MotoGP : Rossi and Edwards begin tough set-up job at Sachsenring
Round: 10 - 2006 MotoGP Sachsenring
Circuit: Sachsenring
Date: 14 July 2006
Temp: 20ºC
Weather: Dry
 The
Camel Yamaha Team began their preparations for the German
Grand Prix at the Sachsenring today with riders Valentino
Rossi and Colin Edwards working hard to adjust their YZR-M1
machines to the tortuous demands of the MotoGP World Championship's
shortest and slowest circuit. The first day of free practice
was held in cloudy yet warm conditions of around 20ºC,
with the threat of storms hanging ominously over the circuit
throughout the day but thankfully not progressing beyond a
couple of spells of light rainfall as the riders squeezed
every available minute out of the two hour-long sessions.
Both Rossi and Edwards admitted running into difficulties
as they adjusted the base setting of the bike, which so far
hasn't proven as well suited to this circuit as it has to
faster tracks such as Donington, Assen, Mugello and Catalunya
in recent weeks. The Italian ran sixth fastest in the morning
session, with the American ninth, but they were both unable
to match the progress made by their rivals in the afternoon
and they slid marginally down the time sheets at the end of
the day - Rossi ending up seventh with Edwards in eleventh.
Both riders face a crucial day of set-up work tomorrow as
they prepare for the tenth round of the season on Sunday.
Valentino Rossi (7th - 1'23.871; 43 laps)
"We knew before we came here that this was not one of
my favourite circuits and that it was always going to be a
big effort from the first day. Unfortunately that is proving
to be the case and I have not got comfortable with the bike
or the track today. We are trying a whole 'sack' of things
to make the bike better but we keep running into problems
and haven't found the best way to work yet. Luckily we still
have two hours tomorrow to do this so we hope the weather
stays dry because we need all that track time to work on the
bike. Anyway I am still confident because Jerry and the engineers
have shown in the past few races when I have been injured
that they have a great ability to set the bike up using a
minimal amount of data. Tomorrow we will have to stay concentrated
and see what we can do. It already looks like it will be a
tough battle on Sunday but the tough ones are always the most
fun!"
Colin Edwards (11th - 1'24.100; 33 laps)
"We're struggling. The bike feels a bit rough in a few
sections and we need to make some drastic changes tomorrow
to get it working how we want. The bike and I are not getting
along with the circuit at the moment and I'm losing around
half a second in the second section alone, which is clearly
not good enough. We have to work on that and generally improve
the speed through the corner in all the other sections - it's
not carrying enough pace and no matter what I tried it just
wasn't happening today. We know we've still got a lot of work
to do but that's what we're here for and I'm looking forward
to tomorrow."
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"Clearly we still have plenty of work to do tomorrow
because we are not where we want to be on the first day. We
need to improve the pace of both riders, who are struggling
with different kinds of problems. As always they are working
together for the good of the team and the engineers will use
their feedback to try and come up with some better settings
tomorrow. This is a very particular track because it is so
tight and twisty, unlike any other circuit in the world, so
we have to look for something particular with the setting.
That is not as easy as it sounds but we will keep going!"
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