CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM TEST – QATAR – LOSAIL,
DAY 2
PROGRESS CONTINUES AS PLANNED FOR CAMEL YAMAHA DUO
IN DOHA
Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards continued the good work
they began yesterday with a second day at the top of the time
sheets at the desert circuit of Losail, Qatar today. Spending
the majority of the day testing tyres for Michelin, Rossi
and Edwards completed 60 and 76 laps respectively on their
2006-spec YZR-M1s.
Rossi was once again fastest, setting a best lap of 1’56.53
with Edwards close behind him with a time of 1’56.81.
Yamaha Tech 3 rider Carlos Checa was third fastest, according
to the unofficial lap times, setting a time of 1’56.95.
The Camel Yamaha Team will continue for one final day of testing
tomorrow whilst Yamaha Tech 3, Suzuki and the Kawasaki and
Ducati test teams have finished their Qatar testing today.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1’56.53, 60 Laps)
“We managed many laps today, everything went very well
and I am quite pleased. In the morning we worked mostly on
settings and we have now nearly fixed the chatter we were
experiencing. We made some small modifications and the bike
responded quickly and it is giving me a very good feeling
now. After that we worked for the rest of the day with Michelin
and tested most of the tyres that they brought with them;
the new things they have brought here seem to be extremely
good. Our main target with them is to keep the performance
level of the tyre up after 15 or 20 laps, and it seems we’re
improving in this area and our times were consistent throughout
the day. With these new tyres and the new M1 combined we have
much better stability and grip. For sure we don’t have
most of the other teams testing here so it’s hard to
judge exactly where we are, but I think anyway we can tell
that we are doing okay.”
COLIN EDWARDS (1’56.81, 76 Laps)
“Today has been great, I’m really happy. We
got going on the new Michelin stuff after lunch and they’ve
made some great improvements. We had some new things to try
for Yamaha, but we mostly concentrated on tyres. I’m
really starting to feel confident with the bike and to believe
in myself again. This is my first time in MotoGP to be with
the same team for two years running and it’s great not
to have to worry about adjusting to a new bike and team at
the start of the season. It feels really good to be back with
the best team and on the best bike! I can concentrate entirely
on my race preparation without any distractions or worries
and the new style I adapted to last season now feels totally
natural. I feel like I have all the tools in place for a really
good season. Tomorrow we’re planning to do a long run
and we have a few more tyres to test; I am sure we’ll
make some more progress.”
JEREMY BURGESS – VALENTINO ROSSI’S CREW
CHIEF
“Everything is going well so far. The test has been
successful and the weather has been good. We’ve been
able to test everything that we wanted up to now and we’ve
confirmed everything that we found out in Malaysia. We’re
proceeding well towards the first race!”
Unofficial Lap Times:
VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Yamaha, 1’56.53
COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Yamaha, 1’56.81
Carlos Checa (SPA) Yamaha, 1’56.95
Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Suzuki, 1’57.87
John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki, 1’58.33
S. Ito (JPN) Ducati, 1’58.85
James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha, 1’58.98
Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki, 1’59.46
Qatar Lap Record: 1’57.903 (Nicky
Hayden, Honda, 2005)
Qatar Best Lap: 1’56.917 (Loris Capirossi,
Ducati, 2005)
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