FREE PRACTICE – FRENCH GRAND PRIX - LE MANS
CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM RIDERS SET THE PACE AT LE MANS
Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards
were the fastest two riders in each of the first free practice
sessions on the opening day of action at the Grand Prix of
France today. Rossi lapped the Le Mans circuit in a time of
1’35.288 during the morning, when Edwards was just behind
him with the second fastest time, whilst in the afternoon
the roles were reversed as the American set the pace with
a lap of 1’35.170, followed closely by his Italian team-mate.
The factory team have arrived in France in determined mood
as they look to turn around their early season misfortunes,
aided by the latest improvements to the YZR-M1 machine brought
to this circuit by Yamaha. Rossi today ran back to back tests
with a brand new chassis, designed to eliminate vibration
problems suffered with the bike during the opening four rounds,
and reported positive results. He will therefore incorporate
the update into both of his machines tomorrow, when Rossi
and Edwards try to repeat today’s success in the official
Qualifying session.
COLIN EDWARDS (1st; 1’35.170, 52 laps)
“It wasn’t a bad day. We came here off the back
of a good result in China, just brought the bike off truck
this morning and everything seemed to work pretty well. Valentino
is trying to fix a few things with the new chassis so we’re
able to focus on working hard towards a race setting and seeing
what we can get. I said yesterday that I’d know after
four laps what my objective can be for the weekend and now
I can say it’s to win. Why not? Since the test in Turkey
we’ve hardly touched the bike and I’ve got a level
of confidence and feeling that I know what the bike will do.
This morning it worked really well and although the chatter
started to come this afternoon when we got more grip, we were
still able to push so that’s encouraging. We know this
chassis has its limit but we can get it there pretty easily
and at this track, where the Yamaha goes well, at least it
should allow us to push as hard as anyone else.”
VALENTINO ROSSI (2nd; 1’35.282, 36 laps)
“I’m happy because both Colin and I
are fast from the start and it seems the M1 machine is working
very well at this circuit. Now we are in the first and second
places so this is a very good result for our team and it gives
us some confidence. I was very fast in the morning and in
the afternoon we spent the time making some tests for the
setting with the new chassis for tomorrow. This job is very
important because they say it might rain tomorrow, but we
have already found a good base, so I’m very happy about
that. I like the new chassis and I think it will help us to
go faster. It is much better for the vibration and even at
this early stage we can see it has a lot of potential. Yamaha
have always gone well at Le Mans so now we wait for tomorrow
and see if we can keep it going.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“We’ve made a good start today with
both Colin and Valentino. Both specs of the bike are working
well so this is a very positive thing for us. Today was a
good chance for us to gather some data in the dry because
it looks as though it will rain tomorrow and we at least know
we have a good base setting if it is dry again for the race
on Sunday. Tomorrow Valentino will have the new chassis on
both bikes and Colin will remain on the standard version but
it seems both are working well so we look forward to seeing
what happens tomorrow.”
Combined Free Practice Times:
1.COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’35.170
2.VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1’35.282
3.Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1’35.447
4.John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP, 1’35.461
5.Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda LCR, 1’35.546
6.Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 1’35.625
7.Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1’35.628
8.Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1’35.662
9.Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 1’35.796
10.Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1’35.935
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