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2010 MotoGP - Valencia Test |
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2010 MotoGP - Valencia Test |
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Valencia Test - Day Three Weather: warm and sunny Ambient temperature: 25 degrees Track temperature: +- 30 degrees The post-season test in Valencia this week provided the teams with a good foundation for further development of their 2010 prototypes over the winter, with the MotoGP riders reporting positively on the initial responses of their new machines. Casey Stoner was consistently fast on his new Ducati Desmosedici prototype across the three days (Monday and Wednesday were half-day sessions), testing new forks and a new engine configuration as well as a new rear Bridgestone tyre which several MotoGP riders also tried out. Stoner’s lap of 1’31.900 on Wednesday morning was the fastest recorded during the test. Working with a new chassis on his Yamaha M1, Jorge Lorenzo topped the timesheet in Tuesday’s session with a 1’31.939 lap, the second fastest time over the three days - and he left the Ricardo Tormo circuit pleased with how his bike had responded. Dani Pedrosa experimented with Ohlins suspension as he rolled out the 2010 version of his RC212V, and at just 0.005s off Lorenzo’s best lap was the third and final rider to break the 1’32” barrier throughout the three days. Sunday’s race winner was followed in the order by World Champion Valentino Rossi, who was satisfied with the improvement made on the throttle control of his race machinery as both he and Lorenzo concluded their test a day early, having ridden both new versions of the M1 as well as their 2009 bikes for comparison. Nicky Hayden was also fast throughout, going through a range of set-up options on his Desmosedici, with Andrea Dovizioso changing the engine position on his factory Honda to improve stability. The move paid off, with the Italian breaking the 1’33” marker on Wednesday morning. On his return to the San Carlo Honda Gresini set-up, Marco Melandri appears to be settling back onto his RC212V well. The Italian improved his time in each session to rank seventh fastest overall, with Ben Spies eighth. The newly-integrated Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider – who tested only on Monday and Tuesday – concentrated on tyre and wheel set-ups for the most part. His team-mate Colin Edwards’ test ended after Monday’s ride, as the Texan was laid low with a virus on Tuesday. 2009 Rookie of the Year Mika Kallio felt the benefit of a new aluminium swing arm on his Pramac Ducati machine as he steadily made progress, and Randy de Puniet tested suspension and electronics modifications on his 2009 LCR Honda bike. Rizla Suzuki rider Loris Capirossi gathered information with laps completed in each session, and Aleix Espargaró’s best lap of 1’33.275 indicated he is advancing well ahead of his first full MotoGP season in 2010 with Pramac Racing. Coming up from the 250cc category, Héctor Barberá was the fastest of the four riders making the leap to the premier class. Riding a Desmosedici GP9 to get used to power delivery, a best time of 1’33.787 from the Aspar rider left him just under a tenth of a second faster than Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini). Álvaro Bautista rode the Rizla Suzuki in a best time of just over 1’34”, with 250cc World Champion Hiroshi Aoyama of the Interwetten Honda MotoGP team also becoming accustomed with his MotoGP ride. Toni Elías was out on track testing a Gresini Moriwaki Moto2 prototype, with the Spanish rider still to confirm his plans for next year. Also working with Moto2 bikes were Ratthapark Wilairot, Héctor Faubel and Scott Redding (all Stop and Go – FTR), Shogo Moriwaki (Gresini Moto2 Team – Moriwaki), Axel Pons (Pons Racing Pepe World – Pons Kalex), Joan Olivé and Kenny Noyes (both Promoracing – Promo-Harris), as the pace of development gathers ahead of the introduction of the new category to the World Championship in 2010. -- Ducati The Ducati Marlboro Team completed its final test session of 2009 in positive fashion today as Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden ended up fastest and third fastest respectively on the time sheets at Valencia. The pair have been impressed with the updates to their machine brought to the circuit by Filippo Preziosi and the whole team is now looking forward to next season, with preparations due to continue in Malaysia nella during the first week of February. Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st; 1’31.899 (35 laps) “We were able to understand the bike a little better today and the fantastic weather conditions certainly helped. It was a pleasant surprise when we got up this morning and it allowed us to work well. I’m satisfied with this three day test and with the new characteristics of the bike, in particular the extra traction in corner exit. It is still difficult to figure out exactly the best time to open the throttle but we’re getting there and it is a case of more practice and improving the set-up. It is nice to be going into the break in good physical shape, without any injuries to get over like in the past two years, so that we can formulate a physical training programme to be in the best possible shape for next season.” Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team), 3rd; 1’32.805: (48 laps) “We worked on confirming a few things today and I think we found what we were looking for. I like the changes we’ve introduced to the bike, the power delivery is definitely more progressive although we still need to find the ideal setting for it. I got my lap times down by a couple of tenths today, thanks to the new Bridgestone tyres, which are great. I’m happy – I think we’re on the right tracks and we have had three important days here that should help us make a lot of progress in the next test and close the gap to the front guys down even more. I want to thank the team because it is never easy after a such a demanding season and a long weekend to go testing for three days. So thanks to all my mechanics and to my brother Tommy for being here with me, and everybody working back at Ducati. I think we can all be proud of the progress we have made this season and look ahead to next year in really positive spirits.” -- HRC The final day of the three-day MotoGP test at the 4.005km Valencia circuit was run in warm and sunny spring like weather that raised the track temperature and helped riders get the best from their tyres. Repsol Honda men, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, were the fastest RCV riders on the final day of the test, Pedrosa in second place with a time of 1m 31.94s, just 0.044s off fastest time set by Casey Stoner (Ducati), Dovizioso fourth fastest. Pedrosa worked hard with the Ohlins suspension technicians and made serious progress with the suspension, chassis and tyre combination and departs for the winter break in positive frame of mind. Following his crash of yesterday that robbed him of track time Dovizioso played catch-up on his test programme. The Italian confirmed the chassis settings he was due to try yesterday. The changes improved stability and enabled Dovi brake more smoothly into corners. Today the team further refined chassis set up and Dovi ended the day content with the results of the three-day test. Team Engineers will now return to Japan to analyse the data gathered and input from the riders then prepare the RC212Vs for the next winter test at Sepang, Malaysia, on February 3-5. Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) was satisfied with his three-days work at Valencia. Today, despite running out of suitable tyres, the Gresini rider set his best time of the test to take fourth overall on the timing sheets. Melandri’s Gresini Honda team-mate Marco Simoncelli continued his impressive MotoGP debut test sessions setting his fastest time of the week aboard his Gresini RCV. The young Italian is still chasing good feed-back from the chassis and has yet to come to terms with the braking effect of a large capacity four-stroke. Hiro Aoyama (Interwetten Honda) like fellow MotoGP debutant Simoncelli has yet to master the art of braking into corners with his RC212V but managed to better his best lap time set yesterday. With a time of 1m 34.821s Hiro was almost almost half a second faster than he had previously managed during the test. Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 2nd – 1m 32.904s, 38 laps. “We had a good day out there. The track conditions were very good and there was a lot of grip, so we were able to improve our speed quite a lot. My feeling with the new suspension really improved today and that was our main focus here. It’s a big change because I’ve been riding with Showa since 2003, so of course it takes a while to get used to something new. We didn’t spend a lot of time working specifically on adjustments with the new chassis because it was important to concentrate on one thing at a time. At the next test in Sepang in February it will be a good opportunity to concentrate on the chassis. My focus now is to take some rest and then prepare as best I can for 2010. We need to start the season at full strength - in terms of me physically and the machine package. That’s what the whole Team will be working on through the winter.” Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda: 4th – 1m 32.825s, 51 laps. “Today we confirmed some of the setting improvements we found yesterday, and we also tested some solutions that we couldn’t get round to yesterday because of my crash. I improved my lap time and I was able to go faster than during the whole race weekend, so this is positive. All in all I’m very confident because I could lap at 1m 32.8 at the end of today’s session, and this lap time is as good as race pace. The stability while braking has improved and I think that we are working in the right direction, though we still need to take a step forward. For instance, we can still improve the drivability on the exit of corners and that’s something we’ll work on in February. Now, with the season over, we will have some rest. I have two charity events coming up and then I will spend the winter with my family and friends. We’ve been travelling a lot, so I like to stay at home during the winter break and get ready for 2010.” Marco Melandri, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 5th – 1m 32.936s, 36 laps. "we thought we had some set up issues but in reality the issue was that we started with hard and used tyre. Then when we put a new tyre the bike was a bit un-balanced. Anyway we succeeded to improve my lap times and collect important data. My target in 2010 is to be close to the podium so I hope that the new bike will work well. Now I look forward to period of break.” Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 10th – 1m 33.856s, 35 laps. “Even if today I was a bit tired I had fun and the feeling improved. Also the rhythm was not bad so I’m happy. The confidence with the bike grows lap by lap even if I still don’t feel the machine very well as I struggle in breaking in the first part of the turn and so I cannot exit fast. So at the moment the main issue remains the breaking. All in all the balance of these three days is positive, I worked well with the Honda technicians, they are very cooperative. We share the same target and it’s nice to work like this. Now that the rookies test have been confirmed I look forward to know when the next test will be.” Hiroshi Aoyama, Interwetten Honda: 12th – 1m 34.821s, 47 laps. “We continued working as yesterday because we want to reach a better control of the bike working step by step. We improved lap times and I’m confident. I changed a bit my style of braking, it was strange at the beginning but we are going in the right direction. We still have a lot of laps to do to know and understand the bike. Our target for next test session in Malaysia in December will be a better control of the bike so that I can brake more precisely.” Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda: Did not test. -- Yamaha Did not take part in day three but had three riders in the top four on day two. -- Suzuki Álvaro Bautista has completed his first test onboard the Suzuki GSV-R by continuing to improve on his lap-times at a sunny Valencia today. Bautista recorded a best time of 1’34.163 from his 41 laps during the final morning session of the three-day test, almost half-of-a-second quicker than he managed yesterday. He finished his first experience of riding a MotoGP bike on a very positive level and was extremely pleased with what he had accomplished during such a short spell on the machine. Bautista will now travel with Team Test-Rider Nobuatsu Aoki to Estoril in Portugal for a further three-day test next week. Loris Capirossi (1’33.588, 43 laps) completed his test schedule at Valencia today by doing a final evaluation of some new aerodynamics and electronics systems as well as assessing some more Akrapovic exhaust systems. Capirossi will now have a complete break from riding the Rizla Suzuki GSV-R until February 2010 when MotoGP begins the test calendar for next year at Sepang in Malaysia. The first race of the 2010 season will be under the floodlights at Losail in Qatar on Sunday 11th April, when Capirossi will make his 300th start at a Grand Prix event and Bautista will make his competitive debut on a MotoGP bike. Loris Capirossi: “We worked hard again today even though we didn’t have much time available this morning. The new stuff that has come to the test has been pretty interesting and the improvements to the engine are not too bad. The new cowling and pipes have both made some steps and overall we have improved by a few tenths on the lap-time. We really need to find about a second though and it makes me very upset that the rules have changed so much that we now can’t test until February. For me this does not help the championship because we need more tests to a make the bike more competitive. We will have a new bike in February and I hope it works well straight away because I know Suzuki is working really hard – I know that because they have come here with many things. The good thing is that I believe 100% in Suzuki and 100% in myself and my team, I will make sure my condition is good throughout the winter so I am ready for next year and I think that if we have a good bike we can be near the front.” Paul Denning – Team Manager: “These three days have been a good start towards the target of significantly improving Suzuki’s level in MotoGP in 2010. There haven’t been any fundamental changes to the bike here; those will come in February at Sepang, but the detailed work that Loris has completed, especially with the Akrapovic exhaust systems, new engine specifications and aerodynamics have made the bike easier and more consistent to ride. The lap-time isn’t spectacular, but it is a lot closer to the top group than it was during the race weekend so some progress has certainly been made. “Álvaro’s transition to the four-stroke and to the team has been seamless; he looks very comfortable on the bike and appears to have ridden within his own abilities in this first test on the GSV-R. He has treated the three days not so much as a test, but as an extended track-day. He has certainly had some fun as well as beginning to understand the characteristics of the bike. Again today he didn’t run any of the updated parts, so to make consistent low 1’34s is a very positive start. He’s very focused and is an enthusiastic character to have in the pit and we are looking forward to having an enjoyable and hard-charging atmosphere with Loris and Álvaro for 2010.” -- Bridgestone The final grand prix of the 2009 MotoGP season was followed immediately by a three day test at the Valencia circuit at which all of next year’s MotoGP entrants participated. There were four 250cc graduates including recently-crowned World Champion Hiroshi Aoyama, and Superbike World Champion and Valencia Grand Prix wildcard entry Ben Spies. For those new riders, the test was a valuable chance to familiarise themselves with their bikes and Bridgestone’s tyres amid MotoGP’s strict testing restrictions. During the second and third days of the test, Bridgestone also introduced a new specification rear tyre for all riders that will be used next season. The new specification is a medium compound asymmetric rear tyre which has superseded the medium asymmetric rear slick used to good success this year. During the final two days of the test all the riders used the new rear tyre and its performance was better compared to the 2009 medium asymmetric compound used during the grand prix at Valencia, where it was the softer of the available options. The top four riders finished the test all faster than the existing lap record, and with less wind but a cooler track temperature than during the qualifying session for the grand prix, Casey Stoner topped the timesheets on the final day going just over 0.3seconds faster than his pole-position time. Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development “Our new specification medium compound asymmetric rear tyre is based on new rubber which we tested in Qatar and Jerez during winter testing. Our target from this new rear tyre was to achieve a wider operating range and greater consistency, and I can say that the result was what we expected and successful. All the riders tried our new rear tyre during the test and already the results are promising, the laptimes look good, and rider feedback is positive. “During the test the temperature was generally lower than during the grand prix so it was a challenge for the tyres to reach the optimum working temperatures, but even in these difficult conditions our new specification worked well so I am confident for the performance of this new tyre next season. “We have reached the end of the 2009 season and I would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody for their support during this first year of sole supply. It is thanks to the support of the teams, riders, Dorna and the FIM that our first experience as the sole tyre supplier in motorcycle racing has been a success and we look forward to what we can see already will be an exciting season in 2010.” Valencia Test - Day Three Times |
Valencia Test - Overall Combined Times
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