Repsol Honda pair lead the way at Misano

Just a few days after the energy-sapping race in Indianapolis, the Fiat Yamaha Team riders were back in action at the team’s ‘home’ track of Misano today in slightly more comfortable temperatures around the mid-twenties. Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo finished third in the standings whilst local hero Valentino Rossi was just under a tenth of a second behind him in fourth.

Despite making it into the top three Lorenzo was less than satisfied with his day’s work, unable as he was to find a comfortable balance for his M1 and lacking grip with his Bridgestone tyres, especially in the rear. The 23-year-old and his crew have some ideas to improve the situation however and will be working hard this evening to ensure they are in better shape for tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Rossi on the other hand, who lives just a few kilometres away from the track in Tavullia, was pleased with his first session on track and is confident of being able to competitively challenge tomorrow. He tried several different settings today and tomorrow his crew will put all the elements together to give him the right package for this track.

Jorge Lorenzo Position:3rd Time:1’35.444
“Today was quite difficult for us, more so than we expected. It’s not my physical condition, I feel completely recovered from the hard weekend in Indianapolis, but we really struggled today and I didn’t have enough confidence in my bike or in the tyres. We have some small problems in braking, corner speed and acceleration so I don’t feel like I can ride how I want to at the moment. We are still third so it’s not too bad but we have some time to make up if we are to match Pedrosa. I have great confidence that my team will find the right way to improve and I hope we will be in better shape tomorrow.”

Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager Jorge Lorenzo
“This first practice hasn’t been so positive for us. We couldn’t find a good feeling or the right balance and we didn’t have enough grip. There was a small problem at most corners, either the front was too deep or we didn’t have enough rear grip, so we need to make a big improvement tomorrow. We’ve got some good ideas to find the right solutions but of course we need to take care at the same time not to create problems in other areas by making too many changes. Anyway, it’s only the first day and we will work hard now to give Jorge the right package tomorrow.”

Valentino Rossi Postion:4th Time:1’35.539
“I’m quite happy because we did a good job during today’s practice, especially towards the end when we made a big improvement to the setting of the bike and I was able to make some faster lap times. We have some more things to try, some electronics and some tyre settings, but I already feel confident so this has been a good way to start. We’re quite far from Pedrosa, who was very impressive today, but we’re close to Dovizioso and Lorenzo. Tomorrow we will try to find some tenths and improve our time a bit. My physical condition is okay, I don’t have too much pain but this track has two or three hard braking sections to the right and I suffer a bit with my shoulder at those points.”

Davide Brivio – Team Manager Valentino Rossi
“We have made a strong start and we’ve found a good base setting to work from. We worked through all of the tyre options and we have a clear idea about the right direction. We tried some different set-ups today and tomorrow we will keep working, put it all together and make some fine adjustments to hopefully enable Valentino to be fast in qualifying.”

Colin Edwards and Ben Spies made an encouraging start to the Misano MotoGP weekend today, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team pairing able to secure top six places in the opening free practice session. Edwards spent the entire session evaluating the endurance potential of Bridgestone’s soft compound rear tyre option in warm but breezy conditions.

The experienced American was delighted with the consistent performance of the softer option, Edwards posting his best time of 1.35.834 on his 26th lap as he ran a full race distance of 28-laps on the same set of soft tyres.

Edwards finished top non-factory rider today and is now confident he can sustain his early form to fight for a first top six finish of the campaign in Sunday’s race. Fresh from the best weekend of his MotoGP career in Indianapolis, Spies was in impressive form again this afternoon. Spies arrived in Italy brimming with confidence after he claimed a stunning career first pole position in Indianapolis, which he followed with a best ever second place behind Dani Pedrosa in the race. And he maintained the momentum gained on home soil with another classy performance today, the 26-year-old finishing in sixth position just 0.058s behind Edwards.

Spies is confident that overnight changes to improve rear stability and front-end feeling with his YZR-M1 machine will help him challenge for a third successive front row start in tomorrow’s qualifying session.

Colin Edwards Position:5th Time:1’35.834
“That was a good start to the weekend and I’m really happy with the bike. We had a bit too much weight on the front at the start of the session and a little adjustment to get more weight on the rear really helped my confidence. I kept the same rear tyre for the whole session and it felt really good. It was the softer option but it already looks like that’s going to be the race tyre. It performed really well over a long distance and my fastest lap was on lap 26, so we’ve got no worries about it being good for the whole race. And I didn’t really have any spinning issues and I told my guys it felt like the best grip I’ve had all year, so a big thanks to Bridgestone. I think we can only make the bike better and I feel like my first top six of the season is definitely attainable on Sunday.”

Ben Spies Position:6th Time:1’35.892
“I’m happy with today and it’s another decent start. Like Colin, I stayed on the soft tyre for the whole session and while I’m happy with the lap times, I know we can find some more time. We can make the rear better because I was just missing a bit of grip and stability that would allow me to go that little bit faster. And we can definitely make the front-end better. It wasn’t a big problem but I wasn’t as comfortable as I can be in the session. We’ve had a look at that already and know what we’ve got to try to make that better for tomorrow. So with a couple of minor issues I’m happy it was a solid session. There’s definitely not one second we can find in the bike but there’s definitely a few tenths we can find with some different settings we’ll try tomorrow.”

—  Ducati Report

The Ducati Marlboro Team returned from their exertions on the other side of the Atlantic and went straight back to work today as the twelfth round of the MotoGP World Championship got underway at Misano, just five days after packing up at Indianapolis.

The challenge for the teams and riders lies as much in adapting their machine set-up to the demands of the Italian circuit as it does to dealing with jetlag and physical tirednes, Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner clocking up 45 laps between them in today’s opening free practice session as they searched for a suitable base setting. The Ducati Marlboro pair ended up seventh and eighth fastest respectively, separated by just 0.044 seconds.

NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 7th (1’36.028)
“That wasn’t the smoothest session we ever had and I’m losing a lot on T3. I hoped to start out a bit closer to the top than that. We need to look for some tenths, maybe by finding some better turning in the front and also adjusting the gearbox a bit better. To be honest it’s not one big area we have to improve very much but small improvements in a few different areas. We also had a little issue with the fairing, which came a bit loose and my leathers got caught on it so I had to get back to the pit. We were trying something and after that I had basically one chance to make a good lap so we are not sure it is the right direction, which was a bit of a bummer. We are going to try it again tomorrow morning but this is a big weekend for us and we will try to move up the order.”

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 8th (1’36.072)
“That was a difficult session for us, basically because we didn’t have any information from last year because I didn’t race here. The characteristics of the current engine are very different to the one we used in 2008 so it requires a completely different gearbox set-up and obviously that affects a lot of different things. We took a bit of a shot in the dark with what we thought would work but unfortunately it wasn’t quite right and we had to spend a lot of time today making adjustments. Hopefully the data we gathered can give us a much better idea of where to start from tomorrow and I’m sure we can quickly close the gap to the guys at the top. It is too early to worry but we need to make a lot of progress in the sessions that remain before what is a very important race for everybody at Ducati.”

—  Repsol Honda

Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso finished in first and second places at Misano today as the first MotoGP practice session for the San Marino Grand Prix took place in warm sunshine. Fresh from his victory in Indianapolis only five days ago, Pedrosa picked up where he left off and topped the timesheets for most of the session this afternoon.

Improving with every exit from the pits, the 24-year-old Spaniard’s fastest lap time was an impressive 0.612s quicker than the rest of the field – a hefty margin which sent an ominous sign to his rivals for victory this weekend. Looking fully committed from the outset, Pedrosa was the only rider to go under 1m 35s today and set four laps that were quicker than any of his rivals. Pedrosa’s fastest lap of 1m 34.772s was only fractions behind the race lap record from last year of 1m 34.746s, set by Valentino Rossi.

Dovizioso was also on fast form today at the circuit where he made his motorcycle racing debut back in 2000. The 24-year-old Italian was born and lives just 70kms from the Misano track and took inspiration from his home support to get his weekend off to a strong start. Near the top of the timing screens throughout, his best time came on his final lap of the session, Dovizioso stopping the clock at 1m 35.384s to edge ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi in third and fourth.

The track action continues tomorrow with a further practice session in the morning followed by qualifying in the afternoon to decide grid slots for Sunday’s 28-lap race.

DANI PEDROSA – 1st – 1m 34.772s
“It’s been really a good start here in Misano compared to last year and I’m very happy about that. We are coming from a strong result at the last race and it’s important to keep the momentum going, which we have done so far. But we need to remain very concentrated and focused because we still have some areas to improve, and I’m sure our rivals will also go quicker tomorrow. Our pace has been quite fast today and Andrea is close to the front as well, so this is a good sign for the team. Here the grid positions are very important again because the first corner is close to the start and it’s a tight bend. Because of this we need to make sure we have a good pace tomorrow so that we can qualify well, and also so that we are ready for another long and tough race. I can say this was one of my best Friday practices, but I’m not going to relax at all.”

ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 2nd – 1m 35.384s +0.612s
“I’m happy with the work done during this session and I’m satisfied to be second. Six tenths from Dani is quite a big gap but I think we have the opportunity to close this. At the end I was able to improve my lap times with the tyres I used for the whole session, so I’m confident we can move forward tomorrow. I think everyone was struggling for grip today and it was easy to lose the front, but we found a set-up solution that was effective to help with this so we’ll continue working in that direction tomorrow. Tyre selection for the race will be very important, and both the harder and softer option Bridgestones look like possible choices at the moment. I think there are many riders who can be strong this weekend so we have to work hard tomorrow and do a good job in qualifying.”

TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER
“It’s good to see both Repsol Hondas at the top of the times today and we’ve made a good start to the weekend. Of course the work has only just begun and today’s session is just the beginning, so we won’t relax in any way. Dani is clearly looking very confident and also consistent after his win in Indianapolis and his target is to continue in the same vein. Andrea and his crew have also done a good job and I think he can have a strong weekend at his home circuit. We’ll be working towards replicating this result tomorrow afternoon.”

—  Suzuki Report

Rizla Suzuki racer Loris Capirossi had a constructive first practice session at the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix today.
Capirossi (P10, 1’36.277, 29 laps) was able to complete a lot of work with his crew as they compared his two Suzuki GSV-Rs and evaluated both compounds of Bridgestone rear tyres around the 4,226m Misano circuit. Capirossi was pleased with the day’s work as he prepares for Sunday’s race which will see him compete in his 200th premier class motorcycle race, on either a 500cc two-stroke bike or a modern day four-stroke MotoGP machine.

Álvaro Bautista (P17, 1’37.900, 27 laps) had quite a contrasting day compared to his team-mate. He struggled to generate the rear grip from his GSV-R as he tried to come to terms with the Misano circuit. He made small steps with the set-up of his bike through the session, but will be looking to make marked improvements tomorrow as he continues to prepare for Sunday’s race.

Today’s practice was held in warm and sunny conditions with air temperatures reaching 25ºC and track temperatures getting up to 37ºC. Spaniard Dani Pedrosa on his factory Honda recorded the fastest time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki has one more practice session tomorrow morning to prepare for the qualifying session in the afternoon and Sunday’s 28-lap race. The 12th round of the season gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) on Sunday 5th September.

Loris Capirossi: “It has been a long time since we have had a Friday like that. I am not happy about the position, but I am very happy with the bike today. We did a really good job with the bike and didn’t have to make too many changes from the original setting, but what we did change also seemed to work well. The base settings for the electronics was also better today, it’s not perfect and we still need to do a bit more work on it, but for now it is fine. I am happy for the whole team because it has been a much better day and we hope that we can keep this up for the whole weekend. We need decent weather on Saturday and Sunday and if we get that I am sure we can have a good weekend.”

Álvaro Bautista: “It has not been a good practice for me because I have had a problem entering the corner as I didn’t have a lot of rear grip and I cannot enter as quickly as I want to. I started with the harder compound rear tyre, but on the second run I used the softer option, because with the harder one it was almost impossible to get any grip. We tried to do some changes in practice, but the improvements were not that big, so we will need to work on the data for the rest of the day to find a solution to that and hope we can work it out for tomorrow.”

Stuart Shenton – Loris Capirossi’s Crew Chief: “That was a good session for us today and we have got a lot of work done. Loris got off to a good start and that set the tone for the rest of the session. We were able to compare both bikes, and assess the two rear tyre options, and from that it looks like we have a good direction for the rest of the weekend. All-in-all it has not been a bad start to the weekend here at Misano.”

—  LCR Honda

LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy de Puniet set the 12th fastest time today at Misano race track which hosts San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix this week end. Just one week after their last outing at Indianapolis in the US, the premier class riders had to battle against the hot conditions as the first free practice was conducted with typical summer temperatures of 30C.

De Puniet, who was involved in a bad crash in last year’s San Marino Grand Prix, is a big fan of the 4.226 Km race track and he has high hopes of another good result as he made a strong start to his 2010 season before the left leg fracture. The Frenchman riding the Honda RC212V completed 26 laps clocking his fastest lap time of 1’36.454 and will be working closely with his crew to continue improving his machinery ahead 28-lap race. Today’s pacesetter Dani Pedrosa headed the classification with a best lap time of 1’34.772.

De Puniet: “I am pretty satisfied about this first outing because, after the bad week end in Indianapolis, I felt more comfortable on the bike. I came out on my bike number one with the base set up but after one lap I had a strange feeling on the rear. We realized there was a blister on the rear tyre and Bridgestone staff is now investigating. So I came out with bike number two which was set up with different regulations but my pace on hard tyres was pretty good: half second off the sixth position. We still have to make some adjustments but overall I can say that I am back on my normal condition”.

—  Bridgestone Report

Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa continued his scorching Indianapolis form today in Misano, setting the fastest time during the hour-long first free practice session. His impressive pace carried him 0.6seconds clear of teammate Andrea Dovizioso who was second fastest, and within 0.03seconds of the lap record set by Valentino Rossi last year. Behind Dovizioso though the times were much closer with just 0.1seconds separating the Italian from Jorge Lorenzo and Rossi in third and fourth respectively, and 0.5seconds covering Colin Edwards in fifth to Loris Capirossi in tenth.

Pedrosa set his best on the harder front and the softer rear slicks, as did the rest of the top ten apart from Rossi and Casey Stoner. The reigning World Champion recorded his fastest effort using a softer front slick and a harder rear, the inverse of what we have come to expect in these free practice sessions, and Stoner used a harder option rear. Conditions for the session were fine and dry, very similar to last year’s race here. Some riders got the chance to test the tyres’ race-distance durability with long runs during the session.

Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department
“Dani’s pace was fast today as he is almost on the lap record after just the first session and it is clear that the team have got the bike the working well on our tyres. Dani, Andrea and Casey all completed the session using a single set of tyres and their best times came at the end of their runs, so they have already demonstrated that in these conditions race distance durability is good. Dani and Andrea used one harder front and one softer rear each and Casey used one harder front and rear, and the performance and consistency of both look good. The harder front slick has better stability under braking but the softer option offers more grip, so at the moment I can say that all our specs front and rear are possible for race distance on Sunday.”

Alex de Angelis was on form on his return to Moto2 action today, setting the fastest time in the first practice of his home round, the Gran Premio Aperol di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini. Riding as a substitute for the injured Yusuke Teshima on the JiR Moto2 team, De Angelis posted a best lap of 1’40.064 on the Motobi chassis.

Julián Simón and Shoya Tomizawa followed in second and third, both within three-tenths of De Angelis, with Claudio Corti of the Forward Racing team staking an early claim for prominence in a weekend in which all Italian riders will be hoping to do well.

Championship leader Toni Elías completed the top five just 0.424s adrift of De Angelis, with another impressive return to action coming from Mattia Pasini in sixth. The Italian is riding as a wild card for the Italtrans STR team this weekend and was in bullish mode as he squeezed his Suter machine through gaps that would have left other riders hesitating!

Héctor Faubel, Jules Cluzel, Simone Corsi – who had a mechanical issue towards the end – and Gabor Talmacsi completed the top ten, with the Hungarian’s teammate, Andrea Iannone, 11th despite problems with a troublesome wrist.

Scott Redding, fresh off the back of his first Moto2 podium last time out at Indianapolis, was 12th, with wild card Ferruccio Lamborghini a notable 14th.

125cc

Nico Terol was the quickest 125cc rider off the mark in the opening practice session at Misano today, as the Bancaja Aspar rider set the best time of the hour on his Aprilia. A lap of 1’44.229 from the Spaniard was enough to take top spot on the timesheet by a margin of 0.252s ahead of championship leader and title rival Marc Márquez.

Terol is going for his third consecutive win this weekend whilst Márquez is aiming for his first victory since Sachsenring, with the two separated by just four points in the standings. The Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider, who leads the title chase, was just over two-tenths faster than Pol Espargaró, who trails Terol by a single point going into the weekend. He was the final rider under 1’45”.

Efrén Vázquez had led the session briefly and his time of 1’45.007 placed him fourth, despite a minor technical glitch towards the end. Podium finisher at Indianapolis Sandro Cortese was fifth, with Esteve Rabat and Bradley Smith sixth and seventh respectively. The British rider will be aiming to considerably reduce the 1.209s gap that stood between him and his teammate in first tomorrow.

Completing the top ten for the session were Racing Team Germany’s Tomoyoshi Koyama, Andalucia Cajasol’s Danny Webb and Stipa-Molenaar Racing’s Randy Krummenacher.