FIM MotoGP World Championship Losail International Circuit Doha, Qatar March 7, 2008 Free Practice Two Results: 1. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:55.442 2. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:55.453 3. James TOSELAND (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:55.812 4. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:55.942 5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), Michelin, 1:55.963 6. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:56.120 7. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), Michelin, 1:56.234 8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:56.279 9. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Bridgestone, 1:56.395 10. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:56.922 11. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:56.962 12. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:57.011 13. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:57.045 14. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:57.091 15. Toni ELIAS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:57.311 16. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:57.416 17. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:57.934 18. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:58.500 More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER FASTEST ON FIRST DAY IN QATAR, MELANDRI WORKING ON IMPROVEMENTS Casey Stoner clocked the fastest time over two sessions of free practice at the GP of Qatar, whilst Marco Melandri made a promising start but was unable to improve as he had hoped. Not only was Stoner fastest in both sessions, he managed to improve his pace on the second outing by four tenths of a second, despite a notable drop in track temperatures. Melandri also improved but it wasn’t enough to hang on to eleventh place on the time sheets after his performance in the opening practice. Final free practice times CASEY STONER, fastest: 1’55.442 MARCO MELANDRI, 15th fastest: 1.57.091 More, from a press release issued by JiR Team Scot Honda: First day at Doha very positive for Andrea Dovizioso with fifth fastest time! Today’s first day of practice which kicks-off of this weekend’s 2008 MotoGP championship felt like the first day of school as it was the first real occasion for the teams to show the fans the results of all the hard work done during the winter tests. Tonight Andrea Dovizioso made his silver Honda shine under the lights at the Losail track. The lap time achieved showed that the Italian rider is in a very positive frame of mind at the start of the season managing to secure the 5th best lap time overall and becoming the first of the Italian riders on the time sheets. In the first session Andrea took the third-best lap time as he took time to verify things tested in the past week at Qatar. Andrea suffered a small crash today with no major injury for the rider, which didn’t interfere with the overall progress of the team. Gianluca Montiron Team Director, JiR Team Scot “This official beginning for Andrea is very positive. Tonight he and the team showed their capability to do a very good job and to adapt the bike to a different strategy in both sessions, which also showed the very different weather conditions here in Qatar. After the result of today we can now concentrate on the final tuning of the bike for the race and to even increase our performance so we can hopefully enter into the top three positions.” Cirano Mularoni Team Manager, JiR Team Scot “I’m very satisfied how this day has ended as we have had lots of expectations in this our ultimate team challenge! Andrea did slide off in a crash today but this didn’t affect us or the bike either and overall it didn’t effect the programme of work for the weekend, which we will finish before the race on Sunday thanks in part to the good result achieved today. Our result today has been fantastic and the whole night-time MotoGP scenario is simply stunning!” Andrea Dovizioso Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA RC212V Best time: 5th – 1′ 55″963 “Well, we’ve started very well and to be honest I didn’t expect to be so fast, especially how it was not so hard or physically demanding to be fast and consistent today. During the first session it has been important to quickly find the best technical choice for things to try in the second session. We have finalised the setting of the chassis, thanks to testing in previous practice here, so we are basically now trying to find a good race tyre for Sunday. The crash was no problem. I did it just after doing my best lap time while I was trying to brake as late as I could at the end of the main straight. When I did that the front-end just washed away but I was not worried as this was not due to a technical problem! In the second session we finished our work programme trying out tyres and have found the right configuration for the race. We have some small details to attend to tomorrow but we are all motivated and today’s results will help us do even better.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Stoner takes first night honours in Qatar Round 1: Qatar Free Practice Losail International Circuit, Saturday 08 March 2008 Reigning MotoGP World Champion Casey Stoner topped the timesheets on the opening night of free practice at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar as the championship’s first ever night race got underway on Friday, marking the start of the 2008 season. Stoner’s best lap of 1m55.442s was 1.1s quicker than the current circuit record which he himself set twelve months ago en route to his debut MotoGP victory aboard his Bridgestone-shod Ducati. A total of five Bridgestone-shod riders frequented the top ten at the end of the second practice session on Friday, held in the cooler track conditions likely to be faced in Sunday night’s race, hinting that important progress has been made since last week’s tricky two-day test at the Qatari track. MotoGP rookie Alex de Angelis posted an impressive and encouraging sixth fastest time of the day for the Honda Gresini team, just six-tenths-of-a-second adrift of Stoner’s pace-setting time. Both Suzuki riders Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi made their way up the standings in the later second session with Vermeulen ending the day with the ninth quickest time overall, just behind Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, whose first session time was good enough for the eighth best time of the day. Bridgestone struggled to find pace at last week’s test as track temperatures plummeted to less than 15°C in the chilly Qatar night, but working closely with its teams to find improvements to the bike-tyre package during the test and in Friday’s two practice sessions, appears to be paying dividends. Bridgestone has brought some new specification race tyres for each team and rider since last week’s test, as well as specifications that have been previously tested, in order to provide the most competitive rubber possible for this difficult opening race of the season at Qatar, a circuit at which Bridgestone has struggled in the past. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development How satisfied are you with Friday’s work? “I am reasonably satisfied with the work carried out on this first day. We have been the first to admit that we faced difficulties at last week’s test, but we have worked well with our teams and riders today to improve the overall package and we have seen some progress both in terms of tyre performance and lap time. We still have some way to go, but it has been a relatively trouble-free day. This evening’s second session is probably the most representative for the performance level because the track conditions and temperatures are most like what we will encounter on Sunday evening. In this second session, we saw five riders on Bridgestone tyres in the top ten, which is a marked improvement on the test results, but it is a highly competitive field already with some very fast MotoGP newcomers.” What specification tyres have Bridgestone riders been using in these first two practice sessions? “We started off in the first session by using the same specification tyres we used in last week’s test, to enable the teams to find a good starting point for the weekend. The track was around 25°C, which was a few degrees warmer than at the same time last week, but temperatures dropped during the evening, as predicted. Later on, we also looked at a new specification tyre that we brought from Japan after the test, but the existing test items also appear to be working better this weekend, so we have a few options. Qatar is quite a unique race track and the added complication of cooler night conditions has offered us a real challenge for this first race of the season. Tomorrow we will face another difficult evening with the qualifying session, but we will continue to do our best to support our teams and riders.” Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Combined Practice Session Results Pos. Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P1 Casey Stoner Ducati Corse 1m55.870s (P1) 1m55.442s (P1) Fastest P6 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m57.561s (P13) 1m56.120s (P6) +0.678s P8 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m56.269s (P4) 1m56.395s (P9) +0.827s P9 Chris Vermeulen Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m57.639s (P15) 1m56.279s (P8) +0.837s P11 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m57.287s (P12) 1m56.992s (P10) +1.480s P12 Shinya Nakano San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m57.588s (P14) 1m57.011s (P12) +1.569s P14 John Hopkins Kawasaki Racing Team 1m57.085s (P10) 1m57.416s (P16) +1.643s P15 Marco Melandri Ducati Corse 1m57.137s (P11) 1m57.091s (P14) +1.649s P16 Toni Elias Alice Team 1m58.130s (P16) 1m57.311s (P15) +1.869s P17 Anthony West Kawasaki Racing Team 1m58.912s (P17) 1m57.934s (P17) +2.492s P18 Sylvain Guintoli Alice Team 1m59.006s (P18) 1m58.500s (P18) +3.058s Weather: Session 1 / Dry Air 20°C, Track 18°C, Humidity 23% (taken from official MotoGP timing) More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI COMPLETES FIRST NIGHT’S WORK UNDER QATAR FLOODLIGHTS The first ‘day’ of the 2008 Grand Prix season took place under floodlights in Qatar tonight, as the curtain finally went up on the new MotoGP World Championship. Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi, following on from a test here last week, finished the night’s work eighth on his Bridgestone-shod YZR-M1. After suffering from a few problems at last week’s test, marginally warmer temperatures for the first practice of the night saw Rossi improve his pace somewhat, finishing in fourth after the first hour. He began to suffer from a lack of grip later on however as conditions deteriorated and the temperature went down and he was unable to improve on his earlier time, dropping to eighth in the combined standings. His young team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile was on fine form throughout the night, finishing the day second in the combined standings behind Casey Stoner. Valentino Rossi Position: 8th Time: 1’56.269 Laps: 44 “Earlier this evening it was a bit warmer than at the last test and it was helping us quite a lot, because we were already faster and lapping close to the leaders. Unfortunately later on in the second practice the track seemed more slippery and we suffered a lot. We just didn’t have enough grip and we weren’t able to improve on our time from the previous session. We weren’t able to completely sort out the problem tonight but we will have a good look at the data and try to find the right step for tomorrow, I think we need a slightly harder setting. I’m really sorry that Pedrosa fell, and I hope that he is okay. I was riding normally, if not at lap record pace, but I think he was travelling faster behind me and wasn’t able to stop when he exited the turn and hit me from behind. It was unlucky. Finally, I want to say again that the lighting is very good and now honestly I am not really thinking about it, it seems like normal!” Davide Brivio Team Manager “It’s clear that we have some work to do and we’re still searching for the right setting to make our package work at its full potential in these low temperatures. Now the engineers will check the data carefully and we will try some different things tomorrow and see how we go. It’s a very good sign that the other Yamaha’s are doing so well because this shows that our bike is very good and that we just need to find the key to make Valentino’s one work as well as we know it can.” More, from another press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: LORENZO SECOND QUICKEST ON QATAR OPENING NIGHT Fiat Yamaha’s young new recruit Jorge Lorenzo heralded his arrival into MotoGP in Qatar with an impressive performance on the opening night of his first ever premier-class Grand Prix. With the first race of the season taking place under floodlights in somewhat cooler temperatures than the riders have been used to at the desert track in previous years, it was an interesting first ‘day’ of the season but Lorenzo was unfazed by the conditions and finished in second place overall behind Casey Stoner. This evening’s first free practice saw the youngest rider on the grid picking up exactly where he left off at last week’s test, quickly finding his rhythm and lapping consistently fast to finish the session in second. Tonight’s later practice saw more of the same as Lorenzo and his team worked on perfecting their set-up and, later on, testing a few Michelin tyres. Valentino Rossi meanwhile was slightly slower than his team-mate, finishing the night eighth in the combined standings. Jorge Lorenzo Position: 2nd Time: 1’55.453 Laps: 46 “I’m happy tonight because we started working from where we left off at the test and things were very good again. Honestly though I didn’t really expect to be second on my very first day at a MotoGP race! The track seems dirtier because the wind has been blowing the sand on to it lately, so I think that tomorrow, once the bikes have cleaned it a bit, it will be better and we will be able to push more. I am completely comfortable with the light situation and I’m not even thinking anymore about the fact that we’re riding at night, it seems normal. We’re still lacking a bit of feeling in the front and need a bit more grip, but things are improving step by step. We’ve tried a few different tyres and it seems that the Michelin’s are working well here; overall I’m feeling good and I’m very pleased with my pace. Despite my position tonight, I’m not thinking about the result at all, I just want to concentrate on doing the best I can do.” Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager “Today everything went very well, although we’re not completely surprised because last week we were also quite fast here. We started from the base setting we had at the test and made some small adjustments to the suspension, and it worked well immediately. Today it was very important to select the best tyre for the cold conditions and Michelin gave us some good material to work with. We still need to keep working on the front feeling and tomorrow we have a few more adjustments planned in order to keep on trying to improve our package.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Media Service: MIXED RESULTS FOR THE REPSOL RIDERS AFTER THE FIRST NIGHT TRAINING SESSIONS The Repsol riders made good progress during this first session, though a fall by Dani Pedrosa after an incident with Valentino Rossi cast a shadow The 125cc riders had the privilege this afternoon of officially opening the first training sessions of the 2008 season, and doing it under special conditions. Spaniard Pablo Nieto was the frist rider to complete a lap on the Qatar track under the glare of the 1,000 floodlight towers. The work done on the Losail Circuit is impressive; those 1,000 floodlight towers provide the equivalent supply for 70 football stadiums, or 1,300 basketball courts. There is an estimated total of 5’4 million Watt consumption for the lighting on the Losail Circuit, enough to light an imaginary road between Doha and Moscow. During the first MotoGP free session, Repsol Honda Team Riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden have been provided at their box with a 2007 version of the Honda RC212V and another 2008 version. The aim of the team was to compare the performance of the two bikes during these first two free training sessions, in order to speed up development of the 2008 version. Dani Pedrosa went on track first with the 2007 version, with which he completed 15 laps. 19 minutes away from the end of the first free session, Pedrosa went on track riding the 2008 version and rode another 8 laps, his best time being lap 21 using the second bike. Teammate Nicky Hayden started out on the track with the Honda RC212V 2008, with which he ran most of the session, running his best time on the fourth lap. The American has completed 17 laps on the 2008 version and 6 on the 2007 one. The second MotoGP free session did not end well for Repsol Honda Team rider Spaniard Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa, who had been alternating between bikes throughout the session, suffered a bad fall 19 minutes from the end. His front wheel hit Valentino Rossi’s rear wheel, when the Italian rider suddenly cut down speed in the middle of a curve both were taking. The accident happened on curve 15 of the Qatar track, a fast curve to the right. The fall was with the Honda RC212V 2008. Fortunately, Pedrosa was unhurt, though he preferred not to go back onto the track again and stayed at the box studying all the information available up until the accident. Teammate Nicky Hayden also rode both bikes throughout the second session, completing 24 laps on the Qatar track. Quotes MotoGP Dani Pedrosa >> 1’56.962 secs, 38 laps, 204 km. “The two bikes are different, but it’s still too early to decide on which one we’ll use for the race. The accident happened when I was behind Rossi. I was catching up with him when he did something I didn’t expect and I couldn’t avoid hitting him. The fall made me quit earlier than I had planned, so we’ll have to spend some time with the mechanics before starting tomorrow. My right hand and arm feel quite tired after today, but the problem now is that it is starting to hurt a lot again.” Nicky Hayden >> 1’57.069 secs, 46 laps, 247 km. “It wasn’t spectacular in any way, but we knew that coming here wasn’t going to be easy, because we had a lot of problems during the training sessions we had last week. Tonight we tried out some totally different adjustments, so we’ll definitely have to sit down and make a decision upon which bike to use, in order to make some big progress tomorrow. Until now, last year’s bike brakes better and has better stability changing direction, though the times are very similar. I would say that the conditions on the track were better today than during the tests; I expected it to be dirtier, but it was fine. The tyres are no excuse and they performed well. I expected to improve during my last lap and I was pushing hard, but went off the track at a very fast point. I went straight off a curve into the gravel, but I didn’t fall, so I’m alright.” 250cc Julián Simón >> 2’01.147 secs, 38 laps, 204 km. “It was a complicated day. I had a rather tough start and then a bit of bad luck. At least the sensations I’m getting are more positive than after the tests we did here. This calls for optimism and we’re going to work hard on the problems that we’ve been having since the test. We’re finding it hard getting the front end adjusted. On fast curves I don’t feel 100% confident on the bike, which prevents me from riding as fast as those ahead of me. We’ve found that I lose time mainly in the fourth partial. It’s a shame that I’m having such difficulties with that part of the circuit, because I think that I don’t do too bad in the rest. I think that at the end of the day we could have done better, but we’ve had a problem with the engine and that stopped improvement. Tomorrow we are going to give it our best; I hope to be in the lead and get a good position on the grid.” 125cc Esteve Rabat >> 2’06.896 secs, 31 laps, 167 km “Today didn’t really go that well, but the good side is that we have taken a step forward, because up until now the training sessions have been quite disastrous. The team is doing all they can to help me, the bike is very competitive and I’m sure that it’s ready to take leading positions. We’re improving bit by bit and solving the problems we had. In any case, there is still a lot of work to be done, and that’s precisely what we’re going to do.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: The 2008 MotoGP World Championship season burst into life this evening at the Losail International Circuit, with the first practice sessions for the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar opening proceedings for the first ever night-time GP weekend. Under the desert circuit’s impressive Musco lighting system World Champion Casey Stoner was the man leading the way, setting the fastest time of the early evening, which he then followed up by doing the same in the second free practice session. The Ducati Marlboro rider’s time of 1’55.442 in second Free Practice cut nearly half a second off his pace setting lap from the first session as ground temperatures dropped by 10°C during the course of the evening’s proceedings. Meanwhile MotoGP rookie Jorge Lorenzo confirmed that his performance as the quickest rider in last week’s test visit to Losail was more than beginner’s luck, with a series of hot laps – of which the fastest was just 0.011 slower than Stoner’s time. Another debutant in the premier class, Tech3 Yamaha’s James Toseland also built upon an impressive testing performance, as he was the third classified rider after the first two sessions, despite an early crash from which he emerged unscathed. Fellow Yamaha satellite rider and MotoGP veteran Colin Edwards was fourth fastest, while JiR Team Scot’s Andrea Dovizioso and San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex de Angelis made sure all four 2008 MotoGP rookies’ names appeared in the top six. Randy de Puniet, Valentino Rossi, Chris Vermeulen and Dani Pedrosa completed the top ten, with Rossi and Pedrosa creating one of the talking points of the evening. The Spaniard hit the back of the five-time MotoGP World Champion’s M1 when the Italian had eased off the throttle 40 minutes into the late session, but both riders were uninjured in the incident, with Rossi able to continue his lap unaffected by the impact. Pedrosa meanwhile ended up tumbling into the gravel. 250cc A successful evening in the quarter litre category for Aprilia saw Team Toth’s Hector Barbera take the provisional number one spot, ahead of Polaris World’s Mattia Pasini, Mapfre Aspar’s Alvaro Bautista and Metis Gilera’s Marco Simoncelli. 125cc In the 125cc class it was a great night for the British riders as Bradley Smith’s rapid development with new team Polaris World continued as he took provisional pole ahead of his compatriot Danny Webb of DeGraaf Grand Prix. Also on the provisional front row are Ajo Motorsport’s Mike di Meglio and Jack & Jones WRB’s Simone Corsi. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: SLIPPERY START FOR KAWASAKI IN QATAR The first weekend of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship kicked off this evening, under lights. The Qatar round is taking place at night and the premier class field took to the track at 19:00 hours and then again at 22:55 hours, local time, for the first two practice sessions. As during the IRTA test here last week, the track temperature plummeted as soon as the sun went down ahead of the first free practice session, despite the 5.4 million watts of lighting used to illuminate the track. By the time this evening’s second free practice session started the track temperature had dropped to just 14ËšC, and many riders were commenting that rear grip had become difficult to predict. This was certainly true for Kawasaki’s John Hopkins, as he worked his way through a number of rear tyre options in a bid to identify a tyre that could cope with the cold conditions should they remain for Sunday’s 22-lap race. The 24-year-old Anglo-American rejected a number of rear slick options, before finding a combination of tyre and suspension settings that appeared to improve both the level and the consistency of the grip. Although disappointed not to finish higher up the timesheet on the opening day of the first round of 2008, Hopkins remains confident that tomorrow will see him move closer to tonight’s leader, reigning world champion, Casey Stoner. Anthony West, meanwhile, managed to improve his times over the course of the evening’s practices and put in his best time on his final lap of the second session. It was possible for the 26-year-old Australian to have finished higher up the leaderboard but for a crash on what would have been his fastest lap of the day. Heading into the left hand turn two, West touched the throttle to help turn the bike into the corner, at which point the rear came round on him and he went over the high side. He banged his head in the crash but is otherwise uninjured. Both Kawasaki riders, like many of their rivals, are hoping for higher night time temperatures for tomorrow’s qualifying practice and, ultimately, Sunday’s race. John Hopkins #21: 14th 34 laps 1’57.085 “Tonight we went out on track with the aim of finding the best tyre solution and unfortunately we ran into some minor technical issues in the later session. This meant we weren’t able to put together a solid run to improve our lap time. I’m disappointed with tonight’s overall result, as I know that we are capable of so much more. We have to find a tyre combination with good grip to suit these chilly conditions and although we’ve got our work cut out, I’m confident that we’ll be much higher in the standings tomorrow.” Anthony West #13: 17th 33 laps 1’57.934 “The track is quite dusty tonight and we’ve found it quite difficult to make the tyres work in the cold conditions. In the first session the feeling from the machine wasn’t great but we made some big improvements in the second practice and I started to feel quite confident. Rear grip is the main issue, particularly on the left side of the tyre as the track is predominantly right-handed. I was trying to make one of the tyres work harder and although I had a few warnings about loss of traction, I still got caught out and managed to suffer my first high side aboard the Kawasaki. I was chasing a better lap time and crashed at turn two, which was really frustrating. I’m ok though and I am sure we can resolve some of the issues we’ve had during tomorrow’s sessions.” Naoya Kaneko Kawasaki Technical Manager “We lost a lot of time during the second session as we had a mechanical problem with John’s machine. This meant we didn’t get as much time out on track as we would’ve liked. We have had a few obstacles to overcome whilst trying to find a suitable rear tyre and our main goal has been to bring everything together to find a good package to race with. Anthony was making big improvements on his pace throughout the second session but unfortunately he crashed. The main issue is to provide the riders with better grip, which is a combination of the machine and the tyres, along with solving the shifter problem that John encountered. We will now analyse the data from tonight and make the necessary changes so we can be further up the field tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing: Lorenzo Second Quickest Under Qatar’s Opening Floodlit Night Fiat Yamaha’s young new recruit Jorge Lorenzo heralded his arrival into the 2008 MotoGP in Qatar with an impressive performance on the opening night of his first ever premier-class Grand Prix. With the first race of the season taking place under floodlights in somewhat cooler temperatures than the riders have been used to at the desert track in previous years, it was an interesting first ‘day’ of the season but Lorenzo was unfazed by the conditions and finished in second place overall behind Casey Stoner. This evening’s first free practice saw the youngest rider on the grid picking up exactly where he left off at last week’s test, quickly finding his rhythm and lapping consistently fast to finish the session in second. Tonight’s later practice saw more of the same as Lorenzo and his team worked on perfecting their set-up and, later on, testing a few Michelin tyres. Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 2nd Time: 1’55.453 Laps: 46 “I’m happy tonight because we started working from where we left off at the test and things were very good again. Honestly though I didn’t really expect to be second on my very first day at a MotoGP race! The track seems dirtier because the wind has been blowing the sand on to it lately, so I think that tomorrow, once the bikes have cleaned it a bit, it will be better and we will be able to push more. I am completely comfortable with the light situation and I’m not even thinking anymore about the fact that we’re riding at night, it seems normal. We’re still lacking a bit of feeling in the front and need a bit more grip, but things are improving step by step. We’ve tried a few different tyres and it seems that the Michelin’s are working well here; overall I’m feeling good and I’m very pleased with my pace. Despite my position tonight, I’m not thinking about the result at all, I just want to concentrate on doing the best I can do.” Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager “Today everything went very well, although we’re not completely surprised because last week we were also quite fast here. We started from the base setting we had at the test and made some small adjustments to the suspension, and it worked well immediately. Today it was very important to select the best tyre for the cold conditions and Michelin gave us some good material to work with. We still need to keep working on the front feeling and tomorrow we have a few more adjustments planned in order to keep on trying to improve our package.” Fiat Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi, following on from a test here last week, finished the night’s work eighth on his Bridgestone-shod YZR-M1. After suffering from a few problems at last week’s test, marginally warmer temperatures for the first practice of the night saw Rossi improve his pace somewhat, finishing in fourth after the first hour. He began to suffer from a lack of grip later on however as conditions deteriorated and the temperature went down and he was unable to improve on his earlier time, dropping to eighth in the combined standings. Valentino Rossi – Position: 8th Time: 1’56.269 Laps: 44 “Earlier this evening it was a bit warmer than at the last test and it was helping us quite a lot, because we were already faster and lapping close to the leaders. Unfortunately later on in the second practice the track seemed more slippery and we suffered a lot. We just didn’t have enough grip and we weren’t able to improve on our time from the previous session. We weren’t able to completely sort out the problem tonight but we will have a good look at the data and try to find the right step for tomorrow, I think we need a slightly harder setting. I’m really sorry that Pedrosa fell, and I hope that he is okay. I was riding normally, if not at lap record pace, but I think he was travelling faster behind me and wasn’t able to stop when he exited the turn and hit me from behind. It was unlucky. Finally, I want to say again that the lighting is very good and now honestly I am not really thinking about it, it seems like normal!” Davide Brivio – Team Manager “It’s clear that we have some work to do and we’re still searching for the right setting to make our package work at its full potential in these low temperatures. Now the engineers will check the data carefully and we will try some different things tomorrow and see how we go. It’s a very good sign that the other Yamaha’s are doing so well because this shows that our bike is very good and that we just need to find the key to make Valentino’s one work as well as we know it can.” Toseland and Edwards off to flying start in Qatar Tech 3 Yamaha riders James Toseland and Colin Edwards got the 2008 MotoGP season off to a flying start in Qatar tonight, ending the opening night of practice with the third and fourth fastest times. Just one week after finishing second in the floodlit IRTA test, Toseland managed to knock 1.1s off his best time from the opening session, shrugging off an early crash to make a confident start to preparations for his MotoGP debut on Sunday night. A best lap of 1.55.812 was the third quickest, just 0.370s off the pace of reigning world champion Casey Stoner. One place and 0.130s further back was Edwards as Yamaha’s improved 2008 YZR-M1 occupied three of the top four places on the combined timesheets. Both Tech 3 riders spent the opening night assessing new Michelin tyres ahead of the 22-lap race, directly comparing the new rubber against the tyres they preferred at last week’s two-day test. Sunday’s showdown at the Losail International Circuit create history as the first MotoGP race to be held at night. James Toseland – Position: 3rd Time: 1’55.812 Laps: 21 “I’ve got to admit that I was a bit nervous before the first session and I don’t know why. I’ve been fine in testing but all of a sudden it dawned on me that this is it – the start of my MotoGP career. I was thinking too much about the unfamiliar things of being in a MotoGP weekend, and after the first session I just needed half-an-hour to chill out. I’m happy with my times and I’m just pleased that I have done similar things to what I did in the test. There was a lot of hype coming into the first race after my testing results and its nice to back it up when everybody is watching and its all official. It proves I can do well in this class. The track was dusty and dirty in the first session and I was using softer compound tyres just to get a feeling for the conditions. When I put the better tyres in I instantly had a good feeling, but I wanted to do a 1.55 on my second lap. I went into the corner too hard and should have waited a bit longer to build up my speed. I just lost the front. I’ve got to say hats off to Michelin and Yamaha. I don’t know how much Michelin improved from last year, but I know how much they have improved since I started in November and it has been a massive step. And for Yamaha to have three bikes in the top four shows they are working very hard.” Colin Edwards – Position: 4th Time: 1’55.942 Laps: 24 “Tonight was pretty good. I haven’t even touched the bike from the test and it is working great. The temperature was a bit higher than at the test in the first session and to be honest it was hard to learn a lot or get good information because the temperature will be a lot cooler at race time. The second session I tried three tyres. I was pretty sure I’d found a good race tyre but now I’m not so sure. I put the last of the three in at the end and I didn’t have high hopes for it all. But you can never discount anything until you try it. It ended up being the best tyre I tried and I did my best time on it, so I’m pleased with the way the bike is working. The goal is to get on the front row. My bike excels in turning and we’ve really got to be fast in the first three sections, because we are just lacking a little bit of speed on the straight. If we can start from the front row then we have a chance of getting a good result.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Vermeulen shines through for Rizla Suzuki in the Arabian night Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer Chris Vermeulen finished the first night’s practice for this weekend’s Qatar Grand Prix by making a huge breakthrough with his Suzuki GSV-R, as he recorded the ninth fastest time around the 5.3km Losail International Circuit. Vermeulen completed 43 laps during this evening’s two practice sessions – the first-ever held at night using floodlights clocking a quickest time of 1’56.279. The Australian star improved dramatically between the two sessions as he took almost a second-and-a-half off his best time from earlier in the evening. Vermeulen worked hard with his crew to solve a persistent problem during the first session, and he now believes that a significant improvement has been made that will allow him to use the 2008 Suzuki GSV-R to its full potential. Loris Capirossi making his first appearance for Suzuki at a Grand Prix event also circulated the Losail circuit 43 times on his way to 11th place overall with a best time of 1’56.922. Suzuki’s newest recruit knows that there is more to come both from him and his machine and is confident of a much improved position both in tomorrow’s practice, qualifying and in Sunday’s race. Tonight signalled the first time a MotoGP practice session had been held at night as the riders prepared themselves for Sunday’s race which will be the first-ever asphalt based GP held under lights. The lower temperatures will certainly have a part to play in proceedings as the track surface dropped to 14ºC this evening. Reigning World Champion Casey Stoner clocked the fastest time on his Bridgestone-shod Ducati. Tomorrow evening will see Rizla Suzuki MotoGP have one more practice session, before the all-important qualifying session gets underway at 22.55hrs local time (19.55GMT). Sunday’s race is the first of the 2008 season, and the 22-lap event starts at 23.00hrs local time (20.00hrs GMT). Chris Vermeulen: “The first session of the 2008 season got off to quite a bad start to be honest and we really struggled. We had a big vibration problem that we have had a couple of times, but I’ve really got to thank my guys as they worked extremely hard between the sessions, and we think we have solved it! The second session was a lot better and I knew on my first lap out that we had made a big improvement – I even rode round on the out-lap with a smile on my face! It meant I could really start to work on getting the bike right and test some of the new Bridgestone tyres that we had in our allocation. We seem to have found a tyre that works well already and tomorrow we will do a longer run on it and make sure it is durable for the race.” Loris Capirossi: “I think we improved a little bit in the last session and things seem to be getting better all the time. But I have some things wrong with my lines around the track and I need to work on that. There are still a few things we need to look at and get sorted out on the bike, but I am sure we can go better tomorrow we now have a clear direction to follow and I think we can take big steps forward.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It looks like we have finally unlocked some of the potential of the 2008 GSV-R this evening. Chris in particular made some fundamental improvements today that have helped him achieve very respectable lap-times and move the performance baseline considerably. “Loris has also moved forward and we know we have a huge amount of work to do tomorrow to get to the podium challenging pace, but we have made significant steps towards that this evening, and I hope we can continue in that direction tomorrow.”