MOTOGP OFFICIAL TEST – BARCELONA
ROSSI AND EDWARDS TOP FIRST OFFICIAL TESTS AT CATALUNYA
Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards
made their first formal track appearances of the year today
as the MotoGP Official Tests got underway at the Montmelo
circuit in Catalunya. The traditional pre-season curtain raiser
runs for three days, with a timed 40-minute session determining
the winner of a new car in an exciting climax to the action
on Sunday afternoon at 1405h.
Sporting their new bright-yellow Camel livery, both Rossi
and Edwards were in sparkling form throughout the day, dominating
the time sheets and ending the session with the quickest times.
With barely any changes made to the base set-up of their 2006
version YZR-M1 machines following recent tests, the Italian
and the American were quickly on the pace despite brisk morning
temperatures, backing up impressive results in contrasting
conditions at Sepang and Qatar. A positive first day for Yamaha
was completed by Carlos Checa (Tech 3 Yamaha), who sealed
the third fastest time on only his third appearance for the
team.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st, 1’43.608, 54 laps)
"The first day here in Catalunya has been very positive.
The weather has been better than we expected, especially in
the afternoon, so the tyres were running at the right temperature
to be enable us to understand the performance of the bike.
The data we are gathering will not be much use for the race
here in May because it will be so much warmer, but at least
we are moving forward with the setting of the bike. I’m
pleased because the lap times have been very fast –
this is the third track we have ridden at with the 2006 machine
and we have been very competitive at all of them. Since 20th
January we have been thinking exclusively about race one on
26th March and we will continue with this attitude for the
rest of the test.”
COLIN EDWARDS (2nd, 1’44.063, 66 laps)
"We didn’t change too much with the bike today
– just rolled out what we had at Sepang to see how it
worked. It was freezing this morning but we did some tests
for Michelin and things just got better and better for the
rest of the day. I’m happy with the bike, I’m
happy with everything really, but as good as it looks and
feels we still have a lot of work to do. It’s nice to
be running up at the top from the start and I must admit it’s
hard not to have one eye on the car on Sunday! I don’t
know what I would do with it if I won but we’ll figure
that out when it comes!"
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“It is a positive surprise to see three Yamahas at
the top of the time sheets and of course we are all very pleased.
It’s only the first day of a long test but we hope it
is a good sign of things to come. Things ran very smoothly
today, we continued working to our testing programme, on the
setting and on the tyres. The base setting seems to work well
– this is the third circuit with this bike and it’s
encouraging that it has worked so well in so many different
conditions. Both riders look relaxed and concentrated on the
job at hand so let’s just keep working this way!”
Official lap times:
1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha 1.43.608; 2. COLIN
EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha 1.44.063; 3. Carlos Checa (SPA)
Yamaha 1.44.070; 4.John Hopkins (USA) Suzuki 1.44.197; 5.
Nicky Hayden (USA) Honda 1.44.209; 6. Shinya Nakano (JPN)
Kawasaki 1.44.399; 7. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati 1.44.556;
8. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda 1.44.672; 9. Toni Elias (SPA)
Honda 1.44.702; 10. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Honda 1.44.721; 11.
Kenny Roberts (USA) KR-Honda 1.44.868 ; 12. Dani Pedrosa
(SPA) Honda 1.45.011; 13. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki 1.45.111;
14. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati 1.45.253; 15. Chris Vermeulen
(AUS) Suzuki 1.45.968; 16. James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha 1.46.217 ;
17. Josè Cardoso (SPA) Pramac-Ducati 1.46.603;18. Alex
Hofmann (GER) Pramac-Ducati 1.46.60; 19. Tadayuki Okada (Honda)
1.47.020; 20. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati 1.47.379.
Catalunya Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 –
1’43.195 Catalunya Best Lap: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005
– 1’42.337
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