Pre-season testing draws to a close in Jerez
Jerez, Spain
Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards completed their final pre-season
test in Jerez today in front of hordes of Spanish fans, after
riding thousands of kilometres during a total of fifteen days'
testing since January. Following a strong showing at the Barcelona
Test last week, the Camel Yamaha Team's preparations have
suffered something of a set back here and both riders have
been hampered by vibration problems throughout the three days
of this test. Despite not making as many improvements as they
had hoped today, important information has been gathered over
the three days which will hopefully enable the Yamaha engineers
and Michelin to come up with a solution for the impending
race.
The time-sheets were topped today by Ducati duo Loris Capirossi
and Sete Gibernau, with Capirossi lapping under Rossi's pole-time
from 2005 with a lap of 1'39.411. Rossi, Edwards and the Camel
Yamaha Team now have the chance to relax at home for ten days
before they return to this circuit for the season-opening
Spanish Grand Prix on 26th March.
COLIN EDWARDS (7th, 1'40.721, 82 laps)
"It would be nice if I could say that we've solved all
our problems today, but sadly it's just not the case and we're
still struggling a bit. I think we've really gone in circles
a bit here. We've changed a lot of things and we haven't really
concentrated on a race simulation or the endurance of the
tyre, we've just been trying to find ways to dial out the
problems we have. To be honest our pace isn't bad but it's
certainly not a winning pace, which is frustrating when we
saw in Barcelona last weekend how great our package is when
it's all working! Yamaha and Michelin have more than enough
information after three days and I am confident that they
will come back with something to solve our problems. Anyway,
that's it for testing! I'm heading home for ten days to chill
out a little bit and let's hope that the new stuff we have
when we come back for the race will help us out so we can
challenge for a win."
VALENTINO ROSSI (10th, 1'40.907, 83 laps)
"There were so many people here today, it was like a
race! Of course it's really nice to have so many spanish fans,
but today it's been quite difficult for me even to go from
the hospitality to the team truck! Yesterday I was confident
that we could find some big improvements today but honestly
that hasn't happened and now I am quite worried. The vibration
has remained and at the moment we don't know how to solve
it. Yamaha and Michelin have done a lot of good work today
and we've tried many different tyres and settings, but we
are still slow. This is the last test and throughout the whole
pre-season period we've always been fast and the bike has
felt good, but this test has been completely different. At
the moment I am not sure what will happen in the race, we'll
have to wait and see. I hope that Jeremy, together with the
Japanese engineers and the Michelin technicians, can use all
the data they have now to understand the problem and see how
to solve it."
DAVIDE BRIVIO - CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
"After this test we don't know how the race will go,
but it's been very important to have this chance to test before
it. As the riders say, we've tried many different things and
collected a lot of information. Now our engineers will have
ten days to work on this and come up with some new ideas and
solutions. This is the end of winter testing and we've seen
that our bike can work very well at different tracks. We need
to understand why this hasn't been the case here, but we're
convinced we can find a way forward and we know that we still
have a very good package."
Lap Times:
1.Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1'39.411
2.Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1'39.663
3.Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1'39.776
4.Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'40.416
5.Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1'40.468
6.Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'40.570
7.COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'40.721
8.Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 1'40.732
9.Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1'40.750 10.VALENTINO
ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'40.907 11.Carlos Checa (SPA)
Tech 3 Yamaha, 1'41.134 12.Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda,
1'41.208 13.John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1'41.208
14.Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 1'41.380 15.Kenny
Roberts (USA) Team Roberts, 1'41.673 16.Jose Luis Cardoso
(SPA) D'Antin Pramac, 1'41.761 17.Alex Hofmann (GER) D'Antin
Pramac, 1'42.034 18.James Ellison (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha, 1'42.686
19.Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati, 1'42.759 20.Tadayuki
Okada (JPN) HRC, 1'43.513
Jerez Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2005 - 1'40.596
Jerez Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha)
2005 - 1'39.419
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