GAULOISES YAMAHA RIDERS IN A SPIN AT TWISTY SACHSENRING
Gauloises Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards
both struggled to get comfortable at the Sachsenring circuit
as the first free practice sessions for the German Grand Prix
took place today. Rossi fell for only the second time this
season in the morning session, losing front grip in the downhill,
left-hand corner at turn two, but escaped without injury.
Despite returning to the track with an improved time in the
afternoon the Italian could only manage the thirteenth fastest
lap on the day’s combined time sheets, as he struggled
to find front and rear grip for his Yamaha YZR-M1 machine.
Edwards got off to a better start than his Gauloises Yamaha
team-mate, setting the third fastest time of the morning session,
before suffering similar difficulties in the afternoon. The
American found it hard to make progress as he tried to tame
the track’s notoriously twisty turns and was unable
to improve his lap times from the morning to the afternoon,
dropping to ninth on the overnight time sheets. Alex Barros
(Honda) set the fastest time of the day with a lap of 1’23.808,
despite crashing twice in the space of just fifteen minutes
in the second session.
COLIN EDWARDS (9th – 1’24.320; 55 laps)
“We tried a few different things in the afternoon but
we’ve basically been having the same problem all day;
we just can’t get the bike to stop being so nervous.
We need to start driving forward instead of wiggling around
and it looks like it’s going to take a lot of work.
It doesn’t seem to be a simple set-up issue –
I’ve spoken to Valentino and he is having the same problems,
so to me it seems the bike doesn’t like this track in
general. The Yamaha turns so well that the tight sections
in the first two splits are great, but once the track opens
out in the second half it just gets very bumpy on the exit
of the corners and the bike starts dancing around. From there
it’s a case of trying to hold on and ride smoother,
but then that feels too slow. I’m not going to lie;
it’s a handful, but we’re working on it.”
VALENTINO ROSSI (13th – 1’24.508; 52
laps)
“It was a very difficult day. It started from the morning
when I fell off the bike and after that we worked a lot to
try and improve the feeling, but at the end of the day it
wasn’t any better. We started with the setting from
Donington but we had a problem with the front. Also it is
really hard to find the right tyre because there is so much
time spent on the left side and it gets so hot, which means
you slide a lot. I can’t ride the bike at 100% and Colin
has some problems too. I am a little bit worried because I
am in thirteenth place, but I am sure that tomorrow we can
work really hard and find a good way forward. This really
is a bad track for me – I don’t like it. It is
different to the other tracks and we need to work hard to
get the right set-up.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“It was a difficult day and we have to find some ideas
to improve the setting. Both riders are having the same problems
– we will find out more from them later but it is clear
we need to adjust some things. We have had difficulties on
Fridays in the past but the team always found a way to solve
the problems, so I am confident they can do the same here.
Valentino’s crash this morning was his first real one
of the season and the guys worked really well through lunchtime
to fix the bike, so a big ‘thank you’ to them.
There is a lot more work ahead of them tonight but I am hopeful
we can get out of this.”
|
