FIM MotoGP World Championship Losail International Circuit Doha, Qatar March 18, 2011 Free Practice Three Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Casey STONER, Australia (HONDA), 1:55.035 2. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:55.193 3. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:55.740 4. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:55.814 5. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:56.003 6. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:56.266 7. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:56.302 8. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:56.306 9. Randy DE PUNIET, France (DUCATI), 1:56.362 10. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (DUCATI), 1:56.434 11. Cal CRUTCHLOW, Great Britain (YAMAHA), 1:56.437 12. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:56.517 13. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:56.540 14. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:56.586 15. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (DUCATI), 1:57.275 16. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:57.601 17. Toni ELIAS, Spain (HONDA), 1:58.123 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner faster than lap record on second day of practice in Qatar Round 1: Qatar GP Free Practice Three Losail International Circuit, Friday 18 March 2011 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Extra Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard After another two free practice sessions on the second day of running in Qatar, Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner was again the pacesetter, lapping under the existing lap record on the harder option front and rear Bridgestone slicks. The Repsol Honda Team also claimed second and third spots with Dani Pedrosa fastest for much of the session and Andrea Dovizioso in third, just ahead of World Champion Jorge Lorenzo of the Factory Yamaha team. The circuit was faster today as it has become cleaner and more rubber has been laid down by the other classes competing at this Grand Prix. Both practice sessions were run in cool weather, and although the day started windy, the conditions calmed which helped with track cleaning as less sand was blown onto the circuit. The situation in Qatar is a tricky one for tyres and riders as normally with low temperatures and a slippery circuit, softer compounds are favoured for the extra grip they afford, but here the softer option rear is susceptible to graining and the harder option is performing very well, as Stoner demonstrated yesterday and today, despite the cold. MotoGP action will resume for an hour of qualifying tomorrow at 1955hrs local time. Hirohide Hamashima Director, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development “The track conditions improved quite a lot today as the circuit has become cleaner with the wind dropping and many more laps of running, but it was still quite slippery. Nevertheless I am happy with tyre performance, especially of the harder option rear, because the laptimes are fast and consistency and durability are good. With the softer rear, again some riders experienced some graining, but this was not a concern with the harder option. The overall grip of the softer rear is higher, but because of the sand and the graining, some riders couldn’t get a good laptime on this tyre. Almost every rider set their best lap on the harder option front too as it is more stable under braking. Conditions here are still tricky and tyre evaluation is difficult because of the problems caused by the sand, but this is a situation we see every year here at this circuit so comes as no surprise to me.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Edwards and Crutchlow thrilled with progress Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow were both delighted with major improvements made during the third and final MotoGP practice session at the Losail International Circuit tonight. In blustery and unpredictable conditions that continued to hit the 5.38km Doha venue, Edwards and Crutchlow made huge progress with their race set-up tonight, both improving their pace and consistency with the hard compound Bridgestone rear tyre. A series of modifications to the rear suspension of his YZR-M1 machine saw Edwards finish in sixth position on the combined timesheets, his best of 1.56.259 set in the first session of the evening. The c hanges improved rear grip with the hard tyre and also helped the American’s confidence with turning performance as he finished less than 0.5s away from the top three. Crutchlow was equally thrilled with his performance tonight, the British rider claiming a morale-boosting eighth place on the timesheets in the opening session of the evening. He finished with a best time of 1.56.437 having knocked off almost a second off his best lap from yesterday. He ended the final session less than 0.2s away from the top six and his time put him 12th overall on combined times as he produced another heroic display. The left little finger injury he suffered earlier this week in a testing crash is still causing him considerable pain and discomfort, while he was also struggling with strength in his left shoulder that is recovering from major winter surgery to repair tendon and ligament damage. Tonight’s performance has boosted Cr utchlow’s confidence that he can fight for a top ten grid position when he takes part in his first MotoGP qualifying session tomorrow night ahead of Sunday’s 22-laps. Colin Edwards 7th 1.56.302 20 laps: “Tonight ended up working out really well because the first session wasn’t that easy. I had quite a bit of trouble getting the hard tyre to work in the first session and that’s what we need to race with. The soft tyre just won’t go the race distance, so we had to figure out a solution to make the bike work on the hard tyre. Luckily, my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 and Ohlins came up with the answers. Earlier on I had too much wheelspin and couldn’t finish the corner, but we made some changes to the rear suspension and it was a million times better. Immediately I went out and did a 56.3, which was half-a-second quicker than I’ve been on the har d tyre all week. I then did a 56.3 after about eight laps, so we got the hard tyre working now. I knew we had to find half-a-second and we did, so hats off to the Team. I’m now a lot more confident for the rest of the weekend and feel we’ve got a really competitive package.” Cal Crutchlow 11th 1.56.437 18 laps: “To be as close as I was to the top six, I can’t really ask for too much more. I wasn’t following anybody either and I was doing the times on my own, so that gives me a lot of confidence too. I’m much happier on the harder tyre now. I was consistently in the 56s and that’s a big step forward on last night and I don’t really think the final position does us justice. Considering how sore my finger is and my shoulder is starting to hurt a bit now as well, I can’t complain. I actually think I could have gone quicker but when I put in a soft rear tyre at the end , the front tyre had got a few laps on it and it was moving around when I was pushing. But I feel a lot more comfortable on the bike and we’ve got a few ideas for tomorrow night, so I can improve a bit more.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: 1, 2, 3 for Repsol Honda on Friday in Qatar Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa maintained the top two spots of the timing sheets in both Free Practice sessions today in Qatar. They were the only riders to break into the 1’55’s in Free Practice 2, completing 17 and 19 laps respectively, followed closely by Andrea Dovizioso in 4th place with a time of 1’56.116. In Free Practice 3, all three Repsol Honda riders achieved times in the 1’55’s and occupied the top positions on the time sheets. Stoner ran his fastest time on lap 15 of 16 with a 1’55.035 – breaking his own circuit record of 1’55.153, Pedrosa was a mere sixteen hundredths behind with a lap time of 1’55.193 and 3rd place Dovizioso found his quickest time on his final lap of 18 with a 1’55.740. Stoner used both sessions tonight to better understand his bikes’ performance with used tyres and finished the session confident that he is able to achieve what he expects from both front and rear Bridgestones. Pedrosa also spent a lot of time working on tyres for qualifying and Sunday’s race. Dovizioso rectified the issue he had yesterday with vibration in the front of the bike and worked on set-up in preparation for qualifying. CASEY STONER 1st – 1’55.035 “We spent most of the second session tonight on used tyres to get a better understanding of where we are with them, we did a quick lap on race distance with these tyres so we’re really happy with this – in addition we completed around thirty laps on the front tyre which also worked well. We played around with the tyre pressure a little, but in general they seem to be very consistent from start to end. Today we had a few more things to try, in the first session today we didn’t make many improvements from yesterday and then in the second session we made a big step forward. I’m really happy at the pace we’re running, the way I’m riding and how we have the bike set-up”. DANI PEDROSA 2nd – 1’55.193 “We did a good job today, especially in the third session. We concentrated on doing a good lap at the beginning and then we were focused on the pace. I’m happy about how is everything going – even if there are still some places where we know we can do better and improve some tenths, so let’s keep concentrated to do that tomorrow. For the qualifying session our target is to be on the front row; here my best position on the grid has been a sixth place and I would really like to be on front row tomorrow. This afternoon we tried both tyres, hard and medium, and both worked well; my feeling is that the hard compound is better for the race distance even if the race is one hour later than practice today, and the softer compound is the best option for the qualifying session”. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 3rd – 1’55.740 “I’m happy with the work done during today’s two practices and of course of the third position though it’s not enough because Casey and Dani are faster so we will keep working hard to gain some tenths. Today the team did a great job to solve the vibration in the middle of the corner that we had yesterday. First we changed the front rim without any change in the set up and the vibration decreased. Then we also modified the set up of the fork, a middle step between 2010 and 2011. Doing this I had a better feeling but we also lost the good points of the 2011 fork, such as the stability in braking and corner entry. Tomorrow we will continue working on the fork set up and the target is to do a good qualifying session for a good position on the grid. The race will be a bit different, long and hard for the body. I’m confident that we can improve”. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: ELIAS SEARCHING FOR BETTER REAR GRIP AT LOSAIL TRACK Losail, 18th of March: second day of practices for premier class riders at the floodlit desert Losail circuit which host the first round of the season. Today’s both sessions were held in windy conditions with air temperature of 20 degrees and Honda rider Casey Stoner set the fastest time of the day while Suzuki racer Bautista injured heavily his left leg in a nasty crash. Now back in the top class, LCR Honda MotoGP racer Elias has had a difficult pre-season adopting to the Honda RC212V, though he refuses to believe he’s gotten the most out of himself and the machine and expects to improve with more seat time. The Spaniard set his best lap time of 1’58.123 and will try more adjustments on tomorrow’s 60-minute qualifying practice at 19:55 local time. Elias 17th 1’58.123 Elias: “We are facing a difficult situation although we have tried many things on the bike. Even today we have worked on chassis set up and suspension regulations to get a good feeling on the rear but I am still missing grip because we can not warm the rear tyre enough. Like this I do not feel comfortable in the corner exit but we still have one session to fine tune the bike before the race on Sunday”. More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Casey Stoner topped the third and final practice session at the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar on Friday, continuing his dominance of the weekend to date having led both previous sessions. The Australian was fastest on Thursday and again in the earlier Friday session, rounding off the later 45-minute run with the best lap time of the weekend so far, an effort of 1’55.035. It was an all-Repsol Honda top three on the timesheet, with Dani Pedrosa second and Italian Andrea Dovizioso third. The Spaniard was 0.158 off Stoner’s quickest lap, whilst Dovizioso was fractionally over seven-tenths off top position. There was an improvement for the current World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) as he got the edge over his team-mate Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) and took fourth, with the top Ducati rider being Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team) in sixth. Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi was eighth quickest, 1.271s off top spot and with Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) ahead of him in the timings. Pramac Racing pair Randy de Puniet and Loris Capirossi completed the top ten. Álvaro Bautista crashed inside the final ten minutes of the practice, and the Rizla Suzuki rider was stretchered off. A broken left femur was later confirmed, ruling the Spaniard out of the season-opener and with a decision on whether he will be operated on in Qatar or flown back to Spain still to be made. Moto2 In the Moto2 class Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) was the fastest rider with a best lap of 2’00.882, leaving the German a sizeable 0.872s ahead of second-placed Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol), with Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) third in the session and the only other rider to get within a second of top spot. Yuki Takahashi (Gresini Racing), Julián Simón (Mapfre Aspar) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) completed the top six in the session, with Takahashi and Redding remaining in the top three across the combined times from all sessions thanks to their times from FP2. Thomas Lüthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2), Jules Cluzel (Forward Racing), Simone Corsi (Ioda Racing Project) and Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) completed the FP3 top ten. 125cc Nico Terol was fastest in the third and final 125 practice session as he improved his lap time once more to time in with a 2’06.957 and beat Efrén Vázquez (Avant AirAsia Ajo) to top spot by a clear 0.931s. German Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Germany) completed the top three, with Sergio Gadea (PEV-Blusens-SMX Paris Hilton) and Jonas Folger (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport) both inside the top five. Miguel Oliveira (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica), Héctor Faubel (Bankia Aspar), Luis Salom (RW Racing GP), Johann Zarco (Ajo Motorsport) and Alberto Moncayo (Team Andalucía Banca Cívica) set top-ten times in the final session before Saturday’s qualifying practice. The third day of the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar gets underway at 6pm local time on Saturday with the 125 qualifying practice, followed by the Moto2 and MotoGP classes. More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: POSITIVE DAY IN DOHA FOR THE PRAMAC RACING TEAM. DE PUNIET NINTH, CAPIROSSI ELEVENTH Satisfying day for the Green Team of the MotoGP World Championship. The lap times of Randy De Puniet and Loris Capirossi have improved significantly in the three free sessions between yesterday and today. The green and white duo has ended in ninth, Randy, and eleventh place, Loris. The track temperature was slightly higher compared to yesterday and the riders have had the opportunity to test different tire compounds without complications. Randy is only six tenths of a second from the virtual front row while his companion, Loris, is right behind him just over a tenth of a second. Tomorrow at 7.55pm local time, 5.55pm in Italy, the qualifying session valid for the starting grid of the first 2011 MotoGP Grand Prix will start. Fabiano Sterlacchini Pramac Racing Technical Director “Randy went well on the last winter tests and in this two-day with free practice session mantaining a good rhythm finishing always in the top ten. On the other hand with Loris we had ups and downs, but today we have improved significantly. We were able to give him more confidence in some parts of the track where he could not make the best use of the bike. It will be very important to arrange the final details better tomorrow because a good start on this track is very important.” Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing rider 9th best lap time in 1’56.362 “Today was a good day, we tried some electronic solutions and some traction control modification for the race and we have found interesting possibilities. I made it to try for the first time the soft tires and I noticed a big difference compared to hard ones. I do not know what tires will I use to conquer the fastest lap time tomorrow, I have three soft and two hard still available, but for the race most likely I will use the hard one. We are all very close, except for the first two which seem unapprochable at this moment, and this time every thousandth of a second will be decisive tomorrow.” Loris Capirossi Pramac Racing rider 11th best lap time in 1’56.434 “I must say that in general the first day of practice was difficult, but after a major change between todays’ two sessions, the situation is considerably improved. I am pleased with the lap time that I did in qualifying and I think tomorrow we can still gain a few tenths. The race rythym is good and this reassures me even more to this first race of the MotoGP World Championship.” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: LCR AND ELF EXTEND SUCCESSFUL PARTNERSHIP FOR THE NEXT TWO YEARS LCR Honda MotoGP Team and ELF, a brand of TOTAL, have reached an agreement to extend the French Oil Company’s position as the official Fuel and Lubricants supplier of the LCR Honda’s MotoGP bikes, following what has been a highly successful and strong partnership which began in year 2004. ELF, since the 70’s, never ended its commitment on the various prestigious motor sport platforms developing year after year the most advanced chemical technologies for producing top performing racing fuels, engine lubricants, hydraulic and brake fluids including all kinds of industrial and automotive grease products. These innovative solutions are the outcome of a permanent and tight cooperation with the engineering and the marketing functions of the constructors. ELF is a brand of TOTAL, one of the largest major integrated oil and gas companies in the world, with activities in more than 130 countries. The group is also a first rank player in chemicals. Its 93,000 employees put their expertise to work in every part of the industry -exploration and production of oil and natural gas, refining and marketing, gas and new energies, trading and chemicals. Total is working to help satisfy the global demand for energy, both today and tomorrow. www.total.com. Mr Philippe Corsaletti (Vice-President TOTAL Motorsport Division): “I am very happy that this partnership between ELF and Team LCR Honda is renewed for 2 years. It is a long-time partnership with the Team and with Honda, a major trademark in the world of motorcycles. Since 1980, Elf did not stop bringing all its expertise to this constructors and I hope that this new season will be full of victories”. Mr Lucio Cecchinello (LCR Team CEO): “We are honoured to announce the cooperation renewal for the next two years with an important and leading technology partner as the premier world wide company ELF. Racing fuel, engine lubricants and several others ELF products will be fundamental elements for the best technical and mechanical performances of our Honda MotoGP bikes”. More, from a press release issued by Ducati Marlboro: DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM WORKS HARD ON THE GP11 SETUP The final two MotoGP free-practice sessions for the Qatar Grand Prix took place this evening at Losail International Circuit, with qualifying scheduled to happen tomorrow night ahead of the opening race of the season on March 20. Ducati Marlboro Team riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden both bettered their lap times from last night, but they haven’t improved their pace and positions as much as they’d hoped. Nonetheless, the Italian rider chose the direction to work in to refine his GP11’s setup for Sunday’s race, and tomorrow he’ll try to make another step forward. Hayden started the evening’s second session relatively well, only to find progress difficult, but both riders and their crews will look for solutions tomorrow morning. Valentino Rossi (Ducati Marlboro Team) 8th, 1:56.306 “Today was a bit difficult, because we had hoped to make a bigger improvement, but in the end we didn’t’ lower our time enough. First of all, my shoulder bothered me a little. I wasn’t as strong as I was yesterday, and in the end of the session, I could feel it. Also, we still don’t know this bike perfectly and, as happened to us in the test, we get to a point where it’s difficult to make a step forward with the setup. It’s partly a matter of experience. We’re trying to work with the weight distribution, especially on the rear, but we still haven’t found the right balance. We’re missing half a second with our pace to be in the group where we hope to be Sunday. Anyway, today we tried two setup solutions that were quite different, and we chose one that we’ll try to refine tomorrow.” Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) 14th, 1:56.586 “Things didn’t really go a lot better today. My position is worse than yesterday, and my lap time is hardly any better. I’m still having trouble with the bike in the long corners, but honestly, a rider should be able to find a bit more time than I have. After two days of testing and the practice sessions, my time isn’t that much better than it was in the test. It’s a bit frustrating to be so far back for the first race, but the team and I will try to figure it out. My guys are working hard and everybody’s pitching in. Qualifying could be difficult because the soft tyre doesn’t really seem to help my lap time a lot. Hopefully we can find a setup change or something that will help.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha MotoGP Team: Lorenzo and Spies Pick Up the Pace in Qatar The second night of free practice under the floodlights of the Losail International circuit was split into two 45 minute sessions ahead of tomorrow’s first qualifying heat of the 2011 MotoGP Championship. The two heats formed the last opportunity for riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies to fine tune their YZR-M1 set ups before the fight for pole position gets underway in qualifying tomorrow night. Lorenzo continued to make steps forward with set up, the young Mallorcan World Champion finding his form and improving on yesterday’s final free practice lap time of 1’56.586 by 0.366 seconds in the first of today’s heats. The second session saw improvements again, the refined set up allowing Lorenzo to show a glimpse of his talent for fast consistent laps, splitting his final session into a shorter and a longer run and bringing his time down to be just one of four riders breaking into the 1.55s. Spies was again on flying form in both of the two practice sessions, the Texan moving swiftly up to the top three and holding there to complete the first session in third just 0.262 seconds from second. The second session saw the new Factory rider again laying down lap after lap of consistent fast race pace, wrapping up the final free practice in fifth behind his team mate, just .003 seconds from breaking into the 1.55 second group. Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha Factory Racing Rider, FP2 – 5th, 1’56.220 (18 laps) FP3 – 4th, 1’55.814 (21 laps) “Today went pretty well; I’m happy with the progress we’ve made during the last sessions. I like the bike a lot more and we’ve improved a lot from the test. We are struggling to fight with some of our competitors but we won’t give up, we will continue to work on it and see if we can find another half a second tomorrow. I will try to make a good qualifying session to start on the front row. It will be a long race and we have a good race pace so I think we have a chance to finish on the podium.” Ben Spies, Yamaha Factory Racing Rider, FP2 – 3rd, 1’56.116 (18 laps) FP3 – 5th, 1’56.003 (21 laps) “We didn’t do anything crazy today but we were consistent and close to the front, it looks good for tomorrow and I think we can have a good qualifying session. We’ve made some good changes and we’re confident with the bike set up, maybe not for winning the race but definitely good enough for top five and maybe a podium. We know we need a little work but we’ll keep on at it and see where we can get to.” Wilco Zeelenberg, Yamaha Factory Racing Team Manager “Yesterday in my quote I said I had the feeling that we would move forward, we found a way and today we improved so Jorge is getting better and better. The bike is delivering better handling so the lap times are improving. Both riders are very close again, we still have a little step to do but so far we are pleased with what we have achieved today.” Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha Factory Racing Team Director “Both Jorge and Ben are quite satisfied with their bike set ups, we tried to run the soft tyre with both of them to see how many laps we could do so now we know which tyre will be better for the race. I think we are ready for the time attack tomorrow, let’s see what we can do.”