Yamaha Racing

The long-awaited season-opening Africa’s Grand Prix commenced in brilliant sunshine today with an exhilarating first MotoGP qualifying session on the bumpy Welkom circuit. Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha rider and reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi, who was fastest in this morning’s free practice session, took provisional pole position whilst his team-mate Carlos Checa finished in tenth place.

Twenty-five-year-old Rossi took the lead on his M1 machine after just ten minutes on the clock and managed to hold on to it for most of the session, despite plenty of fast-lap challenges from the rest of the MotoGP pack. With just seven minutes to go Loris Capirossi stole the lead on his Ducati, however Rossi answered back just moments later with a fastest lap of 1’33.353, bettering the lap record he set during last year’s Welkom race by just over five-tenths of a second (1’33.851). Finishing the session just behind him was last year’s race winner and Honda rider Sete Gibernau (1’33.378), followed by Ducati’s Loris Capirossi (1’33.709) and Max Biaggi (Honda, 1’33.730). Checa, who is starting his sixth season with Yamaha, posted a time of 1’34.540, still needing a little more work to do to find the correct set-up.

Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 riders Marco Melandri and Norick Abe are now equipped with the latest specification M1 engine and both men used it to good effect for the first time in dry conditions. They freely admit they both need more time to get used the improved performance of this unit and are convinced that they can both shave more time off their best lap tomorrow. Melandri ended the day seventh overall with a 1’34.100 only two tenths of a second shy of Colin Edwards in sixth (1’33.859). Abe finished the day 15th (1’35.251) after initial set-up problems on this bumpy track.

Valentino Rossi, 1st: 1’ 33.353 - “I’m very happy and very surprised; I sincerely didn’t expect this on the first day. We have done a lot of fast work in a very short time here and at the moment we’re on top. The bike felt good with qualifying tyres but I’m having some problems with the race tyres, because I don’t have enough grip. We still have a lot of work to do in order to be in a position to fight for the win on Sunday. We need to put in a lot more kilometres tomorrow to fix the minor problems. MotoGP qualifying is more important now than ever, because the top ten riders are generally within one second of each other, so I hope to start from the front!”

Carlos Checa, 10th: 1’ 34.540 - “This morning I felt quite comfortable but it’s clear from this afternoon that there is something that we still need to find to improve. I’m particularly having problems in turns three and four where I’m finding it difficult to keep the bike on the line, but this is just the first day. Obviously seeing Valentino’s results, the bike has potential, but I can’t find it right now. We also made some small changes to the suspension between this morning and this afternoon and we’ve probably gone a little bit in the wrong direction.”

Davide Brivio, Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team director “It’s nice to be at the front on the first day, it’s a good start and everyone involved in the project is really pleased. Carlos had quite a good morning session but couldn’t find the right balance this afternoon, he will try to find a better setting tomorrow. The forecast is rain for tomorrow, but I hope that’s not the case because both riders still have a lot of work to do to prepare their race bikes.”

Marco Melandri, 7th: 1’ 34.100 - “The new engine is really good, but it’s so different in its characteristics that I need more time to learn how to get the best from it. In mid-corner there is a huge difference and I need to forget the style I used to ride the older version and retune my brain for the new engine. Grip is good as long as you don’t get off-line and we should be quicker after we make some more detail changes for tomorrow.”

Norick Abe, 15th: 1’ 35.251 - “The biker is so much better now. But now I need more time to get used to it. It’s easier to ride, much more friendly out the turns and now I need to get used to it and raise my game to catch the other Yamaha riders. My lap time is still a bit low and tomorrow we’ll work on it again.”

Guy Coulon (Melandri’s Crew Chief) - “This is Marco’s first time with the new engine in the dry so it’s a bit too early to see how much more there is to come from him and the bike. But he’s already getting on the throttle quicker, the chassis is OK and things are good – we can’t complain.”

Gilles Bigot (Abe’s Crew Chief) - “The beginnings with this new specification engine are good for us, Norick’s confidence is up and that’s good. We’re still learning how to get the best form the new engine but it has already solved a lot of problems for us.”

Proton Team KR

Team Proton KR rider Nobuatsu Aoki reported positive progress in the first day of qualifying for the opening round of the 2004 MotoGP season at Welkom’s Phakisa Freeway here today – a race for which even team principal Kenny Roberts admits the new 2004 machine is not yet ready.

Aoki ran 16 laps in this afternoon’s first timed session, running through a large number of the team’s new Dunlop tyres that needed testing, and setting his best time without resorting to soft-compound one-lap qualifying tyres.

The day turned sour early on for new team-mate Kurtis Roberts, however. The American MotoGP rookie had hoped he was sufficiently recovered from a pre-season testing injury to take part in the opening round. However, after just nine laps in the morning free practice session, it became obvious that his dislocated shoulder had not recovered sufficiently to cope with the demands of the technically challenging and bumpy 4.242km circuit. Kurtis decided to go to his California home, to continue recovery from the injury to regain full fitness for the forthcoming races.

The Mk2 version of the radical 990cc V5 prototype racer is still at an early stage of development, with the team still awaiting some engine and other parts before the bike will be complete in its final form. Design changes to the highly integrated new bike made it impossible to use last year’s engine as an interim measure.

Provisional pole position was set by defending champion Valentino Rossi, in his first outing after switching from Honda to Yamaha. The afternoon session ran in fine sunny weather, but with a steady breeze. One more day of qualifying remains before Sunday’s first race of the new season.

Nobuatsu Aoki - "It was pretty tough this afternoon, but after Kurtis withdrew that meant I had three bikes, and the third one had a different heavier crankshaft from my two. The engine response is not so quick, and I found that made it easier to ride, and easier to control the rear-wheel sliding. The Dunlop guys have brought many different tyres here – in fact too many to test in just four hours. But we found quite a good rear tyre with a new construction, while the earlier type of front tyre is working okay. They say they will make race distance, and I made my best lap with those tyres, which is good news. Actually, I’m pretty optimistic."

Kurtis Roberts - "I was concerned about my shoulder before I came here, and it’s definitely not right at the moment. Especially after Turn One, where you have to lean off the wrong side setting up for the next turn over some bumps, and the handlebars are moving around. It puts my shoulder at a weird angle where it feels it might pop out again – the same angle where it popped out before. That would be the worst thing to happen right now. I’ll go home and continue with physiotherapy, and come back when it is all right."

Kenny Roberts - "Today was horrible. We knew it would be our worst race, but when you get here and face that reality it’s hard to be happy. The engine performance was better than we expected, though. We’re not ready to be here. We’re still waiting for parts, and it’s a matter of time. The decision to send Kurtis home was obviously right. He was having trouble out of Turn One, and if his shoulder popped out, that would set him back by another three or four weeks. It was better to get him fully recovered."

Team Suzuki

Team Suzuki MotoGP rider Kenny Roberts Jr. made a strong challenge for the front row of the grid today, the first of two days of timed qualifying for Sunday's South Africa GP, the opening round of the 2004 MotoGP season.

The American former World Champion was as high as second fastest with less than ten minutes of the hour-long session remaining, and ended up a close fifth, just over a tenth of a second outside the top four.

Team-mate John Hopkins was 14th, but more than satisfied after his attempt at a fast lap on soft qualifying tyres was thwarted by another rider. His best time came on full race tyres and he is confident of making up time and places in tomorrow's sessions.

The opening day of the season took place in warm and sunny conditions at the high altitude Phakisa Freeway, outside the Free State gold mining town of Welkom. Tomorrow there are two more hour-long sessions, the second of them timed for grid positions for Sunday's race.

The strong Suzuki results follow highly promising pre-season test results, with the team's confidence high that they can regain the top positions that have proved elusive over the past two difficult seasons.

2000 World Champion Roberts' biggest problems came from the dry highveld air, provoking sneezing fits and hayfever. "I almost sneezed a couple of times in my helmet," he grinned.

Kenny Roberts - 5th - 1m33.8 - "All in all, the tyres feel good, the bike feels good, and the settings from our Jerez and Barcelona tests have transferred over nicely. Basically we have two types of race tyre; one that is pretty critical whether it will go race distance, and one that we know will go the distance but will need a better bike setting. Our biggest issue is finding out which to use then going from there. If we go with the harder tyre, we are going to have to make a setting to compensate for the less grip. There s things we re struggling with the altitude, for performance of the engine and some engine braking going into the corners. This track is a little bit tough for that, so I m sure everybody has the same feelings. The guys did a good job getting the most out of the settings today. There was a few times when we hit a wall and they came up with something that helped out tremendously each time. This team deserves good finishes we have a good bunch of guys here trying as hard as they can."

John Hopkins - 14TH - 1m35.1 - "Today went really well, though I was unable to get the lap time I wanted. One bike felt good and I was riding hard, but the lap time wasn't coming. Then that motor stopped running right and I switched to the other bike, which had a different rear suspension link that made a big difference in the right direction. We had some shifting problems that we fixed easily, but the little glitches meant I didn't get the longer runs on the track I wanted. At the end, I put on a qualifying tyre and got behind Loris Capirossi for a fast lap but I guess he d already set his time and he was spinning up everywhere and he slowed me up. He was the wrong guy to follow at that time! But it meant my best time came on race tyres and we can definitely make up time on that. I ll give it a full go tomorrow."

Camel Honda

The first round of qualifying practice for the 2004 season gives an indication of the fantastic show the championship promises for this year. All the most likely contenders for the title gave a taste of their potential right in the very last minutes of this afternoon’s practice. For the yellow Honda RC211Vs ridden by Max Biaggi (Michelin) and Makoto Tamada (Bridgestone), today’s two-hour session was very important for assessing and establishing the set-ups and for trying to set a good rhythm for the race. After the difficult weather conditions at the IRTA tests in Spain, the mild climate of South Africa made it possible to gather some interesting data and references for the coming two days. Max Biaggi ended with 4th quickest time and Makoto Tamada, who made a slight slip in the fast lap for the provisional pole, came in eighth.

Sito Pons – Camel Honda (Team Principal) - “This was an important first day of tests because we were able to recoup some of the time we lost in the IRTA tests because of the bad weather. So we were able to gather some good references for the settings on the bike, and the riders have already achieved a good rhythm to put them out in front, and we’re working to set a pace that can make the difference in the race. If, as we are told, the weather should change tomorrow, we’re already in a position to start off well.”

Max Biaggi – Camel Honda (Michelin tyres) – 4th – 1’33.730 - “I preferred to sacrifice a few laps today in order to get as much information as possible for my technicians. We rapidly changed some of the parameters in order to understand why we were so fast in the first two sections of the circuit while we fell so far behind in the last two. We knew that by doing so we would lose something in other parts of the bike, but we needed to have some answers that, as it turned out, did indeed give us an idea of what to do for tomorrow. During the free practice on Saturday we’ll try out our new ideas and if they’re as effective as we think they will be, it means we’ll have plenty of room for improvement during the afternoon qualifying.”

Gianluca Montiron – Camel Honda – (Makoto Tamada Team Manager) - “We did some very intense work on setting up Makoto’s bike and I can see the rider is highly motivated. It was a pity about the little slip-up Makoto made just when it was the best time to go for the provisional pole, for it meant he wasn’t able to confirm his upward trend during the session. We’re also working on the choice of the most suitable race tyres and we should be able to find the answers we want tomorrow.”

Makoto Tamada – Camel Honda (Bridgestone tyres) – 8th – 1’34.177 - “A mistake in braking on corner 9: I simply braked too hard and the fast lap was lost. A pity, but I feel the potential is excellent and I’m almost ready for the race. Actually, I’ve got a pretty good idea about which tyres to use during the race on Sunday, even though I still want to do an endurance test. I’ve got a good feeling for my RC211V, and we’ll see tomorrow what the weather’s like and if I can improve even more.”

Repsol HRC

The highly anticipated 2004 MotoGP season finally kicked off in South Africa today with Repsol Honda riders, Alex Barros and Nicky Hayden in the thick of the action.

Under bright blue skies at the 4.242km Phakisa Freeway circuit 270km south west of Johannesburg 23 riders completed the first day of qualifying in preparation for the first race on Sunday.

Last years Rookie of the Year, Nicky Hayden, embarking on his second season in the Repsol Honda Team struggled to find top form in the morning’s session and was placed ninth fastest. The 22-year-old from Kentucky, USA worked hard with his team before the second session which finished with better lap times placing the American ninth overall fastest at the end of the first day.

Alex Barros, starting his first year with the factory squad, was sixth fastest in the morning Free Practice as he powered his Honda RC211V round the dusty circuit. In the first qualifying session this afternoon the 33-year-old Brazilian finished the day 12th fastest. It was a disappointing result for him after holding a top-four spot for much of the session.

The world champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) was fastest with Sete Gibernau (Honda), Loris Capirossi (Ducati), and Max Biaggi (Honda) making up the top four.

Nicky Hayden - “The positive thing is that it all felt better towards the end of the session – but not good enough. We may want to have a little look at the transmission tonight – I think that could help a bit tomorrow. There are also some parts of the track where I could definitely be faster. We got a lot of data to look at and I’m sure it will help in Q2 tomorrow. I’m have to say I’m glad to get today over with. I didn’t sleep too well last night – I guess I was so excited about getting out there again! I’ve just got to be patient – I know we have the right package to be really competitive.”

Alex Barros - “The first 40 minutes of the session were good and we were up in the top four. Then we changed the front suspension and the tyres together and it didn’t feel so good. We then changed the suspension again but the front does not have so much grip! We put a soft front on towards the end of the session but it was all too soft and I nearly loose the front. Anyway, we know what a good base setting is for tomorrow which is important. With the new grid layout, Saturday qualification is even more important and I’m confident we can climb higher.”

Kawasaki

The opening round of the 2004 MotoGP World Championship season got underway at South Africa's Phakisa Freeway today, with Fuchs Kawasaki's Alex Hofmann ably demonstrating the potential of the all new Ninja ZX-RR by finishing this afternoon's qualifying session an impressive 12th fastest.  Always slippery for the first session, due to the dust that collects on the track surface, the Phakisa Freeway circuit is also well known for being one of the bumpiest tracks on the MotoGP calendar. Frequent seismic activity, together with the mine workings that crisscross the whole area, mean that no matter how many times the track is resurfaced the bumps remain.

But the dust and the bumps created no real problems for Hofmann today. The 23-year-old German rider spent this morning's practice session reacquainting himself with the Welkom circuit after a two-year absence, before getting his head down and building towards a fast qualifying lap towards the end of this afternoon's timed session. With just seconds of the session remaining, Hofmann stopped the clock at 1'34.616 to jump to within 0.076s of a top ten grid position. With new rules introduced this season reducing the number of riders on each row of the grid to just three, Hofmann's impressive qualifying performance secured him a fourth row start on the provisional grid.

Less than 0.05s behind Hofmann was his Fuchs Kawasaki teammate, Shinya Nakano. The 26-year-old Japanese rider looked strong at the start of both practice and qualifying sessions today, but minor set up problems with his Ninja ZX-RR meant that he was unable to push as hard as he wanted when the front runners started to up the pace. With his pit crew having already identified the changes they need to make to his bike overnight, Nakano is confident of an improvement in his lap time during tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions.

Alex Hofmann: 11th (1'34.616) - "This is my first visit to Welkom since 2001, so this morning's session was spent relearning my way around the circuit and familiarising myself with the track conditions. The track here is pretty bumpy, which is a problem when you're trying to get on the gas early out of the turns. You have to accept the fact that the bumps mean you're not going to get the usual feedback from the rear of the bike, but you still have to try and find the limit - it's a confidence thing. The track surface is a minor problem, but then it's the same for everyone. This afternoon we tested two rear tyres that we thought might be good for Sunday's race, before getting down to the business of setting a fast qualifying time. It was important to set a good time today, as the forecast for tomorrow is for rain. Fortunately, I managed to find a clear space on the track during my last qualifying run and ended up 11th fastest. It's been fun actually racing against people today, and I am really looking forward to the rest of the weekend."

Shinya Nakano: 13th (1'34.661) - "I was able to run in the top ten during morning practice, but as everyone started to up the pace towards the end of the session we didn't have the set up on the bike that I needed to match their fastest times. Unfortunately, the same was also true during qualifying this afternoon. After running in the top ten for most of the session, I dropped down the timesheet as everyone improved their times on qualifying tyres towards the end. But, having said that, we are not so far off the top ten and I am confident that the changes we make to the bike tonight will allow me to improve both my lap time and my grid position during tomorrow's final qualifying session. My only concern at the moment is about the weather tomorrow, as the forecast is for rain. That would not be so good for us, but I guess we will just have to see how things turn out. Overall, I am fairly happy with how things have gone today and I'm really enjoying riding the bike here."