2010 MotoGP Championship – Round Four – Mugello – Day One
Valentino Rossi laid down the gauntlet at Mugello today, by setting the fastest time in the opening free practice session. The Italian is looking to reclaim his crown as the King of Mugello, after Casey Stoner’s win last year ended a run of seven consecutive victories in the Italian Grand Prix for the reigning World Champion.
Rossi’s fastest lap was almost half a second faster than his Championship rival, and Fiat Yamaha teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, who posted the second fastest time to make it a Yamaha one-two at the top of the timesheet today.
Rossi and Lorenzo established themselves at the forefront of the timesheet early on and Rossi continually improved his time as the session reached its climax. With just 10 minutes of the session left to run the Italian, who is sporting a new Mohawk haircut for the Mugello weekend, finally broke the 1’50” barrier, setting a hot lap of 1’49.751.
Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi pushing up into third place with a late surge that left him just 0.608s off Rossi’s blistering pace, but the Italian veteran then crashed uninjured in the San Donato turn, ending his session early.
Colin Edwards enjoyed a good opening session and was fourth fastest, just over a second off Rossi and only one thousandth of a second ahead of Dani Pedrosa who was the highest-placed Honda rider today.
Ben Spies impressed on his first outing at Mugello by registering the sixth fastest time, just over two-tenths behind Pedrosa. Casey Stoner had the worst possible start to the hour-long practice when he experienced a run-off at Turn 15. The Australian had to take his Desmosedici GP10 down into the gravel to avoid hitting the fence, and eventually placed seventh in the session as he completed 15 laps, the fewest of the field.
Andrea Dovizioso Nicky Hayden and Héctor Barberá all set top-ten times as well, the rookie running off at Bucine shortly after Casey Stoner had vacated the gravel trap at the same place. Rizla Suzuki rookie Álvaro Bautista made his return after sitting out the last race at Le Mans due to his collarbone injury, but was clearly still feeling some discomfort with a best time just over 5.5s off that of Rossi.
MotoGP FP1 |
1 Valentino Rossi 1.49.751 ITA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team 2 Jorge Lorenzo 1.50.120 SPA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team 3 Loris Capirossi 1.50.359 ITA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 4 Colin Edwards 1.50.772 USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha 5 Dani Pedrosa 1.50.773 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 6 Ben Spies 1.51.004 USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha 7 Casey Stoner 1.51.128 AUS DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team 8 Andrea Dovizioso 1.51.255 ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 9 Nicky Hayden 1.51.387 USA DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team 10 Hector Barbera 1.51.582 SPA DUCATI Paginas Amarillas Aspar 11 Randy De Puniet 1.51.605 FRA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP 12 Marco Simoncelli 1.51.717 ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini 13 Marco Melandri 1.51.782 ITA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini 14 Aleix Espargaro 1.52.202 SPA DUCATI Pramac Racing 15 Hiroshi Aoyama 1.52.399 JAP HONDA Interwetten Honda MotoGP 16 Mika Kallio 1.52.418 FIN DUCATI Pramac Racing 17 Alvaro Bautista 1.55.257 SPA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
|
— Yamaha Report
Valentino Rossi looked as happy as ever at his beloved home track of Mugello this afternoon, shaking off the pain of his shoulder injury to set the fastest time on the opening day. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo was 0.369 seconds behind him in second and the pair looked in command of the situation as this fourth round of the season got underway, deep in the Tuscan countryside Local hero Rossi has won here an incredible nine times in his career and professes to this being one of his favourite tracks, and the 31-year-old certainly looked at his best today as he topped the standings for almost the entire session. He is still suffering from lingering pain in his right shoulder from the injury he sustained over a month ago, but a good base setting went a long way to allowing him to ride more comfortably today and he and his crew are hopeful of continuing in the same vein tomorrow. After two wins on the bounce championship leader Lorenzo looked the same confident package today as he lapped consistently fast to finish the day second behind his team-mate. The Mallorcan is planning to try a few changes tomorrow to try to maximise the potential of his M1 around this high-speed track, but he is feeling relaxed after a good start to the weekend. Valentino Rossi 1st Time: 1’49.751 Laps: 26 Jorge Lorenzo 2nd Time: 1’50.120 Laps: 27 Davide Brivio: Team Manager Valentino Rossi Wilco Zeelenberg: Team Manager Jorge Lorenzo Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team duo Colin Edwards and Ben Spies were immediately on the pace in Mugello today as Yamaha made a flying start to the Italian MotoGP weekend. Edwards made a welcome return to form after a difficult opening to the 2010 season and a range of set-up changes on his YZR-M1 machine reaped immediate reward for the Texan. Reverting back to the same set-up he used to finish sixth in the 2009 Italian MotoGP, the confidence Edwards has lacked with the front-end of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine in the early part of the campaign instantly returned. Spies is still suffering slight discomfort from left ankle ligament damage he suffered in a practice crash in Le Mans. But the 25-year-old quickly got to grips with Mugello’s hard braking points, high-speed corners and undulation to finish with a best time of 1.51.004. Spies is confident with more time to work on the set-up of his YZR-M1 machine he’ll be able to fight for a leading position in Sunday’s 23-lap race. Colin Edwards 4th Time: 1’50.772 laps: 21 Ben Spies 6th Time: 1’51.004 Laps: 25 — Ducati Report It proved to be a demanding opening to the Italian Grand Prix for Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden, who struggled to adapt their Desmosedici GP10 machines to the demands of the Mugello circuit in today’s first free practice. In an attempt to solve the front-end problems that have affected his early season form, Stoner switched back to last year’s front suspension system on one of his bikes today. His early impressions were good but unfortunately that particular bike was damaged in an crash just eight minutes into the session. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 7th (1’51.128) NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 9th (1’51.387) — Repsol Honda The build up to the Grand Prix of Italy began today with the first free practice period taking place at the wonderful Mugello circuit near Florence in Italy. Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso took advantage of the hour-long session to make useful inroads into the process of adapting the new-for-2010 RC212V to the special rigours of one of the most demanding circuits on the MotoGP calendar. Pedrosa was close to the front for the bulk of the session, lying in third place for long spells as he and his crew homed in on the ideal settings for a circuit where multiple fast direction changes require stability and agility in order to maximise pace. He finished the practice in fifth place, 1.022s behind today’s pace setter Valentino Rossi, and remains confident of closing that gap tomorrow. Dovizioso was a further half second behind his Spanish team-mate after working with his engineers on a base setting to use in tomorrow’s further practice and qualifying sessions. The 24-year-old Italian is riding in front of his home crowd this weekend and is sure to receive a boost from the feverish fans who will continue to swell the grandstands as the weekend continues. Following two podium finishes in the first three races of 2010, Dovizioso is looking for another rousing performance in Sunday’s 23-lap race. DANI PEDROSA – 5th – 1m 50.773s +1.022s ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 8th – 1m 51.255s +1.504s TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER — Suzuki Report Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi started the weekend of his home Grand Prix in Italy in fine form by securing the third fastest time in the first free practice session. Capirossi (P3, 1’50.359, 22 laps) tried different set-ups in his two Rizla Suzuki GSV-Rs at the start of the session and once he found the direction he was happy with he made huge steps towards bringing down his lap-times. Despite a crash right at the end of the practice – from which Capirossi walked away unhurt – he is in a confident and up-beat mood for the rest of the weekend. Álvaro Bautista (P17, 155.257, 21 laps) was riding a motorcycle for the first time today since the huge high-side that forced him to withdraw from Le Mans two weeks ago and found it tough around the demanding 5,245m Mugello circuit. He will probably have some pain-killing medication tomorrow to help him overcome discomfort he is suffering and is determined to finish Sunday’s race in a positive frame of mind. Today’s practice was held in clear and sunny conditions with air temperatures getting up to 26ºC and track temperatures reaching 49ºC. World Champion Valentino Rossi set the fastest time of the day on his factory Yamaha. Rizla Suzuki has one more practice session tomorrow morning and a qualifying session in the afternoon to prepare for Sunday’s 23-lap race, which gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). Loris Capirossi: “Apart from the crash it has been a very positive day here in Mugello! We started with two different bikes and one was very good and gave me a good feeling. Overall I am very happy with the day’s work. I made the mistake and crashed at the end, it was my fault and I know what caused it so it is no big problem. I know we can still improve this weekend and I am confident for the race.” Álvaro Bautista: “I had a very hard practice because I thought I was in better condition than I am. I feel better than I did at Le Mans, but it is still very hard to change direction and I don’t have enough strength in my left arm to ride the bike how I would like to. I am using all my body and this is making me go slower than I want. My target this weekend is to get more confident with the bike and to get a good feeling. I am determined to finish on Sunday, so that is my first goal.” Paul Denning – Team Manager: “After a difficult start to the year it is obviously encouraging to see Loris put the bike in the top-three. The guys have made some setting changes which have helped his confidence and feedback on the bike. There are still some decent steps to make, but I think we have a good base to work from for the rest of the weekend and although Loris’s bike ended up in the gravel trap at the end, let’s hope that has got it out of the way for the weekend. “For Álvaro this afternoon was nothing more than re-acclimatisation and to find out what his body is capable of. After a visit to the Clinica Mobile this evening and perhaps some treatment to reduce the pain significantly tomorrow – which he didn’t have today – he should be in a position to improve a lot and to do his best to complete the Grand Prix on Sunday.” — LCR Honda LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet posted the eleventh fastest lap time today in a very hot opening day of Sunday’s fourth round of the season at the magnificent Italian Mugello race track. The first free session of the Italian Grand Prix was conducted with track temperature of 50C and the 29-year-old riding the Honda RC212V no. 14 completed 25 laps at the 5.245 km circuit clocking his best lap time of 1’51.605. Following his strong start of the season, the LCR squad arrived in Tuscany to consolidate his hold on sixth place in the standing as a best private Team. The Frenchman completed a productive day of race set-up in advance of Sunday’s 23 lap race working on engine mapping. The air temperature rose up to 30C and the premier class riders had to battle hard against the hot conditions. Today’s pacesetter Rossi set a fastest lap time of 1’49.751. De Puniet – 11 th – 1’51.605 De Puniet – 11th: “People could be disappointed about our position in the classification but we have followed our standard TO DO list lapping on the same tyre throughout the session and we are pretty satisfied about the bike set up. We did over the race distance with the front and rear race tyre and we have been working on the race set up. I jumped onto bike number two with different settings but I felt more comfortable on bike number one. Anyway the overall package is quite good and I am confident ahead tomorrow’s qualifying: we can easily aim to a second row start but we need to improve the traction control”. — Bridgestone Report Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard Valentino Rossi started the Italian Grand Prix in strong form on home soil, setting the fastest lap during the opening hour of free practice and recording a best time 0.25seconds faster than the existing lap record from 2008. As the track temperature rose to 43 degrees Celsius, the Fiat Yamaha rider set his best lap on Bridgestone’s hard front and medium compound rear slick tyres. Jorge Lorenzo finished second fastest using the hard compound rear slick, just ahead of Loris Capirossi who recorded his best lap on a medium compound rear slick tyre. Whilst every rider favoured the hard compound front tyre for its greater stability under heavy braking, the rear tyre choices were varied amongst the top five, indicating how riding style and machine setup influence tyre choice. With the weather conditions in the region expected to remain the same for the weekend, riders’ front tyre choice is likely to favour the hard compound but rear tyre choice is much more varied at this point with different riders making each of the two available specifications work well at Mugello. Tohru Ubukata – Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department |
Moto2
Alex de Angelis topped the timesheet after this afternoon’s opening Moto2 free practice, lapping the Mugello circuit in a time of 1’56.422 aboard his Force GP210 machine. De Angelis set his best time on the 13th of his 22 laps, and was 0.217s quicker than second fastest, Sergio Gadea. Tenerife 40 Pons rider Gadea pushed himself into that position with a best time of 1’56.639 on his penultimate lap, 0.076s faster than Julián Simón whose best effort came on his final lap of the Tuscan track. Andrea Iannone made it four different chassis manufacturers occupying the top four positions, as he came in just under two-tenths behind Simón. Stefan Bradl, Jules Cluzel, Yuki Takahashi and Shoya Tomizawa – at present second in the Championship standings – were tightly grouped from positions five to eight, with Mike di Meglio and Gabor Talmacsi completing a top ten separated by just 0.918s. Current Championship leader Toni Elías was only 11th fastest, 1.032 off the time set by De Angelis. British rider Scott Redding finished the practice in 19th position. 125cc Pol Espargaró and Nico Terol reignited their Championship battle in the opening 125cc practice session of the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM on Friday afternoon, as the former set the fastest time of the session with his last lap of the Mugello circuit. Bancaja Aspar rider Terol, who leads the Championship standings by two points from Espargaró heading into this weekend, looked to have done enough to take the first practice honours, but his Tuenti Racing adversary posted a time of 1’58.373 right at the end to edge himself 0.058s in front. Third fastest was last year’s race winner Bradley Smith, who found an immediate pace on his Aprilia, something which has not been the case regularly this season so far. At 0.650s off Espargaró’s time there is still work to do for the Brit, who was just under two-tenths ahead of Efrén Vázquez in fourth place. Completing the top five was Randy Krummenacher who matched Vázquez’s time, while Marc Márquez was the sixth and final rider to get within a second of Espargaró’s marker. Esteve Rabat, Sandro Cortese, Tomoyoshi Koyama and Jonas Folger all recorded top ten times to get their respective weekends off to a good start. |
Moto2 FP1 | 125cc FP1 |
|
|
Red Bull Rookies
Two stunning performances in beautiful Tuscan sunshine put Daniel Ruiz on pole and Nicolo Antonelli on the other side of the front row in 4th for Saturday’s Red Bull MotoGP Cup race at Mugello. 18 year old Spaniard Ruiz bettered the rest by 4 tenths of a second but it was Italian 14 year old Antonelli’s effort that had the pit lane buzzing as he has never ridden at Mugello before.
Between them, points leading 16 year old Briton Danny Kent was happy with second ahead of 15 year old Japanese Daijiro Hiura. Heading the second row is 17 year old South African Mathew Scholtz, one of the few top riders not to improve his time from the first qualifying that had placed him on provisional pole.
Scholtz held that leading position in fact until the last 4 minutes of the 2nd half hour session when Ruiz jumped to pole ahead of Hiura and Antonelli. With just 2 minutes remaining Kent stole 2nd and Scholtz was bumped to the second row ahead of Alessio Cappella, Alejandro Pardo and Brad Binder.
The 4 tenths that Ruiz grabbed over the opposition is hard to come by in Rookie competition. “I was just so happy with the bike and feeling very comfortable. We made some small suspension changes and instead of the bumps upsetting the bike it just ran over them perfectly, giving me great feeling. Getting a slipstream her is worth half a second and I picked up one from Daijiro that worked perfectly. I think it will be another great race tomorrow, just like we had at Jerez.”
After the 8 or 10 man lead battles in both races at Jerez Hiura has other plans. “I am happy with qualifying and the bike, I’m on the front row and the bike is working well. I am going to push hard from lap 2 and try and break away, that is what I need to do.”
Kent thinks it will be another close one and is thrilled to have a good chance to be at the front. “I was back on the 3rd row last year here, I just didn’t get on with the track. So I’m happy to be on the front row and especially with a time I set at the end of the session with worn tyres. I think it is going to be another close race, the slipstream down the front is so important here I don’t think anyone will get away.”
Antonelli is looking forward to racing in front of his home crowd and does not seem at all phased by the attention his performance is getting. “The bike is good, I enjoy the track, we will make a small change to the rear suspension for the race but I am happy.” So can he translate a front row start into a podium finish? “Yes, I hope,” grins the kid who weighs just 42kg (94lbs) and is 1m 55cm tall (5ft 1in) – all light riders carry compensating weight.
The second rider who should be in the hunt at his home GP is Cappella who was brought down by another rider at the end of the first qualifying session but was unhurt and had no problem using the back-up bike. “It worked fine, just like my own bike and I am very happy with the way the session went, I love the track and want to have a great race tomorrow.”
Another Italian with high hopes is Pardo who stands beside him on the 2nd row of the grid but was far less happy. “The front was sliding everywhere, I just couldn’t get on the gas and we must change the suspension for tomorrow. I just hope it works.”
From 5th place Scholtz is hoping to brush aside the disappointment he felt at Jerez where he finished 8th and 4th. “That session was OK but we had changed the rear suspension a bit and the rear was sliding a lot more than it did in the first session. I’m not unhappy with practice, I think it will be a good close race and I’m looking forward to it.” Fellow countryman Brad Binder had also starred in the first session but the 14 year old also did not improve and slipped to 8th on the grid.