Qatar MotoGP Test – Day 2
The third and final pre-season MotoGP Official Test ended in Qatar on Friday with Ducati Marlboro rider Casey Stoner the quickest across the two evenings. A best lap of 1’55.353 set under the Losail floodlights came on the second night, before he had a fall on his Desmosedici GP10 which did not result in any injury. The Australian’s time was less than a tenth of a second off his 2009 pole position time at the circuit.
Valentino Rossi, who had topped the timesheet in the two previous official tests at Sepang and was fastest in the opening session in Qatar, was less than five-hundredths of a second behind Stoner as he worked on electronics on his Fiat Yamaha M1. The Italian’s best time placed him second overall.
Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was a further 0.4s down the timings as he achieved a better chassis setting on his factory RC212V prototype. The Italian’s lap of 1’55.879 was set in the second session, with Ben Spies’ (Monster Yamaha Tech3) fine effort of 1’55.954 from the previous night the fourth and final under the 1’56” mark. Spies was the highest placing rookie of the Test, as he confirmed his setting on the M1 for the opening race at the circuit. The Texan experienced a fall on each of the two evenings, neither of which resulted in any ill effects as he rode for the first time under the circuit’s floodlights.
Nicky Hayden rounded out the top five for the Test with a time of 1’56.115. The American suffered a crash late in session two at the same point – Turn 2 – as Stoner and was unharmed, and he was followed by Loris Capirossi of the Rizla Suzuki team. The Italian tried new chassis and swingarm components on his GSV-R, which produced results in the second session to place him as the final rider within a second of Stoner thanks to a time of 1’56.195.
Jorge Lorenzo arrived in Qatar carrying the hand injury that prevented him from participating at the last Test in Malaysia, but the Spanish Fiat Yamaha rider pushed through the pain barrier. His time of 1’56.504 put him in seventh position overall and was equal with that of Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda).
Monster Yamaha Tech3’s Colin Edwards (1’56.540) – who was also a victim of a fall in the second session, again at Turn 2 – and Mika Kallio of Pramac Racing (1’56.767) rounded off the top ten times.
Notably outside the top ten was Dani Pedrosa, as the Repsol Honda rider ended the Test 13th fastest overall at just over 1.5s off the top time. He was followed in the times by Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) who had a very late crash in session two – as did his team-mate, rookie Marco Simoncelli.
The riders will return to the circuit for the start of the 2010 FIM MotoGP World Championship on April 11th, when the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar takes place.
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’55.353
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’55.860
3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda Team 1’55.879
4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’56.115
5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’56.195
6. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1’56.504
7. Randy de Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1’56.504
8. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’56.722
9. Mika Kallio (FIN) Pramac Green Team 1’56.767
10. Ben Spies (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1’56.779
11. Aleix Espargaro (SPA) Pramac Green Team 1’56.897
12. Alvaro Bautista (SPA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1’56.898
13. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1’56.935
14. Marco Melandri (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’57.222
15. Hector Barbera (SPA) Aspar Team 1’57.223
16. Hiroshi Aoyama (JAP) Interwetten-Honda MotoGP 1’57.251
17. Marco Simoncelli (ITA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1’57.379
Losail: Record Lap C. Stoner (Ducati) 2008, 1’55.153
Losail: Best Lap J. Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2008, 1’53.927
— Yamaha Report
The Fiat Yamaha Team riders concluded their pre-season preparation this evening with another strong performance in the humid Qatar night, Valentino Rossi finishing second and Jorge Lorenzo sixth. This was the last time the riders will be on track before the first race, back at the same circuit in three weeks time.
Rossi concentrated largely on finalising his race preparation today, also finding time to try a new tyre compound for Bridgestone. The Italian completed 20 laps in a long run late in the evening with the aim of gathering more information for the race, which will help the team during the practice sessions when they return here. He set his best time of the day earlier in the evening, slightly slower than his time from yesterday, and finally had to settle for second behind Casey Stoner. The Italian has been fastest on five out of six test days this year however and he and his crew are now looking forward with confidence to the first race.
Lorenzo continued to make progress and to push as hard as his injured hand would allow, the Spaniard managing to test some new electronic settings amongst other things and improve on his time from yesterday. He still felt some pain in the hard braking areas and needed to take a painkilling pill, but he was happy to finish sixth in the circumstances and is confident that he will be back to full strength in time for the race. The first race of the 2010 MotoGP season takes place at Losail, Qatar on 9th, 10th and 11th April.
Valentino Rossi – Position: 2nd Time: 1’55.860 Laps: 57
“This has been another good day. We’ve concentrated mostly on the race preparation and it feels like we’re now ready for the first race. We did a long run at the end of the session and we got some good information, which will help us in the race. Now that testing is over I am very excited about the season. We’ve been strong throughout the six days of practice and it feels good to have been fast here also, where we have struggled in the past. We have only tested at two tracks so we need to wait for another different one to fully understand the new bike, but we’re in good shape. My M1 feels great and I’m looking forward to racing!”
Jorge Lorenzo – Position: 6th Time: 1’56.504 Laps: 44
“Today my hand felt okay, maybe a bit worse than yesterday. Of course it’s not as good as before the accident but this is to be expected! It’s hard for me in the braking areas and I can’t push any harder than I have been today at the moment, but I hope it will have improved a lot by the time of the first race. Our bike is great, Yamaha have done a fantastic job and you can see this from the strong performance of all the Yamaha riders. We’ve done a lot of work and tried many things, so I hope that these will help us when we come back here in three weeks. I will keep working to strengthen my hand and I hope to be in much better condition by then.”
Davide Brivio – Team Manager
We’re really happy about this final test. Although we were fast in Sepang we didn’t know what to expect here but we found that we were quick here as well – more than a second faster than last year in fact and this is encouraging! We’ve done some more work on the setting during this test and then today concentrated on race preparation, including doing a long run and trying some different combinations of bike and tyres. The waiting is nearly over now and we’re ready!”
Wilco Zeelenberg – Team Manager
“We have been happy here to see that Jorge feels better than expected, even if his thumb is still not perfect. To be able to finish in the top six when he’s not in the best shape is a great achievement. We know there is improvement to make but considering the situation we can be happy with this test. Jorge feels good on the bike and we have made some good steps forward in these two days; he can feel the difference already. At the moment these tiny steps are very important. Now we have almost three weeks until the race and this gives Jorge time to improve further, so hopefully we will be in good shape when we return.”
Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team end 2010 preparations in Qatar
The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team end its pre-season preparations for the 2010 MotoGP world championship in high spirits on a hot and humid night at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. With humid conditions reducing grip levels from the opening night, both Colin Edwards and Ben Spies were unable to improve their times tonight.
The Texan pair were still able to carry out some valuable testing on the set-up of their Yamaha YZR-M1 machines and also assess a range of soft and hard compound front and rear Bridgestone tyres ahead of the first race under Qatar’s spectacular floodlights on April 11.
Edwards ended tonight’s six-h our session with the eighth fastest time, a best lap of 1.56.722 less than 0.5s away from the top five. Spies was just two places further back in 10th with a best lap of 1.56.780. That was less than 0.1s away from Edwards’ pace.
Spies’ best lap of 1.55.954 from the opening night was still good enough to secure him a top five place on the overall timesheets and boost his confidence ahead of his much-anticipated debut for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team next month. Both Edwards and Spies escaped injury in identical crashes at Turn Two tonight.
Colin Edwards – Position: 8th Time: 1’56.722 Laps: 48
“It wasn’t the ending to testing I was looking for but it wasn’t too bad. I just didn’t really have a great feeling with the bike tonight and we need to have a think about things before we come back for the race next month. We’ve got some work to do because I just didn’t feel as comfortable on the bike as I did last year, mainly with the front-end. And I know I go good at this track because I had a good race last year and finished fourth. I’m not sure what happened with the crash but I did exactly the same as Ben. I was on the soft front tyre that I’d not really run that much on the first night. But I was on my sixth lap on the tyre, so it should have been ready to push. But I was down before I knew it and it is a fast crash, even if you’re only in second gear. I’m just glad I didn’t get hurt so close to the first race because that was a fast crash. I’m really excited about going racing now. It seems like a long time since Valencia and I’m sure we can have another great year with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team.”
Ben Spies – Position: 10th Time: 1’56.780 Laps: 44
“I didn’t have a great night really but that can happen. Everything that could go wrong went wrong tonight. But I’ve have had a great winter and this was the first session where it didn’t go the way we wanted it to. I’d had some small issues early on and went into Turn Two again and just lost the front. I wasn’t really sure what happened but then four people crashed in the next 30 minutes so it must have got really humid really quick because something wasn’t right with that many people going down in the same place. I did a few more laps to clear my head and got down to some decent times and I’m happy I did that. But it was still a successful test and I leave confident that I’ll be competitive for the race next month. I want to thank my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 for all their effort in the winter. We’ve done a good job and I feel we’re in a position to have a competitive start to the season.”
— Suzuki Report
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has ended its final pre-season test session in positive spirits following a successful final night in Qatar.
Loris Capirossi shook off the sickness he suffered yesterday to put in a strong performance and take fifth place on the night. He recorded a quickest time of 1’56.195 from his 58 laps of the Losail circuit and had no reoccurrence of the ailment that caused him to end the test early on Thursday evening. Capirossi did a thorough evaluation of the new spec higher durability GSV-R engine, as well as testing a new chassis and various other new specification parts. His valuable data will now be analysed back in Japan to prepare the bike for the first round of the season early next month.
New-signing Alvaro Bautista made a huge improvement during the second part of the two-day night-test in Qatar by taking over a second off his previous night’s time. He covered the 5,380m lap of the Losail International Circuit a total of 71 times this evening and made advances to his performance and control on a MotoGP machine ahead of his race debut this coming April. Bautista’s best time from the session of 1’56.898 was good enough to give him 12th overall from the two-day test.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will be back In Qatar in three weeks time for the first round of the MotoGP Championship, which will be held under floodlights on the night of Sunday 11th April.
Loris Capirossi:
“It has been quite positive today and we have improved quite a lot from Thursday. During yesterday’s test I was so bad that I was quite sick, but today I was nearly 100% and able to try many things on the bike. It is easy to see that we have improved here compared to last year. On the long run at the end I was not too happy because it was not so good, but the conditions were quite bad by then so I don’t really care about that. The track got very humid and I didn’t want to push too hard and risk crashing. In three weeks we are here again and I didn’t want to be injured for that. We hope that we will have a great opportunity this season because everyone is working really hard. I am so happy to still be with Rizla Suzuki and overall – although we know we still need to improve a little bit – we have done a good job so far this year.”
Alvaro Bautista:
“Today has been a lot more positive than yesterday, because on Thursday we had a lot of other things to do and never really got much done in the test. Today I could concentrate just on riding and during the first time out I felt more comfortable than at any time yesterday. I improved my lap-time by more than one second and also my riding was much better. We tried different settings for geometry and suspension, for both the front and rear of the bike and think that we have a good base set-up for the race already. At the end I tried to do a long run and did 15 laps, but after a full day riding I was a bit tired! I am happy because I am improving every time and I now know I am ready to race!”
Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“The first night here in Qatar was really tough for a number of reasons, but we’re pleased to have taken a significant step forward with both of the guys tonight. Suzuki has been working very hard to improve the consistency of the bike and without question there has been some progress in that direction. That said, we have still got a lot of work to do to close the gap, but to end the test with Loris in the top six and Alvaro the fastest of last year’s 250cc riders is a good sign – particularly as Qatar is a track that has never been too kind to us in the past!”
Qatar Test Day Two Classification:
— HRC Report
The 2010 MotoGP teams and riders concluded pre-season testing with a six hour session under the flood lights of the 5.380km Losail grand prix circuit at Doha, Qatar, that ended at midnight tonight. With just four weeks remaining before the opening race of the 18 round World Championship, at Losail on April 11, achieving the best possible machine performance during this test was of paramount importance, in terms of race preparation and deciding the direction of future machine development.
Establishing the optimum base line set up for the Losail track top tonight held additional significance as the MotoGP series tyre supplier Bridgestone, together with the teams and riders, will decide the technical specifications for the tyres allocated to each rider for the grand prix, on April 9-11.
Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda RC212V, has been the fastest Honda rider at the end of each pre-season test and tonight was no different. The Italian spent the day adjusting weight distribution and fine tuning the solid base line set up the team established yesterday. Dovizioso ran at an increasing fast and consistent pace until track conditions became too slick. He ended the day with third fastest lap time at 1m 55.879s, and third overall on combined time over the two days. He leaves Qatar in buoyant mood but knows he has serious development work to do if he is to further improve his RC212V.
Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda RC212V, has been on the pace from the opening hour of the two day test and today spent the day fine tuning the improvements the LCR team made to the RCV yesterday. The took up where he ended yesterday immediately running at a fast smooth pace. The Frenchman concentrated a lot of his time to tyre testing and set his fastest lap time of the day on used race rubber.
Dani Pedrosa spent much of the first day at Losail working with the new chassis, swinging arm and suspension configuration he believes will improve front end stability of his RCV on corner entry. The team started to improve feed-back from the front end in the early evening but as the humidity rose track conditions deteriorated to rob the riders of the grip level necessary to accurately assess chassis and suspension setting changes.
San Carlo Honda Gresini riders, Marco Melandri and Marco Simoncelli, were unable to establish a clear direction for chassis and suspension set up on day one of the test. Both men improved machine set up today but both riders are aware that they have a lot more to achieve if they are to be competitive in the opening championship exchanges next month. Both riders crashed today, Simoncelli at turn one and Melandri at turn 8, neither man sustained injuries.
Melandri worked on the geometry and weight distribution of his RCV and improved his feeling with the machine but was somewhat disappointed not to have improved still further. While his Rookie team mate, Simoncelli, worked on weight distribution and a comfortable riding position to accommodate his lanky physique. Simoncelli was quite pleased with his days work having reduced his lap times by half a second from his best on the opening day.
Interwetten Honda RC212V rider, Hiro Aoyama, spent the first day of the test chasing grip, both front and rear. Today the team found solutions for improved front end stability and Aoyama was able to run consistent lap times half a second faster than his best time of yesterday. The Japanese star still has rear end grip issues to resolve before the race next month but he learns quickly and has the motivation necessary to succeed.
The HRC race engineers will now analyse all the technical data gathered at the test and prepare to maximize the positive aspects of performance in time for grand prix practice on April 9.
Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda: 3rd. 1m 55.879s – 66 laps.
“I’m really satisfied with these two days of testing because we took another significant step forward. I’m pleased to have the third fastest time today because we improved both consistency and pace, which is a result of the hard work done by Honda and by my team. Today we focused on fine tuning the bike set -up and also the weight distribution. At the end of the session we wanted to do a race simulation but the track was too slippery because of the high humidity. Still, we have reduced the gap to Stoner and we are closer to Valentino as well. Of course we have to keep on working hard, but I’m happy to face the first round of the season with the machine package we have achieved so far.”
Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda: 7th. 1m 56.504s – 66 laps.
“ I’m happy because I did my best lap time during the race simulation. We confirmed the good feeling with set up and I’m confident for the race. We did a step forward and I’m satisfied of these two days of testing. At the end I tried the soft tyre but some riders on track slowed me a little bit so I couldn’t improve the lap time. All in all I’m happy.”
Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda: 13th. 1m 56.935s – 56 laps.
“We started to make improvements early in tonight’s session, but after that we couldn’t make any more progress really and so of course I’m not satisfied with the results of this test. It’s obvious that we’re not where we want to be as we approach the first race, so we’ll just have do our best when we come back here and try to make the improvements quickly in the practice sessions. That’s it really. I’m still struggling with the bike moving quite a lot at the front and that’s caused by issues at rear. Because of this I’m also going too slowly through the corners. We have to stay positive and be glad that I’m going into this season fully fit, and we’ll keep working to improve things.”
Marco Melandri, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 14th. 1m 57.605s – 54laps.
“Today we worked on the geometry of the bike and the suspensions to improve my lap times. In fact the feeling with the bike is not bad but I am not able to be as fast as I wanted. We worked on weight distribution and tested different set up solutions to understand the direction but lap times are not coming. I struggled a lot a lot. At the end I tried to push but at turn 8 I put the tyre on the paint of the kerb and I crashed, fortunately without consequences.”
Hiro Aoyama, Interwetten Honda: 16th. 1m 57.251s – 81 laps.
“Today we focused working on the set up with some positive feedback, we improved the feeling with the front but we still have to work to improve also the feeling with the rear and have more traction. We improved a bit and I’m confident as we are still learning. I’m very excited and motivated to race with this bike in less than three weeks on this circuit.”
Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Gresini Honda: 17th. 1m 57.378s – 50 laps.
“I’m quite confident because we improved a bit compared to the last Sepang test. Today we have tested different set up solutions and we have worked on my position on the bike and the weight distribution. I’m tall and I need to find the best position on the bike to ride as I like and to control it better. I’m confident to improve my feeling with the machine and consequently my lap times.”
— Ducati Report
The Ducati Marlboro Team concluded its preseason testing schedule this evening with both riders extremely satisfied with the set-up of their GP10 machines and their lap times. The second and final night of tests in Qatar saw Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden first and fourth on the time sheets despite both crashing in turn two, where several other riders also came unstuck.
The next appointment for the Ducati Marlboro Team is back on the same track on 11th April for the opening race of the season, the Grand Prix of Qatar.
Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st 1’55.352 (51 laps)
“I am really happy with the test and the work we have done right up to tonight. In the first Sepang test we had a few things to work out but we have made constant progress. The latest big step forward with the GP10 came last night and today I was able to set a consistently fast pace. I have been able to work with the tyres without putting too much stress on them and I was able to keep my pace on used rubber. I like the new engine a lot, it is more manageable and I am pleased to see the other Ducati riders, especially Nicky confirming that with fast times.”
Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) 4th 1’56.116 (51 laps)
“Today went better than yesterday, we took a step forward with the set-up and my lap time was decent. It is still taking us too long to get up to speed but there’s no doubt we’re making progress. Tonight I did my best time on a long run and I think I could have gone even faster on the next lap if it wasn’t for the crash in turn two. Anyway the bike is working well, the team has done a fantastic job and I can’t wait for the season to start now. I want to say a big thanks to all the guys at Ducati who are working so hard and giving me great support.”