Team Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra news
Winter tests: Doha, Qatar, 19 -21 December 2006
Circuit: 5.380 kms
Conditions: Dry. Cool on first day, with wind blowing sand
on to the track, but improving on days two and three.
SECOND QUICKEST FOR MAX.
The Pirelli 3-day tests at Qatar finished with Team Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra rider Max Biaggi posting the second fastest
overall time, behind 2006 Superbike World Champion Troy Bayliss.
Bayliss finished with a lap of 1:58.1, almost two seconds
inside the lap record set by Noriyuki Haga earlier this year.
The 2007 K7 GSX-R1000 Suzuki that Max and Yukio used in Qatar
is very different in feel to the 2006 bike and both riders
worked hard at understanding and developing the bike instead
of chasing lap times. Max left it until his last lap of the
3-day tests before posting his best time, but team mate Yukio
could only end with the eighth quickest time due to a mistake
in tyre choice. Both riders gave valuable feedback to the
team about engine characteristics and chassis set-up and these
areas will be the main focus of attention and hard work before
the next tests in January next year.
MAX (best lap: 1:58.9)
I think that this track is really difficult for us and the
conditions on day one didn’t help us much. The track
felt a bit slippery - probably because of the sand - and I
didn’t want to push too hard, too soon and crash. When
the conditions improved I was able to start to understand
the feeling of the bike. It definitely didn’t feel as
good initially as it did during our last tests in Valencia
and we soon realised that we had a lot of work to do - probably
more then the others here. For all of us, the bike is still
new and we have to work on the stability of it as well as
the characteristics of the engine. At the moment the engine
doesn’t feel so smooth and that makes it difficult entering
and exiting the corners. That, together with the behaviour
of the chassis, means that I cannot get the bike to drive
as smoothly as I would like.
Like everybody else, I set my best lap time on a soft tyre-
one that would not be able to last a complete race - but it
was good to finish with the second best lap here. I am happy
with how the team is working and am confident that they will
be working just as hard on the build-up to the next tests.
Suddenly the first race seems not so far away so I hope our
next tests will solve some of our current problems.
YUKIO (best lap: 2:00.1)
I would’ve liked to have ended these tests with a faster
lap time, but I am not too disappointed because we managed
to do a lot of good work on the new K7 bike. Also, I think
maybe our tyre choice was not so good when I was trying to
do my best lap and I ended lower then I had wanted. We were
a little held up by the conditions at the start of the test,
but once they began to improve we were able to push a lot
harder. We worked a lot on the chassis during these tests
and at the end I felt that the bike was more comfortable and
enjoyable to ride. We also worked on the behaviour of the
engine and how to make the feeling more smooth and I think
that there are improvements still to come in both these areas.
The bike feels quite different to the 2006 model and Max,
I and the whole team have to understand what is going on before
we can make the changes required. We have only two tests before
the first race and I hope by then the bike will be ready.
A lot will depend on what we find in the next tests, but my
feeling is quite positive.
Winter tests: 19-21 December - Best laps
1 Bayliss (Aus-Ducati) 1’58”1; 2 MAX BIAGGI (I-Alstare
Suzuki Corona Extra) 1’58”9; 3 Corser (Aus-Yamaha)
1’58”9; 4 Laconi (F-Kawasaki) 1’59”2;
5 Lanzi (I-Ducati) 1’59”3; 6 Toseland (GB-Honda)
1’59”4; 7 Haga (J-Yamaha) 1’59”7;
8 YUKIO KAGAYAMA (J-Alstare Suzuki Corona Extra) 2’00”1;
9 Nieto (E-Kawasaki) 2’00”5; 10 Rolfo (I-Honda)
2’01
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