FIM MotoGP World Championship Assen, Netherlands June 26, 2008 Free Practice Two Results: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:36.087 2. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:36.819 3. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:36.931 4. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.012 5. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:37.126 6. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:37.137 7. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.187 8. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:37.251 9. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.280 10. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:37.282 11. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.326 12. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:37.357 13. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:37.838 14. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:37.960 15. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:38.413 16. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:38.656 17. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:38.667 18. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:39.214 Best Practice Times Combined: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:36.087 2. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:36.819 3. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:36.931 4. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.012 5. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:37.126 6. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:37.137 7. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.187 8. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:37.251 9. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.280 10. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:37.282 11. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:37.326 12. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:37.357 13. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:37.838 14. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:37.960 15. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:38.082 16. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:38.413 17. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:38.656 18. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:39.020 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner sets record-breaking standard in Assen practice Round 9: Netherlands Free Practice Assen Circuit, Thursday 26 June 2008 Ducati Corse rider Casey Stoner, winner of last weekend’s British Grand Prix, continued his impressive form in today’s opening practice sessions for Saturday’s Dutch TT at Assen, beating the existing pole position record, set in 2006 by John Hopkins, by almost four-tenths-of-a-second, using Bridgestone race tyres. During today’s two practice sessions, Stoner completed an impressive 17 laps quicker than any other riders’ best of the day, setting a high benchmark for the remainder of the weekend. His best time of the day, 1m36.087s, was 0.7s quicker than his nearest challenger, Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, who ended the day in second position. A total of six Bridgestone-shod riders were classified in the top ten of the combined practice standings with Honda Gresini riders Alex de Angelis and Shinya Nakano in fifth and sixth place, Kawasaki’s John Hopkins in eighth, and Rizla Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen in tenth spot. Only half-a-second separated Rossi in second from Sylvain Guintoli, who was an encouraging twelfth for the Alice Team. Bridgestone used the dry weather conditions in Assen today to understand the best slick tyre specifications to use this weekend, and to set a firm foundation for the rest of the weekend. Bridgestone has yet to see a rider on its tyres take victory around the legendary Assen circuit, something that the tyre manufacturer hopes to rectify this weekend. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development Are you surprised with the competitive times today? “Casey and Ducati have again started the race weekend in a very strong way, and it is impressive to see that Casey’s best time on race tyres is quicker than the existing pole position record, which John Hopkins set using our qualifying tyres two years ago. Our main focus this morning was on checking the tyre specifications that our teams have allocated this weekend. The track conditions have been quite hot and we have looked at harder specification tyres than what we would normally expect to run here, and have seen some very respectable lap times.” What is the plan for tomorrow? “Some riders put many laps on the same rear tyre during this afternoon’s session with some pleasing consistency, which will be the key factor for Saturday’s race. However, we need to conduct some mid-long range runs in tomorrow’s practice session to understand the behaviour of the tyres, especially over consecutive laps. Naturally, we must also work with our teams to gain more performance from the tyres, but for today, I think we can be satisfied with a solid start to this weekend, at a circuit where we have yet to be victorious.” Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Combined Practice Session Results Pos. Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P1 Casey Stoner Ducati Corse 1m36.569s (P1) 1m36.087s (P1) Fastest P2 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m37.480s (P6) 1m36.819s (P2) +0.732s P5 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m37.470s (P5) 1m37.126s (P5) +1.039s P6 Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m37.821s (P9) 1m37.137s (P6) +1.050s P8 John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team 1m37.652s (P8) 1m37.251s (P8) +1.164s P10 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m38.341s (P14) 1m37.282s (P10) +1.195s P12 Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1m38.435s (P15) 1m37.357s (P12) +1.270s P15 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m38.082s (P12) 1m38.667s (P17) +1.995s P16 Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team 1m38.768s (P16) 1m38.413s (P15) +2.326s P17 Toni Elias Alice Team 1m39.805s (P18) 1m38.656s (P16) +2.569s P18 Marco Melandri Ducati Corse 1m39.020s (P17) 1m39.214s (P18) +2.933s Weather: Session 1 / Dry Air 24°C, Track 28°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: REPSOL HONDA RIDERS MAKE SOLID START Dutch TT, Assen First day of practice, Thursday June 26 2008 Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa made a solid start to this week’s Dutch TT at Assen today, placing fourth and ninth fastest after the first two practice sessions. In sunny but blustery conditions Hayden and Pedrosa were second and third fastest this morning. Both riders improved their times this afternoon, though Pedrosa dropped several places while trying out different settings. Hayden is using the pneumatic-valve RCV engine for the second time this weekend while Pedrosa sticks with the conventional spring-valve engine. This year’s Dutch TT is a particularly historic event. Assen is the only MotoGP track surviving from the World Championship’s inaugural year in 1949, making this the 60th consecutive World Championship event at the Dutch venue. Nicky Hayden, 4th fastest, 1m 37.012s “It’s nice to finally see a little bit of summer weather starting to hit Europe. The track is in great condition, they did a great job of having it clean, so we were able to get up to speed a lot faster than last year. All in all it’s been a pretty solid day. We made a little bit of an improvement this afternoon. I wasn’t able to improve my best time by much but I was able to be a lot more consistent out there. I was hoping to go a little quicker at the end which didn’t happen. The bike’s working pretty well here but we’re certainly going to have to step it up a bit to get in there and be really competitive. We’ve got a few ideas to try and make it a little bit better tomorrow, the rider too.” Dani Pedrosa, 9th fastest, 1m 37.280s “During the afternoon session we tried a different settings solution for the chassis in an effort to improve my feeling thorough all the changes of directions here, but it didn’t give the results we had expected, so I couldn’t be fast as I wanted this afternoon. We also tested some tyres, looking for the best solution for Saturday. But the big question mark is once again the weather; we can’t be sure about what the weather will do tomorrow but it looks like it may be wet so we tried to get as much work as possible done during the course of today’s two sessions. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we will keep on working on the set-up to improve our race pace.” Kazuhiko Yamano – Team Manager “We started off with normal settings today and both riders have been making small steps forward throughout both sessions. It seems like maybe we will have some rain here tomorrow, so we hope we can have some more track time so that our riders can keeping working on set-up and tyre choice towards Saturday’s race.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI SECOND BUT WITH WORK STILL TO DO IN ASSEN Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi returned to one of his favourite race tracks today, as the 60th Dutch TT got started in bright sunshine at Assen. Rossi won the race from 11th on the grid last year, arguably his best performance of 2007, and the Italian is keen to emulate his success with another win on Saturday. He started well today by finishing the first day of free practice in second place, although he was 0.732 seconds off Casey Stoner and will be looking to improve on this tomorrow. This morning saw Rossi in sixth position but some set-up alterations for the afternoon session brought about a good improvement in his lap times and the Italian was one of only three riders to lap under the 1’37 mark, the others being Stoner and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards. Rossi lapped consistently in the high 1’36s, already well under the circuit record, but he will be aiming to shave a few more tenths off tomorrow in order to narrow the gap to Stoner. Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile finished the day 14th in the combined standings after a difficult day in which he struggled for front-end feeling. Valentino Rossi Position: 2nd Time: 1’36.819 Laps: 56 “Second place this afternoon is not bad at all, considering that this morning we had some problems. This afternoon we made some modifications and we started to improve quite a bit. We are still struggling in some points of the track however and this shows in the gap that we still have to Stoner. During this afternoon’s session we understood some interesting things, which we hope will help us tomorrow. Today, however, it seems like I am the leader of the ‘other’ championship! Davide Brivio Team Manager “This afternoon we made a good improvement to our setting compared to this morning, and our pace got better accordingly. Compared to the majority of the field in fact our pace is very good, the problem is Casey! In order to fight with him it’s clear that we’re going to need to work even harder and improve even more, so this is what we will do. It seems that we now have a good base setting so now we will just try to make the next step. The weather today has been fantastic a nice change from recent races so we hope for more of the same tomorrow so we can keep on improving.” More, from another press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: LORENZO LACKING CONFIDENCE AT ASSEN Despite an impressive ride through the field to sixth from the back of the grid at Donington just four days ago, it seems that Jorge Lorenzo’s recent trials are not completely behind him and the Fiat Yamaha Team rookie underwent a difficult opening day at the Dutch TT. The Spaniard is struggling with front-end feeling but worst of all is lacking confidence and trust in his bike, and could only manage 14th in the combined standings today. Lorenzo started off the day 11th in morning practice and hoped to improve further this afternoon. However this was not to be as he was only able to better his morning time by 0.027 seconds and slipped back through the order. With this being one of his favourite tracks he is doubly frustrated and is now hoping that a good night’s sleep can result in a clearer head and a more relaxed frame of mind tomorrow. His team-mate Valentino Rossi fared better today and finished second but a gap of 0.732 seconds to Casey Stoner, in first place, means that he too has work to do tomorrow. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 14th Time: 1’37.960 Laps: 54 “It was a bad session today and I was not expecting to be so slow here, at a track that I love. We need to do more laps in order to improve and try to find a way to change things; I am suffering a lot on the bike because I don’t have enough confidence in the front. I am losing time in all areas, we know the bike can be faster but I can’t find the way to ride it like this. I need to have more trust in the bike, but at the moment I think the problem is me and I am just not riding as I should be.” Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager “Today was quite a difficult session for us. We struggled all day to find a good feeling with the front and at the moment we have too much understeer. At the same time the bike is unstable under acceleration. This afternoon we stayed on just one set of Michelin tyres for the whole session in order to just concentrate on the bike setting without worrying about the tyres. We have tried some different solutions but they didn’t work. It’s clear that Jorge still needs more time and more laps in order to get his confidence back and for sure tomorrow the team will do all they can to help him to enjoy riding again.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: MotoGP had a day of mixed fortunes at Assen in the Netherlands today as Chris Vermeulen showed promising signs for the weekend ahead, whilst Loris Capirossi crashed at high-speed, resulting in a visit to the medical centre for an operation to his right forearm. Vermeulen (P10, 1’37.282, 54 laps) lost a bit of time in the morning as his mechanics worked hard on getting the best engine set-up for the 4,555m long Assen circuit. Their dedication paid dividends as he improved on every run throughout the day eventually clocking a fastest time at the end of the second session on worn race tyres – that was only 0.463 seconds away from second place. Capirossi (P15, 1’38.082, 33 laps) was making his comeback at Assen following a collision at Catalunya earlier this month, and vindicated his decision to participate this weekend by setting the 12th quickest time in this morning’s practice. Unfortunately, in this afternoon’s session he crashed in a fast left-hand corner and high-sided his Suzuki GSV-R. As the bike and Capirossi tumbled towards the gravel at high-speed, his right inner forearm got stuck underneath the bike resulting in a substantial and deep hole. Capirossi was immediately taken to the medical centre and operated on to repair the wound. He will now rest the injury and will not take any further part at this weekend’s event. AMA Champion Ben Spies who is present at Assen will not replace Capirossi. Today’s practice was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 32 C. Fastest time of the day went to World Champion Casey Stoner on his factory Ducati. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session on Friday morning, followed by the qualifying in the afternoon. Saturday’s race is round nine of the MotoGP World Championship and the 26-lap event gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). Chris Vermeulen: “It’s been not too bad on the whole today. We had a bit of a problem this morning with some engine settings on the bike and it made it quite difficult to ride. The technicians worked hard to correct it and they even got some information from the factory in Japan to help us and together we were able to overcome the problem. The bike worked a lot better this afternoon, but because I missed a lot of this morning’s session with trying to get the set-up right it left us with a lot of work to do this afternoon. We managed to get inside the top-10 and I am sure there is even more to come tomorrow. Loris Capirossi: “After this morning’s practice I was quite happy, because my hand was working well and there was no pain. I felt that I was riding quite well and settling back into things. In the afternoon I came in and put on a new tyre and the first lap out it felt quite good, but when I changed down from sixth to fourth gear and leaned on the left side I lost control and the bike jumped me out of the seat. The problem was that when I crashed the bike came on top of me and I get this hole in my arm. It was not easy when that happened, but I know I have great support all around me from many people. I will now work to get myself 100% right and jump back on the bike as soon as possible!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “When things are difficult it often seems to be the case that it gets more difficult before it becomes easier again! Loris knew it wouldn’t be easy to come back after 17 days since he broke his hand, but he immediately justified his decision to be here by being able to ride at a decent speed, to supply good feedback and know where we were heading over the weekend. I think it is necessary to make it clear that the crash was nothing to do with his recent hand injury and it was just one of those things that happens in racing. He was lucky that he didn’t break anything or cause more damage to the original injury, because it is a really fast place to crash. Unfortunately the bike got on top of him and ripped a sizeable piece of flesh from his right forearm. Dr Costa and his team performed an operation to close and stabilise the wound and Loris will now start his recuperation to get himself fit again for sure it will be Sachsenring in two weeks time! “On a brighter note, despite some problems this morning, Chris has been able to complete the day’s evaluation work, and on tyres that were past their best he was able put in his fastest time at the end of session two. That put him only a few tenths off of a top three position. Apart from Casey Stoner all the riders are really close at the moment and we feel confident that Chris and the GSV-R have got quite a lot to give over the rest of the weekend!” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Ccommunications: Casey Stoner continued his awesome form of the past week on the opening day of practice for the A-Style TT Assen. The reigning World Champion put on an absolute masterclass in both Thursday MotoGP sessions, in particular the afternoon run at the historic Dutch track. A 1´36.087 lap three tenths of a second faster than John Hopkins´ pole position record from 2006, was the latest demonstration of Stoner and Ducati´s potential to fight for victory at this crucial phase of the season. Even a brief wobble seemed not to faze the 22 year-old. Doing his best to keep up with his rival, Fiat Yamaha´s Valentino Rossi came closest to matching Stoner´s marker. The winner of last year´s Assen showdown in a breathtaking battle between himself and Stoner, current World Championship leader Rossi was seven-tenths of a second down on the fastest lap of the day. `Curious´ to see how his new Bridgestone tyres would fare in Assen, Rossi will be pulling out all the stops to get the best out of his 2008 package in tomorrow´s qualifying session. Colin Edwards also managed to keep within a second of Stoner´s time, onboard the Tech3 Yamaha version of the M1 at a track where he has maybe his best chance of victory this season. The rider who prevailed in their 2006 duel, Repsol Honda´s Nicky Hayden, was just behind him in fourth place. Alex de Angelis and Shinya Nakano trailed Hayden as the next fastest Honda riders, competing for the San Carlo Honda Gresini satellite outfit. LCR Honda man Randy de Puniet and Kawasaki´s John Hopkins also separated Hayden from teammate and title contender Dani Pedrosa in the combined practice classification. Tenth placed Chris Vermeulen had a small run-off during the afternoon session, but his was a minor setback in comparison to that of Rizla Suzuki teammate Loris Capirossi. The returning veteran absent from Donington with a hand injury- suffered a brutal highside that ended with the Italian nursing a cut forearm in the Clinica Mobile. He played no further part in the session, and his replacement in Britain Ben Spies is on-hand in the Netherlands should his services be required. 250cc Chasing a third consecutive pole position in the 250cc class, Alvaro Bautista put his name at the top of the provisional quarter litre grid with a 1´39.510 lap of the TT circuit in Assen. The Spaniard has been on the front row at every race thus far in 2008. Set to line up alongside the Mapfre Aspar rider is another Spaniard, Team Toth Aprilia´s Hector Barbera. The Valencian was some two-tenths of a second slower than Bautista on his hot lap, and in his final run had a near-miss with frequent foe Alex Debon. Thankfully the two avoided contact, with raised blood pressure the only physical consequence of the duo´s coming together. One rider who did suffer a hit was Metis Gilera man Marco Simoncelli. The Italian found his limit with a late lowside, but had already clocked the third fastest time of the afternoon session. The provisional front row is completed by Lotus Aprilia´s Aleix Espagaro, who has a special number 44 sewn onto his leathers this weekend to salute his brother and 125cc rider Pol as the youngster sits out Assen with a collarbone fracture. Row two is headed by Thomas Luthi onboard the Emmi-Caffe Latte Aprilia, with the first KTM rider alongside him in the form of Julian Simon. Lukas Pesek and Debon complete the second line, whilst current World Championship leader Mika Kallio was tenth fastest. 125cc Simone Corsi moved one step closer to his third pole of the season with the provisional 125cc top spot for the A-Style TT Assen, leading the way in the first qualifying session at the Dutch circuit. The Jack&Jones WRB rider is currently second in the World Championship standings, and has been off the podium for the past two races, but is aiming to close the gap between himself and leader Mike di Meglio this Saturday. His fastest time of the afternoon was a 1´45.533, over three-tenths of a second quicker than another rider whose form has dipped in recent races, Bradley Smith. Belson Derbi´s Joan Olive and the aforementioned Di Meglio complete the provisional front row. Olive´s teammate Pol Espargaro is not riding this week in Assen after a practice crash and collarbone injury suffered less than a week ago. Sandro Cortese pencilled his name at the head of the second line, despite a run-off across the specially asphalted escape zone so pivotal in previous Dutch visits. Donington race winner Scott Redding also took a diversion in the session -into the heavily gravelled area- but joins Cortese, Onde 2000 KTM´s Raffaele de Rosa and second Jack&Jones WRB rider Nico Terol on row two. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: KAWASAKI’S HOPKINS ON THE PACE AT ASSEN Kawasaki’s John Hopkins completed the opening practice day at the Assen circuit in a confident mood, having made further improvements to his Ninja ZX-RR and finishing in eighth place overall. Hopkins was pleased to be challenging for top positions after finding a good machine setting. With only half a second separating second and 12th position on the timesheet, competition is already fierce on the opening day of the Dutch TT. Hopkins is running an upgraded version of Kawasaki’s Ninja ZX-RR engine this weekend and this, together with improvements in set-up over the last two races, means that Hopkins is confident of improving further his position ahead of the race. The Anglo-American, who is slowly recovering from a back injury, spent the sessions today dialling in the new specification parts while running through many Bridgestone tyre options to identify the best race tyre option. The 25-year-old is looking forward to tomorrow when he will refine his machine set-up, as well as check the longevity of his chosen tyre with a race simulation. Teammate West, who was feeling buoyant after a top ten finish last time out, has suffered with some difficulties around the 4.555km Circuit van Drenthe, finishing today’s practice in 15th position. The 26-year-old Australian used the base setting he found at the British Grand Prix, but is struggling with chatter and a lack of exit grip at this complex track, which features many long, negative-camber turns. West will work closely with his crew to make some alterations to the set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR overnight and they hope to resolve the issues that have thwarted the Kawasaki pilot’s progress today. John Hopkins: #21 – 8th – 1’37.251 “It’s been a good start for us today. We have had some new specification engine parts to test and these have definitely shown an improvement. We’re running pretty much the same set-up as last time out and the Kawasaki seems to be getting around here really well. This afternoon we ran through every tyre we had allocated to us to make a decision for the race, because we are unsure of what the weather might do during tomorrow. The last tyre we tried worked really well and we’d like more dry time to do a long run to test it for durability. The competition is close and apart from Casey (Stoner), who is a long way ahead, we’re running the same times as everyone else so I’m pretty happy with that. The injury is starting to feel better now and I’m really feeling confident ahead of qualifying tomorrow.” Anthony West: #13 – 15th – 1’38.413 “I’m a bit frustrated to be honest. I came here thinking that our set-up from Donington Park would be a good starting point for this circuit, but that’s not been the case today. We’ve had some problems with chatter that we haven’t had before, and we’re struggling a little bit with drive out of the turns. But, my crew already have some ideas on how we can improve things tonight, which we’ll check out during practice tomorrow morning. It looks like we’ve got a bit of a fight on our hands this weekend, but that’s all part of the job. I really like the Assen circuit, so I hope we can get things sorted ready for qualifying tomorrow.” Naoya Kaneko Kawasaki Technical Manager “We’ve made some upgrades to John’s engine since last weekend and the performance of his machine has definitely improved. He is also recovering well from his injury, which means we can make further steps forward in set-up. Anthony has used the base setting from Donington but the circuit here features a lot of banked turns and we need to find a better machine balance to help him enter and exit the corners quicker. The chatter problem arose later on in the session and we need to find a compromise to improve this. Anthony will also receive the engine upgrades to his machine for tomorrow’s sessions, and we will continue work overnight to find a solution to his grip troubles.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER INSIDE DUTCH TT POLE RECORD, TOUGH DAY FOR MELANDRI Casey Stoner made the most of the warm sunshine that welcomed the MotoGP riders to Assen today, clocking the fastest time of both opening free practice sessions for the Dutch TT. The Australian lapped in low 1’36s throughout the afternoon, dipping inside the current pole position record for the current track layout, set by John Hopkins in 2006 (1’36.441). Marco Melandri suffered very different fortunes and was unable to improve his lap time from the morning to the afternoon. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st: 1’36.078 “We’re very happy with the fact we’ve come to another circuit and the new set up is working as well as it did at Catalunya and Donington. There don’t seem to be any bad points to it and it is helping me ride like I want to again. I’m able to use harder compound tyres again and I’m just getting a better feel for the whole bike in general, without it bucking and weaving everywhere. We had a couple of moments today where it thought about trying to spit me but nothing to worry about. If you watch the race last year you can see the bike moving around a lot and we were struggling, whereas if you saw me ride today you can see what a huge step forward we’ve taken. In fact, maybe with the exception of Donington, this is probably the first time since Qatar where I can say that this bike is better than last year’s. Today we’ve gone faster than the pole record on a race tyre so we’re delighted with how everything is coming together.” MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 18th: 1’39.020 “At the moment it is not looking good. This afternoon we tried to load the front up a little more to improve the steering and feeling in the fast corners but we lost a bit of grip on the rear and in the end the bike was harder to ride. We took a step backwards with the setting at the end and I did two runs where I rediscovered the feeling I had this morning. However, at the moment we’re still a long way off finding the solution to our problems.” More, from a press release issued by JiR Team Scot Honda: First day of practice for Andrea Dovizioso and JiR Team Scot at Assen This weekend’s racing at the Dutch TT started well for Andrea Dovizioso, ending the first day in 11th position. He was in a group of ten riders all covered by just one second as they all fought for fourth position on the timesheets. During the morning, the JiR Team Scot rider started to find the right feeling with the circuit, which he admits from his time in 125 and 250cc categories isn’t one of his favourite circuits. In the morning he was in seventh position, then in the afternoon the whole programme of the team was focussed on finding the best set-up of the bike. For the qualifying day of tomorrow the team will aim to find an increased pace for the race. With Andrea only three-tenths of a second from fourth in the provisional classification, he’s confident that he can improve tomorrow. Cirano Mularoni Team Manager JiR Team Scot “The circuit of Assen is not one of Andrea’s favourites from his time on 125 and 250cc machines and also with the MotoGP bike he doesn’t feel so comfortable around here. The question is to keep on trying and he will gain in confidence as he did throughout the day. Today we did a huge amount of work to find the best balance of the bike and we tried many different solutions of tyres. We were not focussed on the ultimate lap time but instead finding the right pace for tomorrow and then the race. Assen is a demanding racetrack: you need stability in the fast sections, but also handling for the part of the track with corners and bends. We will work tomorrow to find the proper solutions.” Andrea Dovizioso Rider JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA RC212V 11th: 1’37″326 “The gap of three tenths to fourth is not important as many of us are all together within a second and I know that we can improve. We are working to improve the overall stability of the bike, which in braking and in the corners doesn’t give me the confidence I’m looking for at the moment. We tried today a lot of tyres and made many runs but it’s not so obvious at the moment which we will use for the race, which in my opinion will be run in the 1m 37 bracket which I feel I can reach. This pace could make for an interesting race. With the MotoGP bike Assen remains one of the tracks, which are not my favourite, but today is the first day and I think that tomorrow things will be easier for us. This is another reason why I’m not worried by our position of 11th overall today.” Gianni Berti Technical Co-ordinator JiR Team Scot “Today was the start of our very important programme of tests in which we were working on finding the proper balance of the bike and using the tyres at our disposal without looking for the best lap time. We made many short runs to properly test everything and tomorrow the target will be our pace for the race. We are not so far off the leaders and I’m confident we can find the lap times that allow us to do a good race.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Rossi second but with work still to do in Assen Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi returned to one of his favourite race tracks today, as the 60th Dutch TT got started in bright sunshine at Assen. Rossi won the race from 11th on the grid last year, arguably his best performance of 2007, and the Italian is keen to emulate his success with another win on Saturday. He started well today by finishing the first day of free practice in second place, although he was 0.732 seconds off Casey Stoner and will be looking to improve on this tomorrow. This morning saw Rossi in sixth position but some set-up alterations for the afternoon session brought about a good improvement in his lap times and the Italian was one of only three riders to lap under the 1’37 mark, the others being Stoner and Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards. Rossi lapped consistently in the high 1’36s, already well under the circuit record, but he will be aiming to shave a few more tenths off tomorrow in order to narrow the gap to Stoner. Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile finished the day 14th in the combined standings after a difficult day in which he struggled for front-end feeling. Valentino Rossi – Position: 2nd Time: 1’36.819 Laps: 56 “Second place this afternoon is not bad at all, considering that this morning we had some problems. This afternoon we made some modifications and we started to improve quite a bit. We are still struggling in some points of the track however and this shows in the gap that we still have to Stoner. During this afternoon’s session we understood some interesting things, which we hope will help us tomorrow. Today, however, it seems like I am the leader of the ‘other’ championship!” Davide Brivio – Team Manager “This afternoon we made a good improvement to our setting compared to this morning, and our pace got better accordingly. Compared to the majority of the field in fact our pace is very good, the problem is Casey! In order to fight with him it’s clear that we’re going to need to work even harder and improve even more, so this is what we will do. It seems that we now have a good base setting so now we will just try to make the next step. The weather today has been fantastic – a nice change from recent races – so we hope for more of the same tomorrow so we can keep on improving.” Lorenzo lacking confidence at Assen Despite an impressive ride through the field to sixth from the back of the grid at Donington just four days ago, it seems that Jorge Lorenzo’s recent trials are not completely behind him and the Fiat Yamaha Team rookie underwent a difficult opening day at the Dutch TT. The Spaniard is struggling with front-end feeling but worst of all is lacking confidence and trust in his bike, and could only manage 14th in the combined standings today. Lorenzo started off the day 11th in morning practice and hoped to improve further this afternoon. However this was not to be as he was only able to better his morning time by 0.027 seconds and slipped back through the order. With this being one of his favourite tracks he is doubly frustrated and is now hoping that a good night’s sleep can result in a clearer head and a more relaxed frame of mind tomorrow. His team-mate Valentino Rossi fared better today and finished second but a gap of 0.732 seconds to Casey Stoner, in first place, means that he too has work to do tomorrow. Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 14th Time: 1’37.960 Laps: 54 “It was a bad session today and I was not expecting to be so slow here, at a track that I love. We need to do more laps in order to improve and try to find a way to change things; I am suffering a lot on the bike because I don’t have enough confidence in the front. I am losing time in all areas, we know the bike can be faster but I can’t find the way to ride it like this. I need to have more trust in the bike, but at the moment I think the problem is me and I am just not riding as I should be.” Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager “Today was quite a difficult session for us. We struggled all day to find a good feeling with the front and at the moment we have too much understeer. At the same time the bike is unstable under acceleration. This afternoon we stayed on just one set of Michelin tyres for the whole session in order to just concentrate on the bike setting without worrying about the tyres. We have tried some different solutions but they didn’t work. It’s clear that Jorge still needs more time and more laps in order to get his confidence back and for sure tomorrow the team will do all they can to help him to enjoy riding again.” Fast start for Edwards, Toseland looking to improve Just four days after the British GP, the Tech 3 Yamaha team was back on track in Holland today, with American Colin Edwards immediately on the pace at the historic Assen circuit. The American posted the fourth best time in this morning’s opening free practice session and in dry but windy conditions this afternoon went one better to end the day third quickest. His improvement by nearly 0.5s came largely thanks to a small front-end set-up modification to help his Tech 3 Yamaha YZR-M1 turn quicker in the fast changes of direction at the Assen circuit. On a day of impressively fast lap times, Edwards was one of only four riders to post times under the current lap record with his best time of 1.36.931 just 0.112s away from second placed Valentino Rossi. The lap record of 1.37.106 is held on a 990cc machine from 2006, underlining just how fast the pace was today. British rider James Toseland had a difficult start to his ninth MotoGP race as he ended the day 13th fastest with a best lap of 1.37.838. Toseland is confident he can move up the timesheets tomorrow after a late switch to a geometry setting, similar to that used by Edwards, helped his progress. Tomorrow’s final practice and qualifying sessions are expected to be run in dry conditions, but rain has been forecast for Saturday’s 26-lap race. Colin Edwards 3rd 1.36.931 – 52 laps “I’m pretty pleased with that because if you take Casey out of the equation I’ve got the pace to match anybody. We made a small change to the bike after this morning because here you carry so much load you have to play with the spring rate to get the right feeling. How my bike was set-up from Donington, it was just a bit too lazy and slow to react around this track. There are some pretty fast changes of direction round here. I was getting it to change direction but it was all happening a little bit too slow. My team had some good ideas to try and help the bike steer a bit better but it didn’t feel great. There was a bit too much weight on the front. I was pushing but I didn’t want to push any harder because the feel just wasn’t there. We made another little change and I was straight into the low 37s and I was on it. We then changed the front setting again and I got a lot more confidence in the front and it felt awesome. I was never outside the top three so it is looking good. The grip feels really good and all my tyres seem pretty good so thanks to Michelin for that. You need endurance round this track and nothing too crazy grip wise in the beginning that might drop off. We’ve got a good direction but honestly if it is going to rain on Saturday I’d really like to get some rain tomorrow. I need to sort out this year’s bike for the rain. We have a year old rain setting that works good but that setting needs to be tweaked for this year’s bike. I could start the race with my old faithful rain setting and it will work, but we can make it better after what we had at Donington in the wet.” James Toseland 13th 1.37.838 – 45 laps “It is hard work at the moment to be honest. We wasted a lot of time and should have gone with the setting we had at the end much earlier. Basically I’ve gone closer to what Colin is running but we didn’t do it until too late and it was quite a frustrating session. I got up to speed quite fast right at the end when we tried this new setting so it seems like we have found a good direction but we wasted too much time getting there. The bike is better on the brakes because I was losing so much rear grip on the entry of the corners that I had no corner speed with the other setting. The way this new setting transfers the weight is much smoother and doesn’t move weight off the rear as quick. With the new setting I got straight into the 37s and I feel I could have built on that but we’d been going round in circles for too long. I just spent too much time in the garage and when I need the track time to get the bike set-up on a track I’ve not tested on, I can’t afford to do that. I’m trying to learn the track on this bike so I need to be out there. Now we’ve got this setting I’m confident for tomorrow that we can move forward.”