Camel Yamaha Team begin final race preparations at Jerez
test
Spain, Jerez
Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards
began their final three days of pre-season testing at Jerez
de la Frontera in Southern Spain today. The 4.423 km Jerez
circuit, which will play host to the season-opening Grand
Prix in two weeks time, provides the last chance for the World
Champion and his team-mate to perfect the set-up of their
YZR-M1s before the curtain goes up on the new MotoGP season.
Following last weekend's test in Barcelona, where Rossi consistently
topped the time sheets and Edwards drove away with a new car
after winning Sunday's wet 'qualifying' shoot-out, both riders
were faced with some traction problems today and are now focused
on finding a solution with tyre manufacture Michelin and the
Yamaha engineers over the next two days. Loris Capirossi (Ducati)
was the only rider to lap under the circuit record, setting
a time of 1'40.910. Edwards (1'41.730) and Rossi (1'41.861)
set the sixth and ninth best times respectively.
Colin Edwards (6th, 1'41.730, 68 laps)
"After the highs of last weekend, today has shown us
that we still have a bit of work to do before the first race.
We started with 99% of the same settings that we had in Barcelona
and we've only made some small changes; the bike is still
working great. However we're missing traction with the tyres
and now we need to get that sorted out with Michelin. We need
to find the right tyre for our bike at this track, but they're
working hard to do just that and tomorrow we should have something
new to try. I think everyone's a bit 'tested-out' now so it's
just a case of making one last big effort here, then we can
all finally concentrate on the first race!"
Valentino Rossi (9th, 1'41.861, 73 laps)
"It's quite a big change coming here after last weekend
as we have some problems and the vibration that we had in
Malaysia and Qatar has returned. The problem is that the tyres
that we have available to us here are not working correctly
with our bike, so now we're waiting for some new race tyres
for tomorrow and Sunday. We hope that with this we can fix
the problem. We've worked a lot on settings and other things
today in order to find a way to improve the traction, but
in reality we can't do anything until we have a different
tyre. We're ninth so we're not very fast! Now we have just
two days to prepare before we come back here for the first
race so we're going to work very hard with Yamaha and Michelin
to solve the problem."
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"We had some problems today to make our package work
like it did last week in Barcelona, but both riders have the
same problem so this make it's easier to work on the situation.
We exchanged a lot of information between Yamaha and Michelin
and in the next two days we will work together to find the
right solution. I am confident that with the full cooperation
of everyone involved, we can overcome the problem."
Official lap times:
1. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1'40.910
2. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1'41.176
3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1'41.477
4. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'41.499
5. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 1'41.680
6. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'41.730
7. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1'41.732
8. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1'41.740
9. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'41.861
10. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1'41.915
11. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'41.984
12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1'42.106
13. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts, 1'42.328
14. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 1'42.558
15. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1'42.938
16. Alex Hofmann (GER) D'Antin Pramac, 1'43.274
17. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati, 1'43.417
18. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) D'Antin Pramac, 1'44.501
19. James Ellison (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1'44.953
20. Tadayuki Okada (JPN) HRC, 1'45.930
Jerez Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2005 - 1'40.596 Jerez Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005
- 1'39.419
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