PREVIEW – TURKEY GRAND PRIX - ISTANBUL 30/04/2006
ROSSI SET FOR 100th MOTOGP APPEARANCE IN TURKEY
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi reaches another special
milestone in his illustrious career this weekend as he contests
his 100th consecutive premier-class race in the Grand Prix
of Turkey. The Italian and his team-mate Colin Edwards travel
to the Istanbul Park circuit, located 300 kilometres north
west of the capital city of Ankara, looking to build on tentative
first impressions of the track from last year, when they finished
second and seventh respectively in a race won by Marco Melandri.
The third round of the current season will also be Rossi’s
160th appearance in all classes since making his 125cc debut
in Malaysia in 1996. So far he has amassed an incredible tally
of 80 victories, his latest coming just over two weeks ago
in the Grand Prix of Qatar; a triumph that also moved the
27-year-old level with Mick Doohan on 54 premier-class wins,
leaving him second only to the legendary Giacomo Agostini,
on 68.
The Istanbul Park circuit was designed by famed German architect
Hermann Tilke, the man behind the Sepang, Bahrain and Shanghai
circuits, and was used for the first time by the MotoGP World
Championship last October. The spectacular 5.378 kilometre
track features fourteen turns - eight lefts and six rights
– and like Phillip Island it has the unusual characteristic
of running anti-clockwise.
Like the Losail circuit in Qatar, several of the Istanbul
track’s corners are based on famous bends at other circuits,
such as the ‘Senna Esses’ at Sao Paolo, the ‘Spoon
Curve’ at Suzuka and the ‘Eau Rouge’ at
Spa. Spectators have ideal facilities to enjoy the action,
with seating capacity for around 130,000 fans and an impressive
main grandstand which can hold up to 25,000.
Sunday’s schedule will start one hour later than usual,
with the red lights due to go out for the MotoGP race at 1500h
local time (CET +1).
VALENTINO ROSSI: RECORD BREAKER
As well as taking him level with Mick Doohan in terms of
career wins, Valentino Rossi’s victory at Qatar also
pulled him to within striking distance of the all-time record
Grand Prix points total, currently held by Max Biaggi. Having
now scored a total of 2886 points in all classes Rossi will
move ahead of Biaggi simply by finishing in ninth place or
above this Sunday. However, as always, his only target is
victory at one of only two circuits on the current calendar
where he has yet to climb onto the top step of the podium
in at least one of the three classes.
“Qatar was like the start of my championship but we’re
already behind in the points and we need to do our best to
catch up,” said Rossi. “My rivals are very strong
and we need to be able to fight for the win again in Turkey.
Istanbul isn’t one of my favourite tracks and we had
a really hard time there last year - we had already won the
championship and it was difficult to stay 100% focused at
that stage of the season, plus we had some set-up problems
with the bike. This time we go there feeling fully motivated.
“We don’t know how the new bike will react at
this circuit; I hope that it will go well and that we won’t
have any vibration problems. There are some fantastic
fast corners so if the bike is working well it could be great
fun to ride there. We tested again after Qatar and we
made some improvements, and although we still haven’t
completely solved our problems hopefully even if they do reappear
at some stage, we’re going to be able to cope with them
better now.”
COLIN EDWARDS: HARD WORK WILL PAY OFF
Colin Edwards is keen to get to Turkey this weekend as he
aims to convert the fast and consistent pace he has shown
during pre-season testing and Grand Prix practice sessions
into a solid race result. Eleventh and ninth place finishes
from the first two rounds have not been a true reflection
of the Texan’s efforts this year and he is keen to turn
things around at a circuit he admits he struggled to get to
grips with last season.
“I have to say I wasn’t too enamoured with the
track when we rode it last October but I was busy trying to
adapt to a new riding style at the time and it didn’t
make life easier,” says Edwards. “This time my
riding style is sorted out but we still have a few problems
with the bike so we’ll have to see how it goes. I was
very disappointed with the way things went in Qatar but it
has been nice to have an extra weekend off over Easter to
mull things over and I can’t wait to get out and put
it right on the track.
“So far this season we’ve been strong in practice
- if anything just struggling a little bit to make the step
up on a qualifying tyre but in general the pace on race tyres
has been good. We were unlucky at Jerez and I was really confident
of a good result in Qatar but we came up against a few problems
in the race that hadn’t bothered us in practice. The
day of tests after the race gave us some good data to work
from and hopefully things run smoothly from day one in Turkey.”
VALENTINO ROSSI: INFORMATION
Age: 27
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1
GP victories: 80 (54 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc) First GP: Malaysia,
1996 (125cc) GP starts: 159 (99 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc,
30 x 125cc) Pole positions: 40 World Championships –
7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4
x MotoGP)
COLIN EDWARDS: INFORMATION
Age: 32
Lives: Conroe, Texas
Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1
First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP)
GP starts: 50 x MotoGP
World Championships - 2 World Superbike
DAVIDE BRIVIO: AN INTERESTING CHALLENGE
Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio sees this weekend’s
race as the ideal opportunity to measure early development
of the 2006 version YZR-M1 machine at another challenging
and demanding venue. After overcoming initial problems in
Qatar to end the weekend with a victory for Valentino, the
Italian is hoping for more of the same from his team in Turkey
and expects the timing of this year’s race to favour
a more fruitful outcome than last October’s event at
the same circuit.
“Last year Istanbul Park was one of the circuits where
we had the most difficulties but that Grand Prix was the penultimate
of the season, when everything was already won,” explains
Brivio. “It will be interesting to see how we go this
time around, with the race at the beginning of the year and
coming at a time when we really need to get some points for
both riders. “It will be a challenging weekend
because we still have to fix the problems that we have had
with the 2006 version of the YZR-M1. We will test again
on Monday in Istanbul after the race, in order to further
try to improve the bike. Despite these issues, we showed in
Qatar that we can already be competitive and now we have to
take that to Turkey. Valentino’s win has given
the whole team and the engineers a real boost and the motivation
is definitely there to try to win again in Turkey.”
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: ANDREA ZUGNA ON ISTANBUL
Like all Herman Tilke tracks, Istanbul Park possesses a wide
variety of corners and the challenge is further enhanced by
plenty of gradients, with the track built on four different
ground levels. However, by far the most exciting feature of
the layout is turn eleven - a fifth gear bend that is taken
at speeds approaching 270km/h, making it easily the fastest
corner in the MotoGP World Championship. Combined with some
of the tightest chicanes on the calendar, the key to set-up
at Istanbul Park is about making compromises.
“Istanbul is a tricky circuit because it has some of
the fastest corners in the world combined with some of the
slowest,” explains Andrea Zugna, Colin Edwards’
Data Engineer. “In turn eleven you need good stability
at high speed to give the rider the confidence he needs to
attack the corner, but from turn twelve to the end of the
lap you have three very slow chicanes which require good agility;
so you have to find a balanced set-up between those two characteristics.
“This track is also unique because of the changes of
elevation. For example turn one dips downhill before going
immediately up again, creating a lot of compression on the
front forks. The rider’s skill is also very important
because there is only really one racing line and they must
find it - especially through the three consecutive lefts in
the middle of the lap, where it is also very bumpy. It is
important that they have confidence in the front through here.
Last year Colin struggled a little because it was the first
time he used his new riding style but his pace in practice
was good and his fastest lap came towards the end of the race
so we know the data is good. Hopefully it will make life a
little easier this weekend!”
CIRCUIT INFORMATION
Pole Position right
Length 5333m, 3.31 miles
Width 14-21m
Right Corners 6
Left Corners 8
Longest straight 720m, 0.541 miles
Constructed: 2005
Istanbul Lap Record: Marco Melandri (Honda) 2005 –
1m53.111s – 169.956
km/h
Qatar Best Lap: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005 – 1m52.334s
- 171.132 km/h
2005 Results:
1. Marco Melandri (Honda) 41’44.139 – 41m44.139s
2. VALENTINO ROSSI (Yamaha) +1.513s
3. Nicky Hayden (Honda) +6.873s
7. COLIN EDWARDS (Yamaha) +29.255s
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