX OF JAPAN Japan MotoGP Round 14 : Motegi circuit, 30 September-2 October Date : 30/09/2011 Weather : Dry Temperature : Air: 26 degrees, Ground: 41 degrees Humidity : 58% Repsol Honda 1, 2, 3 in day one of practice in Motegi After the first free practice sessions of the Japanese Grand Prix, Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso lead the way occupying the top three spots in a dominant performance in front of an enthusiastic home crowd at the Japanese manufacturers home GP. As well as setting the fastest lap times of the day, the three Repsol Honda riders also recorded the top speeds with Dani at 293,5 km/h, Casey 291,7 km/h and Andrea 290,2 km/h. Lap times improved from last year due to the new surface which was laid after damage was caused to the Motegi track during the earthquake and tsunami of March 11. Dani returned back to the track where he was unable to race last year due to his injury sustained on Friday morning, to set the fastest time of the day with a 1’46.790, almost four tenths faster than the circuit record (Stoner, 1’47.091, 2008). Casey, the winner in 2010, finished very close behind, just 0.054 off Dani, while Andrea, who took the pole position last year, is third just 0.162 off the top time. Fourth position of the day belonged to San Carlo Honda rider Marco Simoncelli, who was just two tenths off Andrea. DANI PEDROSA 1st 1’46.790 “We did a good job today; in the morning we took a good direction and this allowed us to improve a lot in the afternoon, by a second, and this is very important. Tomorrow we have to focus on the set up of the bike; maybe the weather will change a little bit, so we have to be aware of the conditions and try to be fast anytime. In case it does rain tomorrow and we cannot practice anymore in dry conditions, we already have a good set up for the dry. Everybody here at the Motegi circuit has done a very good job with the new surface, the grip is much better than before and this is one of the reasons why the lap times have improved quite a lot already from last year”. CASEY STONER 2nd 1’46.844 “The bike felt pretty good this morning and then this afternoon we started the session on pretty much the same setting that we ended on this morning, it felt ok but we felt we could improve. Unfortunately we went in slightly the wrong direction and couldn’t get the bike to turn or hook up on the last two exits and then we didn’t really have enough time to come in and make a change. We know what direction we want to go in now and hopefully tomorrow we can make the small improvements. The new surface here feels very good, very smooth and the grip level is impressive. It’s really great to be racing here on a Honda in front of the home fans and I hope we can get a good qualifying tomorrow to prepare best for the race on Sunday”. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 3rd 1’46.952 “I am very happy with today’s sessions. All the Honda riders are constantly fast and we are all very close. The new tarmac is ok, but totally different feeling from last season, it’s still bumpy, even more then before, but anyway we are faster then in 2010. The feeling with the tyres is totally different due to the new tarmac and the biggest problem is to find rear grip entering corners, this is the area where we will concentrate our efforts for tomorrow” More, from a press release issued by Honda Racing Corporation: Shinichi Ito happy to return to Grand Prix racing Today marked one of the most special racing weekends for Shinichi Ito at Motegi, when he re-joined the MotoGP riders for the Japanese GP. Riding for Team HRC, Ito made good progression throughout the day, improving his afternoon lap time by almost two seconds from the morning session to finish in eighteenth position, only two tenths off Kosuke Akiyoshi, the other HRC test rider abroad the LCR Honda. Ito returned to participate in a Grand Prix four years after retiring from racing at the same track where he took part in his final race in 2007. With his return he hopes to bring encouragement to those in the East Japan region, who like him, suffered from the devastation of the earthquake and tsunami on March 11th 2011. SHINICHI ITO 18th 1’49.673 “Today I returned to the MotoGP Paddock after four years away, it’s a very special atmosphere that I like very much. I would like to thank everyone at Honda and I’m very happy to work again with my team manager Taddy, all the mechanics who I have known for a long time and especially HRC President, Suzuki san and HRC Executive Vice-President, Nakamoto san. I really appreciate that they came into the box to give me their comment, it meant a lot to me. After two sessions I’m more confident with 800 machine and I get a better feeling lap by lap but at this moment my lap time on the MotoGP machine is slower than my best lap time with a Superbike. Today I made almost two second progress from FP1 to FP2, but tomorrow I will try to make another step”. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: FIRST OUTING FOR LCR PAIR ON JAPANESE SOIL Motegi, 30th September: Under darkening skies the MotoGP class headed out for the first day of free practice at Twin Ring Motegi circuit which hosts the fifteenth round of the season. This is the event that was postponed from its original date in April this year due the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit off the coast of northern Japan in March. The 4.801 km track was built as a Honda track and the HRC riders have the added motivation for a good performance. The addition of Honda’s two test riders as wild cards raises the number of RCV212Vs on the grid to eight. LCR Honda racer Toni Elias is a fan of the Japanese surface and posted a best lap time of 1’48.783 (15th overall) whilst his team mate Akiyoshi made his first run out on LCR RCV setting his best lap time on 1’49.464 (17th overall). Elias: “We arrived here in Japan with the same target of the last races: we intend to close the gap to the front and this is a track where I always had good performances in the past. We know there’s work to do after this first outing but today we made a couple of changes in the front geometry and at the end I got into a fairly good rhythm. I liked those adjustments and I feel more confident ahead tomorrow’s practices”. Akiyoshi: “Well… I know this track like the back of my hand and I am very happy to race in Motegi ahead my fans. I would like to thank Honda and LCR staff for this great opportunity. I feel in a good form and today I made my first run out on this bike working through a number of various set-up changes especially in the engine management. With some hard work we can make the bike perform better and improve our lap-time.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: HAYDEN AND ROSSI SIXTH AND EIGHT IN MOTEGI FREE PRACTICE The Ducati Team started its setup work on the GP11.1 at the Motegi circuit, lapping at a decent pace from the first free-practice session. After posting the morning’s third-best time, Nicky Hayden finished the day sixth, less than six tenths from the leader, Dani Pedrosa. Valentino Rossi, who is still working on settings with the new chassis part introduced at Aragon, steadily improved his bike’s setup and his times, finishing eight. Both riders are fairly satisfied with the first day, though they’re aware that they must continue to improve tomorrow in order to further reduce the gap to the front. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) 6th (1:47.381) “I had fun riding the bike today, and that’s important. This morning was really encouraging, because I could ride comfortably, and we really haven’t made many changes throughout the day. I’ve steadily got a little bit faster, but the others made a bigger jump in the afternoon. I’ve certainly had worse Fridays this year, but we’ve got a long way to go if we want to be near the front on Sunday afternoon. We’ve got a couple of small ideas to try to improve the bike under braking. As hard as Ducati has worked to try to help us, it would be really nice to give them a result they deserve.” Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) 8th (1:47.975) “We made progress with the bike throughout the day, and as a result we improved our lap times, dropping below 1:48. The pace is still far from the top, but not bad for now. There are a number of things to resolve, but we’re definitely not in the situation we were at Aragon, where we always had big problems with rear grip. That’s not the case here. We worked on weight distribution, loading the front a little more, and it’s better. Tomorrow we must try to drop into the low 1:47 range. That’s our goal. Nicky is already there, although he chose to ride mainly with the soft tyre. The track is good. The asphalt has good grip, and they did a good job.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha: The first MotoGP practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Japan got underway today at Motegi with contrasting results for the two Yamaha Factory Racing riders. Reigning World Champion Jorge Lorenzo made a solid start to the first session, wrapping it up in fifth place just over six tenths from first. The Mallorcan rider came away from the session hunting for further stability from his YZR-M1 under braking and was also looking for more edge grip. The second session saw improvements in set up bring his time down by seven tenths of a second, reducing the gap slightly to first to just over five tenths of a second. Lorenzo’s team mate Ben Spies has struggled to perform since his arrival in Japan after suffering severe food poisoning en route from the USA. Treatment with Clinica Mobile yesterday evening helped the American find enough strength for the morning practice where he finished in eighth, 0.9 seconds from the front. Exhaustion then set in, resulting in an early end to the afternoon session after just five laps. The team will continue to work closely with Clinica Mobile today and tomorrow morning to improve Spies’ condition and stamina for Sunday’s race. Jorge Lorenzo Position : 5th Time: 1’47.310 Laps: 12 “We improved the lap time quite a lot from the morning to the afternoon session but it’s still not enough, the competition is very strong here. It is going to be a very difficult weekend to fight for the podium and the victory. We are trying some things on the bike to improve the stability on braking and into corners. We found a little but still need to find some more! We are fifth which could be worse today.” Ben Spies Position : 12th Time: 1’48.197 Laps: 5 “What a shocking start to the weekend, I don’t think I’ve ever been as sick as I was on the journey over here, I was nearly not allowed on the plane. I’m slowly getting my strength back thanks to the great guys at Clinica but didn’t have enough to ride properly in the second session. I started to get tunnel vision on the straight and just felt it was too dangerous to be out there. I’m working with Clinica today and tomorrow and am sure things will be a bit better for qualifying and the race. I’m really sorry for my team and all the Japanese fans who came to watch today.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “The first day is not really that bad, we look worse on the time sheets than we really are. Jorge’s consistency is good which is important. We are missing a little on braking stability and edge grip. We are looking forward to tomorrow, we need to solve these two things but we have a good pace. We need to improve but there is space to do that.” Massimo Meregalli Team Director “The food poisoning has made the start of this weekend very difficult. We are working together with Clinica Mobile and Ben’s condition is getting better all the time. Yesterday he had some treatment and it helped him complete this morning’s session. He thought he could also do the second but I think he used up all his energy in the first heat. We think tomorrow will be better and Sunday he will hopefully be ready for the race.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Edwards and Crutchlow make solid progress in Motegi practice Colin Edwards and Cal Cructchlow declared themselves satisfied with progress made on the opening day of practice for the Japanese MotoGP at the Twin Ring Motegi circuit today. Both were able to post competitive times in cloudy but hot conditions that bodes well for a strong weekend for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team in Yamaha’s all-important home Grand Prix, which is round 15 of the 2011 World Championship campaign. American Edwards ended 10th quickest on the combined timesheets after he’d been an impressive seventh fastest in this morning’s opening 45-minute session with a lap of 1.48.169. Working hard to gain more confidence and feeling on the hard compound rear Bridge stone tyre option, Edwards was only able to marginally improve his pace to a 1.48.076 this afternoon. He finished less than 0.3s away from Twin Ring Motegi specialist Hiroshi Aoyama in seventh, giving Yamaha’s most experienced rider huge encouragement that he can fight for a place on the second row in tomorrow’s qualifying session. Crutchlow threw himself into the challenge of learning another new track with typical gusto, the British rider finishing 14th fastest on the leaderboard. He needed just five laps of this afternoon’s session to better his time of 1.49.385 from the opening practice. He continued to make big improvements as his experience of the track increased and at the second session’s conclusion he had managed to shave off over a second to finish with a best time of 1.48.379. Quickly adapting to the severe braking points on the 2.983 mil es circuit, Crutchlow finished just over 0.3s away from ninth place and he is optimistic he can compete for his first top 10 qualifying position since the Laguna Seca round in late July tomorrow. Colin Edwards 10th 1.48.076 35 laps: “It was a decent start to the weekend without being anything too special. I was reasonably happy this morning to be seventh fastest and really close to the top six. But this afternoon we ran the hard tyre for the whole session and I didn’t really feel that good. I just can’t get the lap time out of it even though I can’t really pinpoint any specific issues with it. I can’t sit down with my crew and tell them where we’ve got problems, but it made the bike a little bit more nervous. I expected to be higher than 10th after this morning but this is a point and shoot track and there is no getting away from the fact that we are struggling on acceleration. At a track like this where there is a lot of low gear acceleration points it shows up more. Tomorrow we need to test the softer tyre for a little bit longer to make sure we can do race distance on it, but we’ll also be working harder to improve the set-up of the bike on the hard tyre to give us the best chance possible of a strong result for Yamaha on Sunday.” Cal Crutchlow 14th 1.48.379 38 laps: “I’m happy enough with my pace today because this is a really weird and difficult track with a lot of really hard braking points that makes it very physical. I’ve had a few arm pump issues this year but thankfully the surgery I had a few weeks ago has done the trick because today I had no problems at all. And if there was going to be an issue with my arms it was going to be at this track because of all the hard braking. Unfortunately we’re lackin g a bit of engine performance but there is nothing I can do about that. It is a bit of a disadvantage but I managed to find a second this afternoon, so that shows with more experience of the track I am able to make big progress. Track experience is vital because I beat Aoyama in Aragon a couple of weeks ago but today he is seventh fastest. I’m only three tenths from being inside the top 10, so if I can find that time tomorrow and get on the third row of the grid, I’ll be well happy with that.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing: FIRST LAPS ON THE DESMOSEDICI FOR DAMIAN CUDLIN. DE PUNIET THIRTEENTH Day of studying for the replacement of Loris Capirossi for the Japanese Grand Prix, Damian Cudlin. The Australian rider, who made his debut with a MotoGP at Motegi, has ridden a total of 36 laps managing to constantly improve. From the morning free session to the afternoon, in fact, he lowered his time by almost two seconds. Even if he still far from the fastest riders, results don’t look bad at all for a rookie. De Puniet finished in thirteenth place even if this wasn’t one of the best first days of practice. The French rider was not able to find the right bike set-up and he will try again tomorrow to lower the gap from the firsts. Rain is expected tomorrow in the morning, while the track is expected to return dry in the afternoon for qualifying session which will begin at 2pm local. Marco Rigamonti Randy De Puniet Track Engineer “We started with the same set up of Aragon and the track here, being very different, gave us some problems. We tried to work with the harder tyre, thinking that once changed to the soft one things would improve, but unfortunately it did not go well. Tomorrow we will, weather permitting, focus on the development of the bike in order to give more grip to Randy.” Randy De Puniet Pramac Racing Team 13th in 1’48.374 “It was not an easy first day, I am not happy with the sitting of the bike, specially to stop the bike with the braking stability very low. We tried to improve in the afternoon but it wasn’t quite enough. The rear grip with the soft tyre isn’t so good and we need to work very hard for tomorrow. Also with front and rear suspension we need to make some important modifications. It doesn’t look easy right now, but we will not give up and we will try to lower our lap times by at least half a second to be competitive in the race.” Damian Cudlin Pramac Racing Team”- 19th in 1’51.349 “I think basically the first day went ok, we couldn’t expect to be faster. It’s the first time I step on this bike and the first time I ride in Motegi. There are many things to learn in a short amount of time. We improve at every lap, but I know that the closer we get to the other riders the harder it will be to improve. I just want to concentrate to improve; I am enjoying it a lot at the moment. We don’t need to make many changes to the bike right now, I can guarantee that if we leave it like this we will lower our lap times tomorrow morning anyway. Let’s hope to have a good Saturday to try to be with some of the other riders during the race.”