GAULOISES YAMAHA PAIR MAKE SIGNIFICANT PROGRESS IN SACHSENRING
Gauloises Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards
recovered from a difficult first day at the Sachsenring to
improve their positions today, qualifying on the second and
third row respectively for tomorrow’s German Grand Prix.
Rossi in particular made impressive progress after struggling
to the thirteenth fastest time yesterday, mounting a strong
challenge this afternoon in an entertaining battle for pole
position that was eventually won by Nicky Hayden (Honda).
Whilst Sete Gibernau and Alex Barros (both Honda) join Hayden
on the front row, Rossi ended the session only 0.188 seconds
off the day’s best time and the Italian was satisfied
both with the steps taken with the set-up of his YZR-M1 machine
and with a fourth-place start on the grid. Edwards also made
encouraging progress, although he was unable to find the perfect
compromise setting for the track, which places drastically
diverse demands on the machine throughout the contrasting
fast and slow sections. The American eventually qualified
seventh fastest and will head the third row of the grid tomorrow.
VALENTINO ROSSI (4th – 1’22.973; 29 laps)
“I’m much happier today - the team have done
a great job to get the bike working well here because it is
such a peculiar circuit. Yesterday we lost our direction a
little bit but today we made a lot of progress. In the morning
we were able to sort out the problems we had on the front
end and in the afternoon we made a big step forward on the
rear, even with the race tyre. I made a mistake in the final
corner on my fast lap that probably cost me a tenth but I
am still only 0.188 seconds from the pole. Considering where
we were yesterday, I am happy with that. Tomorrow will be
a very hard race because there are four or five riders who
have the pace to run at the front, but we’ve done a
good job today and I think we can be there with them.”
COLIN EDWARDS (7th – 1’23.139; 31 laps)
“We made some progress today but it is still a struggle!
This morning I put on a qualifier in the free practice just
to test it out and only then was I able to set a fast lap.
I’m losing three tenths of a second in the third section,
which we just can’t seem to work out. Three tenths is
a lot over a whole lap, especially here, but to lose it in
one split is hard to swallow. To be honest though, things
were so bad yesterday that if you’d have told me I’d
be seventh fastest today and starting from the front of the
third row, I wouldn’t have been too upset. We know exactly
where the problem is and the team are doing everything they
can to fix it. We’ve just got to work extremely hard
in the warm-up tomorrow to try to come up with a solution.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“The team has reacted well to the problems we had yesterday
and both riders have been able to improve their times. Actually,
Valentino put in a few good laps at a decent pace and a second
row start is not a problem for him. I am confident he will
be there to fight in the race as usual. Colin has a more difficult
job starting from the third row, but hopefully he can make
some improvements in the morning and stick with the front
group in the race. We’ll see what happens in the race
tomorrow but so far I am very happy with the team and their
reaction to a tough situation yesterday. Hopefully we can
go on holiday in a good mood!”
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