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It was only the first qualifying session for the 500cc class at the Grande
Premio de Portugal in Estoril this afternoon but the intensity and
determination out on the track highlighted the crucial importance of this
the penultimate European race of the 2001 season. Valentino Rossi showed
that he is in no mood for games as he rode on the limit to set a new pole
record with a time of 1'40.389, over half a second quicker than nearest
rival Norick Abe.
"Today has gone a lot better than the team expected," said Honda rider
Rossi. "We are very happy with the time but we know that tomorrow the
other riders will be pushing even harder. My objective is just to qualify
on the front row and give myself the best possible chance of a good start
in the race on Sunday."
Yamaha rider Abe celebrates his 26th birthday today and he was in line for
a double celebration when he held the quickest time of the session with
minutes remaining. However, a nasty high speed crash followed by Rossi's
late pole effort poured cold water on any festivities for the Japanese
rider, who was simply relieved to escape with nothing more than a broken
finger. Biaggi set the third fastest time of the session and is joined on
the provisional front row by fellow Italian Capirossi in fourth.
Checa heads the provisional second row ahead of Barros and a resurgent
Nakano, who marked his return from a hand injury with the seventh fastest
time of the session. Gibernau held off Suzuki team-mate Roberts to take
eighth spot and relegate the World Champion to the third row. Criville was
the only other 500 rider besides Abe to fall this afternoon, returning to
the track to qualify in fifteenth, whilst Australian youngster Clarke did
not ride due to a crash in this morning's first free practice session.
Max Biaggi - 3rd - 1m40.902s - "I'm
hoping for a little more luck this weekend, we had a few
problems this morning but we're better now, I'd say we're 80 per
cent of our potential. I don't know how good we can do here, I guess I
won't know until we make the few improvements we need to make. We're
missing a bit of speed and a bit of traction, so after the session I sat
down and had a long chat with Fiorenzo (Fanali, Biaggi's crew chief) and
we have some ideas to fix those problems for tomorrow."
Marlboro Team Manager - Geoff Crust - "We're okay so far but we need to
improve, we need to get closer to Rossi. Max has come here in a very
determined mood - after Brno he knows he's got to pull it all back
together, get his head down and win some more races. A lot has changed to
our bikes since the IRTA tests we did here in February. We've also tried a
few little settings changes to help Max to steer faster with the 16.5,
though they're not a night-and-day difference. Carlos seems to be going
good, he improves every time he goes out and we know we can make his bike
better for tomorrow."
Carlos Checa - 5th - 1m41.041s - "I feel pretty confident on the bike, but
we need to improve the engine set-up because so far it's too aggressive
when I get on the throttle. The chassis balance is pretty good, though I'm
still getting some front-end push, which comes from having so much rear
grip. We also had some chatter from the 16.5, though you expect chatter
when you're running softer tyres in practice. That shouldn't be a worry
when we concentrate on race tyres tomorrow."
Jurgen van den Goorbergh - 11th - 1m41.753 - "I crashed early in the
session - the first time I've fallen since the start of the season - and
did a lot of damage to my better bike, which was a pity. Luckily, I wasn't
hurt. I fell because I had a very hard front tyre, which hadn't got up to
temperature even after three or four laps - it let go before I was even in
the corner, while I was still braking. After that, I needed to get my
feeling back, and regain confidence. I'm not happy with my position, but
I'm confident that there is more to come from my riding and the machine -
I haven't even tried drafting anyone down the straight yet. With my best
bike damaged and my confidence also, we need to be a little patient".
Kenny Roberts - Team Owner - "Jurgen found the kitty litter with his good
bike, and on the other bike we ended up a disappointing 11th. There's
always one bike that feels better than the other - but the bike he crashed
was damaged badly enough that we don't want to take any chances with it.
We'll take it back to the factory to check it over, and he will have a
completely new motorcycle tomorrow morning. We felt we should be better
here, but I guess we're saving our best for last".
Garry McCoy - 12th - 1m41.796 - "I was hoping to go a lot better. We
haven't quite pin-pointed the problem yet but it seems that the carb set
up isn't quite spot on, which is causing the bike to feel a bit
uncomfortable. On a track like this you want to be coming out of the
corners smoothly and at the moment that isn't the case. Unfortunately the
bike I like the best, in terms of chassis set up, is the one that is
running the worst. Until we've sorted the problem out we're going to be
struggling to improve our times."
Hamish Jamieson (Garry McCoy's Race Engineer) - "You can see from the data
that the engine isn't performing as it should be and we reckon that it is
down to carburation. It is most noticeable on the long right hander, where
Garry is dipping in and out of the power and losing a lot of time. It is
not something we have suffered from in the past and to be honest we are a
little surprised, but I think we should be able to sort it out relatively
easy."
Tohru Ukawa - 13th - 1m41.832s - "Things went well in the morning for us,
the bike worked well, and we put in good lap times. But in the afternoon,
we made big changes in the set-up of the bike and we were wrong with our
assumptions, therefore we haven’t been able to repeat our morning
performance. But this doesn’t worry me because we know exactly where we
went wrong, so for tomorrow we’ll just take the same way back that led
into a dead end today, even though we will stick to some of the changes.
I’m optimistic because I’ve returned to ride with confidence which allows
me to ride much safer and faster. Tomorrow, we’ll have to bring the lap
times down, and I am confident to make a race like the one in Brno again.
We are on a good way, and I know that we can keep it."
Alex Criville - 15th - 1m42.176s - "My crash this afternoon wasn’t
necessary. I made a mistake, the front tyre slid away, and I went down.
The practice session was complicated after that, because I damaged my
number one bike, and I had to complete the session with just one
motorcycle only. This morning’s practice session had gone quite well, even
though I had to spend ten minutes in the garage due to an error in the
electronic configuration of both bikes. Our plan today was to work with
two bikes that were set up very differently, which allowed us to make
valuable comparisons. Tomorrow, we’ll use two bikes with the same
settings. I’m calm because we know what went wrong and at which points of
the track I can go faster."
Nori Haga - 16th - 1m42. 513 - "It is the same old problem - no front
feel. I don't understand because in testing here my best time was 1'40. 9.
We started with one bike set up the same as in testing and another similar
to the one we ran in Brno, and while the test set up bike performed the
best, neither really felt right."
Colin Davies (Nori Haga's Race Engineer) - "We tested here in late
February and obviously it was a lot cooler then, which would explain some
of the differences. But I think also that Nori has hit a bit of a wall
with tyres and suspension and we don't seem able to help him get the front
feel he needs. My inclination now is to try something very different and
see if that gives us some pointers as to which direction we should be
taking."
Tetsuya Harada took provisional pole in the 250 class with best lap of
1'42.780, with Championship leader Daijiro Katoh settling for second place
on the grid despite dominating for long periods. Harada's best lap came
four minutes from the end of a session which saw Aprilia colleagues
Melandri and McWilliams start extremely quickly and produce strong
finishes to take up third and fourth place respectively on the front row
of the provisional grid. Katoh is the only Honda on the front row despite
the best efforts of David Checa, who was happy to settle for sixth spot
behind fellow Spaniard Fonsi Nieto. Matsudo qualified in seventh place
with Rolfo completing the provisional second row. Rolfo set his time late
in the session having suffered an early crash involving De Gea. De Puniet,
Battaini, Vincent and Tomas (twice) also tumbled out of the action but all
escaped without injury.
Youichi Ui enjoyed typically erratic fortunes in the 125 class, setting a
stunning new pole record despite twice having to push his Derbi back to
the pit garage with mechanical problems. Ui's final effort of 1'46.196 was
0.853 seconds faster than the Gilera of second placed Poggiali. Spanish 16
year old Olive's third quickest time provided the surprise result of the
session and knocked team-mate Elias off the provisional front row as
veteran Italian Cecchinello hung on to qualify fourth.
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