ROSSI RULES FREE PRACTICE AS MOTOGP RETURNS AT BRNO
Gauloises Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi continued his
domination of the MotoGP World Championship at the Brno circuit
today, as the series returned to the Czech circuit after its
traditional summer break. Rossi needs just two more victories
to clinch the title for the fifth successive season and he
started this weekend’s mission encouragingly, clocking
under lap record pace with the fastest time over two hours
of free practice. After falling from his Yamaha YZR-M1 machine
in a collision with Troy Bayliss (Honda) during the morning
session, Rossi squeezed every available minute out of the
rest of the day’s action as he worked on Michelin tyre
combinations and race set-up for Sunday’s eleventh Grand
Prix of the season, setting his fastest time on his final
lap of the day. Rossi’s Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin
Edwards, riding the YZR-M1 here for the first time, was satisfied
with his performance after posting the seventh fastest time.
The American immediately felt comfortable with the base set-up
of his machine and set his best lap of the day in the morning
session, before focusing much of his day’s work on a
variety of tyre tests.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st – 1’59.278; 39 laps)
“Today was a strange day because we all came back from
the holidays and it felt like everybody was still in the beach
rhythm! The crash this morning was not the perfect way to
start. Troy was pushing hard but he suddenly decided to come
in to the pit and braked in the middle of the corner. I was
lucky because my front brake made contact and I went down
at 149km/h but I am not hurt. I think we need to modify the
pit entry for next season because at the moment it is dangerous;
I will talk about it with the Safety Commission. Anyway, my
mechanics did a great job to virtually rebuild the whole bike
in just three hours and this afternoon I was able to do a
lot of tyre tests. In the end we went back to the first tyre
and I was able to go fastest. Tomorrow we need to work on
the suspension to find more grip but so far I am quite happy.”
COLIN EDWARDS (7th – 1’59.867; 46 laps)
“The base set-up we started out with this morning was
probably as good as I have felt with the bike all season,
it did exactly what I wanted it to do. The Yamaha definitely
suits this circuit and my pace in the first session was good.
From there we concentrated on tyre tests, although it turned
out that the one we tried first was the best of the lot. When
we put that back on at the end I immediately felt comfortable
again. When Valentino put the same tyre on he set the fastest
time of the session, so we know what works. Tomorrow we’ll
have to focus more on the bike set-up and I’m confident
we’ll improve the lap time and the position.”
JEREMY BURGESS – VALENTINO ROSSI’S CREW
CHIEF
“The track is quite dirty and there’s not much
grip so we have some work to do to try and adjust the bike.
It’s early days yet, but the setting we’ve found
so far is quite good and, as always, we’ll be looking
to improve on it tomorrow. The guys did a good job to repair
the damage to Valentino’s bike, although they strip
it down after every session anyway so it doesn’t make
much of a difference whether they put the same parts back
on or fetch new ones!”
COMBINED FREE PRACTICE TIMES:
1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Gauloises Yamaha Team 1’59.278
2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’59.366
3. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Movistar Honda MotoGP 1’59.454
4. Marco Melandri (ITA) Movistar Honda 1’59.469
5. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP 1’59.755
6. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1’59.807
7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team 1’59.833
8. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Gauloises Yamaha Team 1’59.867
9. Alex Barros (BRA) Camel Honda 1’59.991
10. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP 2’00.043
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