Ducati

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Troy Bayliss and Loris Capirossi finished today's baking-hot first Catalan GP qualifying session in 10th and 11th positions, confident that they are making good forward progress with their Ducati Marlboro Team Desmosedicis. Following last weekend's Italian GP, where Bayliss and Capirossi had one 2003 bike and one 2004 bike apiece, they're both back to focusing on this year's machine here, the team adopting a 'less is more' attitude to set-up, making as few changes as possible, so the riders can get fully comfortable with their machinery.
"Now that we have a base set-up for this year's bike we are trying to change as little as possible," said Ducati Marlboro Team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli. "We are also making a lot of comparisons between the riders' different set-ups, trying to improve our overall set-up."

Troy Bayliss was in the hunt for a place on the provisional front row for half of this afternoon's opening qualifier, run in 30 degree heat with track temperatures nudging 45 degrees. And although the Aussie ended up 10th, he reckoned he could have been further up the order if he hadn't got out of shape during his best qualifying lap.

"I feel more comfortable on the bike here," said the Ducati Marlboro Team man. "We're doing the same kind of work on set-up, but maybe a bit less than at recent races. I think the fact that I'm so used to riding the bike - I've hardly been off the thing in the last week - is also helping. I feel good here and the bike is working good. For a Friday I'm feeling pretty chuffed, especially since I got a bit of the hippy, hippy shakes just before the last fast rights that maybe cost me half a second on my best lap."

Loris Capirossi was up to sixth during the closing stages of the session, slipping to 11th at the chequered flag. However, the Ducati Marlboro Team rider is in confident mood, making good progress on his bike settings/tyre combination for Sunday's race.

"Overall, I feel that we are in better shape than we were at Mugello, though I feel I have to improve something in myself here," admitted the Italian. "As far as the bike goes, I'm quite happy with my pace. The conditions are really hot here, which will make life difficult for the tyres on Sunday, which is why I'm concentrating on trying to make the bike more rideable over race distance. My best qualifying lap today was okay, even if not perfect."

Yamaha

Taking turns to dominate most of today’s first MotoGP qualifying session in Catalunya, Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha team-mates Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checa eventually finished the session in provisional fourth and sixth places respectively. The enthusiastic Spanish crowd was treated to a fantastic display of speed, as no less than seven riders lapped inside Rossi’s 2003 pole time.

Local-favourite Checa topped the time sheets for most of the first 45 minutes, before last week’s race winner Rossi moved in front of him with just 15 minutes remaining. This sparked an entertaining battle for the top places as the leading riders all pushed their hardest in an effort to secure good qualifying positions ahead of tomorrow’s forecast rain. At this stage Checa took the lead again before both riders headed back into the garage to change to qualifying tyres with five minutes to go. Rossi quickly set a new best lap, a 1’43.710, but was pushed down to fourth as the Honda trio of Sete Gibernau, (1’42.934) Max Biaggi (1’43.563) and Makoto Tamada (1’43.708) all bettered his time. In the closing seconds Nicky Hayden (Honda) shot up the leader board into fifth with a time of 1’43.840, leaving Checa to finish sixth fastest with a final best time of 1’43.860.

The Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 team made an encouraging start to the Catalan Grand Prix on this sun-splashed day of first qualifying. In the morning, during the free training period, both riders settled down to business quickly but when the temperature rose for the afternoon timed session, both Marco Melandri (1’44.071) and Norick Abe (1’44.988) suffered. The pair finished provisionally ninth and 16th respectively.

Melandri was hampered on two fronts: his throttle hand suffers from ‘pump up’ when wrestling the potent 990cc YZR-M1 around the Barcelona turns for more than five or six laps, and the upsurge in heat rendered the set-up work done in the morning less suitable for the conditions.

Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha), fourth – 1’43.710 “I’ve had quite a good day but I have not pushed as hard as I could because I still have some set-up issues and the last laps with qualifying tyres did not go so well. Sete has obviously found his limit and I haven’t yet. Obviously I’d like to be at the front! Even though we still have a way to go I think we’re in quite a good position; maybe even to fight for victory.”

Carlos Checa (Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha), sixth – 1’43.860 - “So far we’ve done some good work, through all the practice this morning and this afternoon. We’ve cleared some things up so I’m quite satisfied. Tomorrow we need to test one more tyre for the race as usual. This afternoon is was difficult to keep consistent times for more than a few laps. I was on a good lap at one point but got held up by another rider so I lost three tenths of a second on turn seven. Because now we only have one lap with qualifying tyres, it’s really important that everyone pays attention to people trying to put in a hot lap.”

Davide Brivio, Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha team director - “Both riders went at quite a good pace for the whole session and they’re still at the top level. It was only the last ten minutes, when Valentino had a few problems, as he’s still adjusting his set-up and Carlos unfortunately got held up, that they moved down the time sheets. If the weather is ok tomorrow both riders can try to improve their positions and I think we’re in a good place to try to do that.”

Marco Melandri (Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3), ninth – 1’ 44.071 - “I got held up by two riders on my flying qualifying lap but that’s not an issue now. What happened was the bike was okay this morning but this afternoon we ran into some trouble with the front-end and couldn’t work our way to a solution. The track was much warmer this afternoon and after two laps it was hard to keep a rhythm going. But I’m confident we’ll be much faster tomorrow.”

Norick Abe (Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3), 16th – 1’ 44.988 - “This morning was okay, but the heat this afternoon changed things. When I put a new tyre on this session I could do three or four laps before the grip began to fade a bit. We’ll maybe try a softer spring tomorrow if it’s this hot again. I feel good after Mugello and I really want to get on top of the set-up we need for hotter conditions.”

Hervé Poncharal, Fortuna Gauloises Tech 3 Team Director - “This morning was good for both riders and Norick seems to be finding his form. Marco was consistent throughout but both found it harder this afternoon with the heat. Marco was looking like he had secured a second row spot until he ran into traffic, but that’s what happens with the limited life of a qualifying tyre. Ninth is not bad for now but we know we can go better. Marco’s hand is a worry and we’ll find a solution as soon as possible because we know the rider and machine have the potential, but full race distance performance is a problem for him; hat is really very frustrating.”

Repsol HRC

Just five days after the breathtaking GP in Mugello the MotoGP field were back in action today at the Circuit de Catalunya in preparation for the fifth GP season on Sunday.

Repsol Honda Team riders Nicky Hayden and Alex Barros ended the first day of qualifying 5th and 7th fastest under cloudless skies securing a provisional second and third row start respectively.

Barros looked comfortable this morning in the Free Practice and ended the session fractionally behind championship leader and fellow Honda rider Sete Gibernau. In the afternoon the 33-year-old, who will take part in his 199th premier class GP on Sunday, struggled for grip on his Honda RC211V as track temperatures rose from 31 degrees this morning to 44 degrees this afternoon.

Hayden was 10th quickest this morning and posted a time that was fast enough to keep him in the top six for the first half of the one-hour session this afternoon. As the pace quickened, the 22-year-old slipped down the table only to bounce back up from 11th to fifth in a superbly timed final run. The talented American slashed 2.37 seconds from his qualification time from last year when he posted the 18th fastest time in his sixth GP.

The leader board swapped between Carlos Checa (Yamaha), Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), Max Biaggi (Honda) and finally the fastest lap was set by championship leader and local hero Sete Gibernau (Honda)

The provisional front row reads Gibernau, Biaggi and Makoto Tamada in an all Honda line up.

Nicky Hayden - “I feel quite at home on this track. I’ve tested a bit here and of course raced here last year – so no excuses there. It all feels quite good today but we have a few difficulties with the heat. It’s going to be all about getting the right tyres – something we can be consistent with. Still got a lot of work to do. We’re in there but we’ve still got to find some more speed. The bike’s running really well and we have some good top speed. It’s the last split I’m loosing time on especially the last three corners that are so important here to get a good lap and a good launch down the straight.”

Alex Barros - “It’s okay. This morning I was quite happy but this afternoon when the ground temperature changed we start to have a lot of problems. No grip – front and rear. We work to make the situation better but we don’t cure. In the corners the front wheel is pushing, pushing, pushing. To ride like this is dangerous and I’m loosing too much time. Not just once or twice; many times. The front qualifying tyre is ‘squishing’ a lot and is not working well. This is not the suspension; it’s the tyres. We need to think of something. Tomorrow morning should be okay again but we need a solution for the afternoon qualifying.”  

Kawasaki

Fuchs Kawasaki rider Shinya Nakano made a confidence boosting return to riding today, claiming eighth on the provisional grid for Sunday’s Catalunya Grand Prix.

It was a courageous performance coming just five days after the affable Japanese rider cheated serious injury in a horrifying 300 kph crash in the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello.

In heatwave conditions at Barcelona Nakano put aside the mental demons and continuing back pain to post a superb qualifying effort just one second off pole position.

When Nakano completed his first laps aboard his Ninja ZX-RR in this morning’s free practice he admitted it was "difficult to forget" his Mugello crash.

Also in fine form was Ninja ZX-RR teammate Alex Hofmann, whose 15th fastest time did not reflect his effort and performance potential at one of his favourite tracks.

Hofmann was disappointed not to maximise his late session, soft tyre, qualifying run when baulked by traffic. His best time was just 0.3s off a top ten grid position.

In morning practice Hofmann was unhappy with grip levels and braking stability, but suspension and chassis changes for the qualifying session delivered a big improvement.

Both Nakano and Hofmann acknowledged the efforts of Bridgestone in supplying a modified rear tyre specification in response to the problems that triggered Nakano’s Mugello crash.

With a tight three day production schedule, Bridgestone say they have delivered 100 tyres across three construction types for their riders at Barcelona. This is a smaller choice than usual, but an impressive response from the Japanese tyre company given the circumstances of the back-to-back GP time frame.

Shinya Nakano: 8th (1'43.948) - "This morning it was difficult to forget what happened at Mugello when I first went out on the track. But Bridgestone have new tyres here and have promised they have solved the problems, and I trust them. I still have some pain in my back, but I have put all this out of my mind to concentrate on my job. In the afternoon I was confident again, riding as I normally do. So far I have found the tyre performance in terms of grip the same as before, although we still have to confirm the race endurance of the new tyres. I’m hoping to stay in the top eight tomorrow."

Alex Hofmann: 15th (1'44.623) - "I wasn’t happy with my final fast laps with the traffic and then pushing too hard in the chicane, I lost some time out on the track. In the morning session I couldn’t find a good balance, but in qualifying I had a much better set-up, with improved grip and more stability on the brakes. Even so, I’ve got a positive outlook for the weekend, especially with the impressive work Bridgestone have done, although we still have to check the race distance performance."

Harald Eckl: Team Manager - "That was an amazing effort from Shinya to get his confidence back so quickly after Mugello. Alex is also looking strong, and this is a good start to the weekend. Bridgestone have made a huge effort to bring new tyres for the weekend and, hopefully, we will have a good tyre option for the race to back up our qualifying performance."

Camel Honda

Camel Honda’s pair of yellow RC211V conquered the front row of the grid after the first day of tests at the Catalunya circuit. In order to get up there, Max and Makoto rode in particularly determined fashion; Max setting the second fastest time seemingly unaffected by a slight crash at the beginning of the session, improving his times with his ‘second’ bike and finishing with the positive result. The other Camel Honda flag-bearer, Makoto Tamada, once again showed in the last few minutes of the session the grit and talent that stood him apart from the rest in the unfortunate Mugello race. He took the third best time, a provisional front row start, and completed a brilliant result for the team as a whole.

Sito Pons – Camel Honda (Team Principal) - “To have both our bikes on the front row in Catalunya is a great result for the team. We’ve got some good rhythm up for the race, and our Honda machines are very quick here. We also know that we can improve and we are working to refine all the little details so that we’re ready for Sunday. It’s an important race; we’re at home and there’s an exceptional crowd waiting for us, and in front of our fans, we want to be the stars of the show.”

Max Biaggi – Camel Honda (Michelin tyres) – 2nd - 1’43.563 - “The second fastest time is quite good given that it came with the second bike. In the first minutes of the timed session, I made a slight error and I crashed out. So I had to return to the pits on foot and I lost about fifteen minutes, as well as the chance to use the bike I feel more comfortable with. I used the other and apart from doing some good times with it on soft tyres, I also did some on race tyres. So I think we still have some margins to work within. Having seen the pace that we had this morning I honestly thought that in the afternoon we would have al gone quicker, but obviously the temperature changed the grip and the conditions of the track somewhat. I think that the tyre wear in the race will become an important factor.”

Gianluca Montiron – Camel Honda – (Makoto Tamada Team Manager) - “We’re working to overcome the difficulties we find ourselves in at the moment. Bridgestone has put in so much effort in just three days that here in Spain they’ve even brought some new material. I think that soon they’ll find the solution, and as they are doing it the group has been united, working its hardest and we’ve helped our rider in the great race against the clock. Makoto has put his RC211V on the front row, with the second highest top speed, a sign that we should continue with the same amount of concentration as we have shown already.”

Makoto Tamada – Camel Honda (Bridgestone Tyres) – 3rd - 1’43.708 - “Third fastest with the soft tyres and desperate to be always as quick. I wanted this result desperately, it’s very important, now we can put all our attention into the race settings, trying to find the right solution and by fine-tuning the general set-up of the bike so we can be competitive on Sunday. With the race material having barely arrived from Japan. I don’t really know what level of performance we’ll see, but if one thing is for sure, I’ll give my all as ever.”

Suzuki

Team Suzuki MotoGP riders Kenny Roberts Jr and John Hopkins challenged for the top ten in today's first qualifying session for Sunday's Catalunyan GP, only to be knocked out of eighth and ninth positions in the dying minutes of a blazing hot hour of riding.

Roberts ended up 12th fastest after earlier lying fourth, on the fourth row of the provisional starting grid; with Hopkins one place down and one row further back. Both of them were inside the circuit's lap record: the increase of MotoGP pace this year saw the first 18 riders also within that margin.

Third Suzuki rider Gregorio Lavilla, official factory tester and wild card entry for this race, set 20th-fastest time developing experiment suspension parts for the Suzuki GSV-R.

Roberts is using a modified version of the 990cc V4 engine, making its GP debut after a fast-forward development programme following promising tests earlier in the year. The new version, distinguished by two exhaust tailpipes of differing diameters, has altered firing intervals. The result is reduced engine braking and improved responses.

Hopkins is making his return to racing after five weeks away after breaking his left thumb as innocent victim of a first-lap pile-up in the French GP at Le Mans. The Anglo-American had hoped to race in last weekend's Italian GP at Mugello, but withdrew in order to gain strength and fitness for the Catalunyan round.

Today's practice and qualifying sessions at the 4.727km Montmelo circuit outside Barcelona took place in bright sunshine, with air temperatures soaring beyond 30 degrees, and the track at a searing 44 degrees. More hot weather is forecast for the rest of the weekend.

The Catalunyan GP is the fifth of 16 rounds in the MotoGP World Championship series. One more day of qualifying remains before Sunday's race.

KENNY ROBERTS Jr: 12th Position, 1:44.302: "We're trying to get the best possible situation for the race and I don't really know what that means at the moment. We're trying a modified engine here. In a lot of areas it's much better, but we're down a little bit on top speed from our normal bike and also acceleration. It allows me to go through the corners better with more control. But when you put on a qualifying tire at the end, you can't get it to go through the corner any faster and the acceleration's the same, so I didn't really pick up as much as with the standard engine. For race pace, the standard engine is not so good. We just need to improve acceleration and horsepower with the new engine and to continue working closely with Bridgestone to get something for the race."

JOHN HOPKINS: 13th Position, 1:44.407: "My thumb's pretty sore and the grip situation at the moment is definitely not making it easier for me. For race tyres, we've tried and will continue to try everything we can to get something to do the laps. The qualifying tyres were excellent, they work great. I think I blew it by going too early for a fast time. I should have waited and maybe gone on the front row. My team has promised me three umbrella girls if I do that!"

GREGORIO LAVILLA: 20th Position, 146.382: "Not so good. I am trying some different rear suspension parts that have just come from Japan and we are working hard to try to find the right way to set them up. At the moment, they are not working well, though."

GARRY TAYLOR - Team Manager: "We have a lot going on this weekend. Kenny has the modified engine, which is still very new, and we are working very closely with our partners Bridgestone tyres to improve our opportunities."

Proton Team KR

Proton Team KR riders Kurtis Roberts and Nobuatsu Aoki set almost identical qualifying times in bright sunshine in today's first timed session for Sunday's Catalunyan GP, with both promising improvements to come.

The team-mates placed 20th and 21st on the provisional starting grid, with one more timed session to follow tomorrow.

The Proton KR V5 made its race debut just over a year ago, and achieved its first finish at last year's Catalunyan race, its second outing. This year's machine is significantly changed, with major engine revisions and an all-new carved-from-solid chassis.

A revised firing order and a new longer-stroke motor are now gaining track miles, with the team able to concentrate more on fine-tuning the settings as the new parts achieve reliability. At the same time, continual development from tyre partners Dunlop is helping to move the project forward in a year when the overall standard in the premier MotoGP class has taken a significant step ahead.

The biggest problem today was blazing heat, with track temperatures soaring beyond 44 degrees under the Spanish sun. This not only punishes the tyres, but also affects the five-cylinder engine, with cooling becoming a more important issue than usual.

Today's qualifying at the 4.727km circuit outside Barcelona is followed by one more day of qualifying before Sunday's race, the fifth round of the season. Today's provisional pole time was again set by points leader Sete Gibernau (Honda).

KURTIS ROBERTS - "I haven't been to this track for seven years, so I'm still remembering my way round and getting reacquainted with the place. We have a few little things to work on with the bike, mainly suspension set-up so I can get comfortable at race pace, and try to find some more grip. I had a couple of clutch problems today and I didn't really get enough laps at one time to really get going. But it's all getting better slowly, and physically I'm okay, after getting my insides rearranged crashing in practice in Italy."

NOBUATSU AOKI - "I had trouble with my better bike in the middle of the session, with an electrical problem, so I had to switch to the spare, which wasn't running quite so well. My real problem was when I put on a soft-compound qualifying tyre, and had really bad chatter. Then I tried another, and had the same problem. But the race tyre is working well, and I was able to run at close to my qualifying time without problems. I hope we can get a better qualifying tyre tomorrow, so I can improve my grid position."

KENNY ROBERTS - TEAM PRINCIPAL - "Today wasn't too good ... the oil is running too hot, and we need to solve that problem tonight if the temperature is going to stay this high. We have a couple of ways of doing that, but we need to look at all the data first. Everything is still getting better, bit by bit, but we still have a ways to go."