From a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:

SUZUKI MEN LOOK TO ESTORIL FOR FRUITS OF HARD DAYS OF TESTING

MotoGP Preview, Round 11
Portuguese GP, Estoril
September 8, 2002:

TELEFONICA MoviStar Suzuki riders Kenny Roberts Jr. and Sete Gibernau go to Estoril for the Portuguese GP with two days of testing under their belts – and a mass of new data, as the race-development programme of the new-this-year Suzuki GSV-R four-stroke prototype continues with its second phase.

The MGP season resumed two weeks before at Brno, where Gibernau attained his best result of the year – a hard-fought fourth, after fighting through to challenge for the top-three rostrum. This was also the best placing for the hugely powerful 990cc V4 racer since its brilliant second in wet conditions at the opening round in Japan, ridden by Japanese factory rider and sometime wild card entry Akira Ryo. It was proof positive that the in-the-open development programme, driven by the factory racing department and the racing team, is continuing to bear fruit.

The Brno race came after the long summer break, during which testing was banned at GP circuits. The Telefónica MoviStar team took advantage of the resumption of business for two long and hard days of testing at the Czech circuit on the two days after the race, assessing new chassis and engine development parts, and acquiring a mass of vital data to help them continue to move forward with a motorcycle that was brought to the circuits a full year earlier than was originally planned.

The tests were a further demonstration of the success of surgery to Kenny Roberts’s’ right arm before the summer break, aimed at solving a fast-worsening “arm-pump” problem. Kenny completed several times race distance, riding all day for two days, with no problems.

The Estoril circuit poses a very different challenge from Brno, with the second-slowest lap record time of the season, in spite of a fast and long main straight. This shows just how intensely twisty the back section is, with slow corners looping round a hillside to run onto a difficult final corner at ever-increasing speed, making a fast run onto the straight.

The engineers will have to find the best setting combination for an overall lap time – shifting the balance towards the slower turns or the faster section to find which will give the best prospects for the race. At the same time, Estoril could offer another chance to the die-hard 500cc two-strokes, which have yet to win a single race this year against the new-generation four-stroke prototypes like Suzuki’s GSV-R.

Estoril has one particular quirk – in the hills overlooking the Atlantic, it is often subject to strong winds, which make life hard for the riders and also blow dust over the surface.

This is also the last race in Europe until November, with teams packing up for a gruelling quartet of “flyaway” GPs, that will take contestants to Brazil, Japan, Malaysia and Australia over a five-week period, before returning for one last hurrah at Valencia to close the season. The Brno tests were aimed at getting ready for these races as well, said team manager Garry Taylor.

“Testing is never a magic switch that suddenly gives you a second or two improvement in lap,” said Taylor. “Rather than looking for a breakthrough, it’s a chance to take a long hard look at various items of equipment and setting options, and measure their value.

“Two days at Brno was however an opportunity to run through a huge list, and achieve a great deal of comparative testing. We got a lot of valuable information, and now our engineers will process the data and put it all together to give our riders the best possible options not only for Estoril, but for the other tracks to come,” he said.


KENNY ROBERTS – KIND OF CREEPING UP ON IT
“Brno was not one of our tests when we found something a lot better – but we did run through a lot of settings. I was following one line, and technical adviser Warren Willing had some other ideas, and at the end we kind of combined them and came up with a promising direction. It was pretty windy, but I was getting some competitive lap times for the conditions. I rode until 6pm every day, and in fact we could have used even more time. We didn’t find anything gigantic, but we’re kind of creeping up on it, and we have a lot of information for the guys to put together for the next races. It’s hard to know how Estoril will be, because the bike has gone against our expectations at several tracks, often being better than we expected at what we thought would be bad tracks – though I had a hard time at Brno, where I had expected to go well. We do know Estoril will probably be windy and dusty, and we’ll keep plugging away to make inroads on the competition.”


SETE GIBERNAU – THIS TIME, SOME BETTER LUCK PLEASE
“The last two times at Estoril have promised me a lot, but then taken it away again. Two years ago I was on the second row of the grid and actually led the race – then I had a big, fast crash with eight laps to go. Last year I was on the second row as well, but I didn’t get past the first tight corner. Somebody ran into me from behind, and my bike was too badly damaged to continue. At Brno, I think I proved that my team and I are prepared to work to the maximum and that I will ride to the maximum. I’ve said we need help from the factory, and the tests after the race showed that they are working very hard to get our bike to the next stage. We’re not there yet, but we’re pulling together to get there as soon as possible.”




ABOUT THIS RACE
This is the fifth Portuguese GP, but only the third at Estoril. The previous two races actually took place in neighbouring Spain. The first in 1987 was at Jarama outside Madrid. The second was at Jerez one year later, and underwent a last-minute name change to become the Expo 92 GP after a controversial sale of the naming rights. Later attempts to include Estoril on the calendar foundered on track safety grounds, but modifications to the track have solved these issues, and the race took its place as a fully fledged new GP in 2000. It returns this year, as one of four races on the Iberian Peninsula, and penultimate round of the European calendar.


ABOUT THIS TRACK
The Autodromo Fernanda Pires da Silva at Estoril circuit is west of Lisbon, close to the coastal resorts of Cascais and not far from the historic town of Sintra. In hilly country, it comprises a long downhill straight, leading to a series of 13 predominately uphill slow corners, and distinguished by a highly technical and twisty section leading on to the fast and crucial final corner. A newly built pit complex was erected last year – part of a programme of updating and rebuilding to bring the track up to motorcycle GP standards.


GP DATA
Estoril

Circuit Length: 2.598 miles / 4.182 km.

Lap Record: 1:40.683 – 92.914mph / 149.531km/h. L Capirossi (Honda), 2001

2001 Race Winner: V Rossi (Honda)

2001 Race Average: 47’25.357 – 92.057mph / 148.152km/h.

2001 Fastest Race Lap: see lap record

2001 Pole Position: M Biaggi (Yamaha) 1:40.076

2001 KENNY ROBERTS: SIXTH, Qualified 11th (Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki)

2001 SETE GIBERNAU: DNF, qualified seventh (Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki)




More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Yamaha:

MARLBORO YAMAHA TEAM GRAND PRIX PREVIEW

MARLBORO PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX, ESTORIL
September 6/7/8 2002

MIGHTY M1 MEN AIM TO WIN AGAIN
Marlboro Yamaha Team stars Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa come to Estoril this weekend aiming to repeat Biaggi’s stunning Czech Grand Prix win of two weeks ago.

That victory proved that the team’s mighty YZR-M1 is a winning motorcycle, and the hard-working Marlboro Yamaha crew stayed on at Brno after the race to continue testing the latest upgrade parts from Yamaha and Öhlins. And they’ll need all the engine and chassis performance they can get at Estoril, one of the most technically complex racetracks on the GP calendar.

Sunday’s Marlboro Portuguese GP concludes the long run of European events that constitute the bulk of the MotoGP World Championship season. The MotoGP circus has been performing on the Continent since May’s Spanish GP, but after Sunday’s racing the action moves out of Europe, with riders and teams embarking on a gruelling intercontinental tour that takes them from Brazil to Japan and from Malaysia to Australia, all in the space of five weekends. They return to Europe for the season finale at Valencia on November 3.


M1 FACES CHALLENGING WEEKEND AT ESTORIL
Following the M1’s maiden victory at Brno two weeks ago, the Marlboro Yamaha Team is now focusing on achieving further success in the final six races of the first four-stroke-based MotoGP World Championship. At Brno Biaggi benefited from a new fairing and radiator, parts that contributed to his M1 being the fastest bike on the track, and this weekend the Italian and his Spanish team-mate Carlos Checa may benefit from improved chassis performance, thanks to an upgraded chassis first tried at Brno, and new Öhlins front forks.

“We’ve now achieved our first target, to win a race, now we want to win more at the last six Grands Prix,” proclaims Marlboro Yamaha Team director Davide Brivio. “That first win has given a good boost to everyone in the team and at Yamaha. It’s also very good for Max, he was fantastic at Brno, taking pole position and then leading all the way under some real pressure. And I think his win should also boost Carlos.

“Estoril is one of the tracks where we had a hard time during winter testing, but it’s also where we started to learn the correct way to develop the M1, so it should be interesting to see how far we’ve come since we tested there in February.

“I think Estoril will be harder for the four-strokes than Brno, but with one win behind us, I think we can have a good weekend if everything goes to plan. Of course, we haven’t stopped working since the win, we tested our new chassis and front suspension at Brno and we’ll now see if they suit Estoril.”

YZR-M1 project leader Ichiro Yoda, who stood atop the Brno podium with Biaggi, also expects a challenging weekend in Portugal. “Estoril is the most difficult track for set-up, even more difficult than Jerez,” he says. “You need a bike that does everything well – hard braking, good turning, good cornering, good low-rpm power and good top speed. But after Brno I hope that we can challenge again.

“Looking at the last six races, I think that we will have our best chance at tracks that are hardest on tyres, like Sepang and Phillip Island. It seems that our bike is more gentle on tyres than the Honda. Biaggi used the same tyre as Valentino Rossi at Brno, no problem. The M1 has good traction and its power delivery is more gentle on tyres.”


BIAGGI GOING FOR SECOND OVERALL
Max Biaggi’s masterful performance at the Czech GP has brought him to within six points of second overall in the MotoGP World Championship. After a steady start to the 2002 season, the Italian hasn’t finished outside the top four in seven GPs, and his Brno win was preceded by three runner-up results, at the Italian, British and German GPs. Not only that, the Marlboro Yamaha Team rider scored a landmark 50th pole position at Brno, his second of the year.

“Brno was a good day, I tried my best for the team and I offered my thanks to them for helping me to that win,” says Biaggi. “At the beginning of this year we weren’t able to fight for victory but Yamaha made a great recovery, the bike improved and now we’re in the fight for winning races. It’s never easy to build a good bike, if it was, everyone would have good bikes!”

Biaggi’s Brno success also laid to rest the memory of his crash during last year’s Czech GP, which blunted his push towards the 2001 500 crown. And he’s hoping for a similar change of fortune at Estoril, where he slid off last year, remounting to finish fifth. The Portuguese venue, situated not far from the Atlantic ocean, is often lashed by strong winds which can blow dust and sand onto the tarmac, resulting in sudden and unexpected loss of grip.

“The worst thing about the track is the wind,” adds Biaggi. “It’s often very windy in this area, and quite dusty too, so when the wind blows, sand and dust get thrown onto the track, which makes the surface very slippery. It’s unpredictable too, because one lap there might not be dust at a certain corner, and the next lap there is dust, and of course, you can’t see it. This makes it complicated to work on tyre choice with my Michelin engineer Daniel Croispine, because you never really know where you are with the grip level.

“The track layout is so-so, Estoril isn’t bad but it’s not my favourite. I like the final few corners because they’re quite fast. But the slowest corner just before that section is so slow, you can’t even believe how slow!”

Biaggi started the 2001 Marlboro Portuguese GP from pole position. He finished the previous year’s Portuguese GP in fourth position.


CHECA WORKS TO GET BACK UP FRONT
Spanish favourite Carlos Checa contests the third of four GPs on the Iberian peninsula this weekend. And the Marlboro Yamaha Team man is determined to put himself back into the hunt for victory after a couple of frustrating races in Germany and the Czech Republic.

Two weeks ago at Brno, Checa rode to a fifth-place result, equalling his lowliest finish of the season. And at July’s German GP he was fourth, albeit just 2.3 seconds away from victory.

“We had a few set-up problems at Brno,” explains Checa, currently fourth in the 2002 MotoGP World Championship. “We lost our way with settings on the modified chassis, so we stayed on after the race to test the chassis, plus new front forks and some new Michelin tyres. We just needed more time to evaluate the full range of different settings, and now that we’ve done that, we should be in better shape for Estoril.”

Checa has already proved that he can run up front aboard the M1. He’s so far scored three podium finishes on the bike – at the Japanese, Catalan and Dutch GPs – and he’s led several races this year. Now he wants to follow Max Biaggi’s Brno win with his own success. But he knows that Estoril won’t be the easiest of races for the 210bhp-plus M1. The track features several ultra-slow corners, which make it the slowest circuit on the GP calendar, and these corners will suit the 500 two-strokes more than the big-bore four-strokes.

“Estoril is bumpy and the slow section is very slow,” he adds. “I think the slowest part is better for go-karts than MotoGP bikes! We will have to work very hard to find a set-up that will give me a good feeling and allow me to be very fast. We need to be as quick as possible through all the slow corners, then use the advantages of our bike through the faster part of the circuit. For sure, the bike will be much better than when we tested at Estoril in February, we’ve come a long way since then.”

Checa finished fourth in last year’s Marlboro Portuguese Grand Prix, after qualifying in eighth position. In 2000 he rode to 12th, struggling with the strong winds that affected that year’s event.


WHAT THE TEAM SAYS
Fiorenzo Fanali, Max Biaggi’s chief engineer
“Yamaha have worked so hard since the start of the season, they really deserved to get their first win with the M1 at Brno. But that race is already in the past, we’re looking ahead to Estoril. We worked with the new chassis and forks during tests after Brno and we hope these may help at the next races. The Estoril track has many contrasting features, so we have to work at finding the best compromise. That doesn’t mean changing the whole set-up, you just work out which part of the track is the biggest problem, work to fix that, then go on to the next problem.”

Antonio Jimenez, Carlos Checa’s chief engineer
“After Brno we need to improve our overall set-up. Estoril will be interesting for us, a real challenge, because there’s many different kinds of corners at this track. From the start we will focus on getting the bike working well for hard braking and for the slow turns, then we’ll go on from there, hoping all the time that the track doesn’t get too dusty. It’s not the kind of circuit where the four-strokes will be able to make the best of their advantages, so I think we could have a bit of a battle with the two-strokes during the weekend.”


THE TRACK
Estoril is the slowest circuit on the GP calendar, with a lap record of less than 150kmh. Nevertheless the track presents a real challenge to riders and engineers. The contrast between very slow and very fast corners demands some tricky compromises in chassis set-up, with riders requiring manoeuvrability in the tight corners and stability in the sweepers. These two characteristics aren’t mutually exclusive but it’s not easy to create a motorcycle that excels in both situations, so compromise is the only answer. It’s the same with the engine – the contrast between the fast start-finish straight and the many slow-speed corners requires maximum peak horsepower as well as gentle low-rev performance.

But perhaps the greatest concern for riders is the track’s proximity to the Atlantic. High-speed winds whip off the ocean, blowing bikes and riders off course, and throwing dust onto the circuit, with potentially disastrous results.

Estoril hosts its third Grand Prix this weekend, though this is the fifth Portuguese GP. The nation’s first two GPs were held at Spanish tracks in 1987 and 1988, because Estoril failed stringent track safety standards.


ESTORIL
4.182km/2.599 miles
Lap record: Loris Capirossi (Honda), 1m 40.683s. 149.530kmh/92.914mph


MARLBORO YAMAHA TEAM RIDER DATA LOGS

MAX BIAGGI
Age: 31. Lives: Monaco
Bike: Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: 38 (1xMotoGP, 8×500, 29×250)
First GP victory: South Africa, 1992 (250)
First GP: France, 1991 (250)
GP starts: 159 (10xMotoGP, 62×500, 87×250)
Pole positions: 50 (2xMotoGP, 15×500, 33×250)
First pole: Europe, 1992 (250)
World Championships: 4 x 250 (’94, ’95, ’96, ’97)
Estoril 2001 results. Grid: pole. Race: 5th

CARLOS CHECA
Age: 29. Lives: Yorkshire, England
Bike: Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: 2 (500)
First GP victory: Catalunya, 1996 (500)
First GP: Europe, 1993 (125)
GP starts: 130 (10xMotoGP, 92×500, 27×250, 1×125)
Pole positions: 1 (500)
First pole: Spain, 1998 (500)
Estoril 2001 results. Grid: 8th. Race: 4th


More, from MS Aprilia:

Estoril, Portugal, eleventh round of the World Championship, prior to the South American event.

The Estoril circuit is located 28 kilometres from Lisbon, just by the Atlantic coast, and will be the venue for the eleventh round of the World Road Racing Championship. Built in 1972, the Portuguese track hosted a number of Formula 2 races in the 1970s before being “consecrated” at world level with the arrival of Formula 1 in 1984. Since 2000, it has been the Portuguese venue for the world motorcycling tests of the Grand Prix. This a is difficult track to interpret, since its layout comprises all those difficulties which make it technical and selective. There are many slow-speed corners to negotiate, followed by rapid accelerations. There are other, faster turns leading into the tight chicanes where the change of direction needs to be tackled with great skill. But that is not all: extreme braking is needed for overtaking, and then there is the long straight, where engine power can make all the difference. This means that Estoril has all the characteristics of a track that is difficult for both technicians and riders to interpret. And the weather is an unknown factor: its proximity to the Atlantic coast makes the area susceptible to rapid changes in the atmosphere.

The circuit. Length: 4,182 metres – 4 left corners – 9 right corners – longest straight: 986 metres – Maximum width: 14 metres – Constructed in: 1972 – Modified in: 1999.


2001 winners. 125 Class: Poggiali (Ita) Gilera – 250 Class: Kato (Jap) Honda – 500 Class: Rossi (Ita) Honda.


Circuit records – 125: 1’46,329, Ui, 2001 – 250: 1’42.285, Kato, 2001 – 500: 1’40.683, Capirossi, 2001.


APRILIA

After 10 rounds out of 16 in the 2002 MotoGP, Aprilia tops the charts in 3 out of the 6 championships:


1st in the 250 Class riders’ championship with Marco Melandri

1st in the 250 Class manufacturers’ championship

1st in the 125 Class manufacturers’ championship


In the 125 class, Aprilia is inching closer to the top spot in the riders’ world championship. Arnaud Vincent’s third place on the Brno podium reduced the gap separating him from the top of the tables, and he is now just two points away from leader Manuel Poggiali, the Gilera standard-bearer.


In the 250 class, Marco Melandri has increased his lead over second-place Nieto to 39 points, and Aprilia now boasts a 95-point lead over the Japanese Honda in the manufacturer’s championship.


MARCO MELANDRI – 250cc Class – Aprilia RSW 250

Back in London, the city where he currently lives, straight after his great victory in Brno (his sixth win in a row, equalling the records set by Spencer in 1985), Marco Melandri took off for Nottingham. Macio is actually planning to move from the great metropolis to the capital of Nottinghamshire in November and has started house-hunting to find the place best suited to meet his needs. Marco loves sport, but more than anything he has a passion for off-road and motocross racing, and the Midlands countryside offers the best opportunities for the open-air sports Macio likes best.


“I’ve been up in Nottingham looking for a house. I’m thinking of moving to the Midlands after having spent an exciting time in London. Nottingham’s a great city, possibly more on a human scale than London, which is a vast and fascinating metropolis but one that lacks the natural areas of sport you find outside Nottingham. In the countryside in the middle of England, you can practise motorcross and other sports, you can live the outdoor life, and it’s a city which encourages you much more to use a motorbike. But let’s see about Estoril: it’s not one of my favourite tracks. It’s technical and hard to interpret. The circuit’s got lots of slow corners, and you’ve got to negotiate no fewer than four of them in first gear. There’s often strong wind and the tarmac’s full of holes. The bikes just got to have really good handling, but the engine’s also very important for the long straight. It’s a track where every single part of the bike has to be working to perfection. One good thing is that it’s wide, so you can take the trajectories in different ways and last-minute braking makes it easier to overtake. We’ll need to find a very special set-up to make the bike easy to ride, making it possible to open up the throttle very early. My opponents are the same as always: I think Nieto and Rolfo should be good on this track. I just have to be the same as the other times: doing what I have to do, and knowing that the enormous motivation I have in me can take me to victory.”


REGIS LACONI – MotoGP – Aprilia RS3

Régis Laconi ended last week with some hectic days. The Cube was once again back on track for a series of tests at Mugello on Thursday and Friday. The official Aprilia rider was thus able to get a better feeling for the new components on his bike which he used during the last weekend at Brno. But the two days were also very useful for sorting out the problems Regis had come up against in the Czech Republic and finding some solutions to improve things. But that was not all, for the technical similarities between the circuits at Mugello and the Estoril, where the 11th round of the World Road Racing Championship will be held this weekend, let Régis find a good initial set-up for the Cube for the Portuguese track. Then he was off for two days of sunshine in Liguria and today he leaves for Lisbon.

Laconi knows the Estoril very well. In 2000, Régis crossed the finishing line in fifth place in the top class. He was preceded by McCoy, Roberts, Rossi and Biaggi, in that order.


“The two days in Mugello were very important. We did more tests on the Cube, working on the details of the bike’s new step, which I used for the first time during the Brno weekend. We also need to try out some other tyres, with different configurations and sizes for the front wheel. This is because I had some problems on the front during the last race in the Czech Republic: chattering and lack of grip made things difficult. Strong vibrations meant I had difficulty bringing the Cube into the corners. The important thing, at Mugello, was to acquire further data to give Dunlop as references for their development work. The similarities between the technical characteristics of Mugello and Estoril also helped us work for Sunday’s race, and we achieved a set-up which makes the Cube much easier to handle. The last part of the track in Portugal is not easy to interpret – it takes some violent braking, rapid acceleration, and then there’s the straight which is almost a kilometre long, where you can easily reach over 300 kph. Lots of righthanders and… you have to watch out for lots of potholes just about all the way along the track.”