ROSSI FLOATS BACK TO THE TOP AT WET SHANGHAI
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi returned to the top
of the MotoGP time sheets today as hard work during practice
and testing following the last round at Istanbul began to
bear fruit on the opening day of the Grand Prix of China.
In soaking conditions caused by a steady downpour of fine
rain throughout the day, Rossi repeated the form that saw
him take a wet victory at the Shanghai circuit last season
with the fastest times in both today’s free practice
sessions.
After setting the pace by just 0.002 seconds from Casey Stoner
(Honda) in the morning, the Italian moved up a gear in the
afternoon to improve his time by almost three seconds, holding
off the challenge of Loris Capirossi (Ducati) by 0.355 seconds
with an exemplary display of wet-weather riding. Meanwhile,
his Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards also reported improved
feeling with his YZR-M1 machine following positive progress
during the Turkish test session, although the American was
struggled to turn that into outright pace this afternoon.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st; 2’09.393, 36 laps)
“In Turkey we were able to understand some of the problems
we were having with the bike and we found some good solutions.
The modifications we made using that data here this morning
were really good and now I can ride the bike at 100%. Even
though it was wet the grip levels were very good, I was able
to get a lot of lean angle in the corners and it was really
good fun to ride as I want to. I’m really happy because
I was fastest in both free practices today and this is a good
sign for the weekend. The bike is working well in the wet
but I think the solutions we have found for the setting will
also work in the dry. Hopefully we will get the chance to
find out tomorrow because the worst scenario would be to have
another day of wet practice and then a dry race on Sunday.”
COLIN EDWARDS (13th; 2’11.838, 24 laps)
“I’m reasonably happy with today. We did some
good work on the setting of the bike but when we got it to
where I wanted to push for a good time we had a minor setback
with the tyre and I had to go for a different compound, which
didn’t quite work out. The main thing is that I’m
comfortable with the bike and I’m confident I can go
much quicker tomorrow whether it’s wet or dry. We basically
started out with the dry setting we found in Turkey and made
small adaptations for the wet conditions here. We found a
really good suspension solution at the end so now we just
need to put the whole package together with the right tyres
tomorrow and run with it.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“That was a very good session, especially after the
problems we had in Istanbul. The engineers made some good
steps with the setting and, thanks to their good work at the
test in Turkey, Valentino was able to be fast again today.
Watching him ride to the best of his ability is always very
enjoyable and the situation here is clearly very different
to what we found when it rained in Turkey. As far as Colin
is concerned his lap time today does not reflect his true
potential here. He has found a good setting and, although
he couldn’t finish the session off as he would have
liked, there is a lot more to come from him. We have started
off well at other races this year and not ended up with the
right result so we have to make sure this good work continues
right through until Sunday afternoon.”
Combined Free Practice Times:
1.VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 2’09.393
2.Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 2’09.748
3.John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP, 2’10.007
4.Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 2’10.187
5.Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 2’10.247
6.Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 2’10.411
7.Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 2’10.815
8.Casey Stoner (AUS) Honda LCR, 2’11.016
9.Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 2’11.313
10.Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team, 2’11.425
13. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 2’11.838
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