Italian GP First day
QUEST FOR HOME GLORY BEGINS FOR GAULOISES YAMAHA
TEAM
The Gauloises Yamaha Team’s challenge for success at
the Italian Grand Prix began with a day of hard work at Mugello
today as riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards completed
valuable set-up work with their YZR-M1 machines. Following
on from successful tests with the base setting of the machines
at Le Mans after the last round, the riders quickly found
their feet today and began making minor refinements to suit
the fast and flowing Mugello circuit. After making a positive
start to the morning free practice, when they set the 1st
and 6th fastest times respectively, Rossi and Edwards suffered
from the increasing track temperatures in the scorching afternoon
sunshine and were unable to improve their times in the second
free practice session, dropping to 3rd and 9th overall as
they encountered minor rear traction problems. However, both
riders are confident of making the necessary improvements
tomorrow. Sete Gibernau (Honda) and Max Biaggi (Honda) were
the only riders capable of bettering Rossi’s morning
time, with Gibernau clocking the fastest effort of the day
with a lap of 1’50.662.
VALENTINO ROSSI – (1’50.778, 34 laps)
“The bike was good in the morning which makes me very
happy because it seems we now have a base setting that works
at every track. The conditions were perfect for our sport
– no wind, some sunshine but not too hot. In the afternoon
it was much warmer and we had some problems because the tyre
was moving around a lot more. Anyway, I’m very happy
to be third fastest overall today and it’s a good start
to the weekend for us. I hope the weather stays like this
because the rain has followed us around for the first part
of the season. There are a lot of people here already and
we want to put on a good show for them!”
COLIN EDWARDS (1’51.320, 30 laps)
“We picked up where we left off at Le Mans and tried
a few different things with the setting of the bike. We’ve
decided to go down a particular avenue, which we still believe
is the right way, but we’ve just got to stick at it
to make sure it works. At the moment I’m getting into
the corners okay but I’m having a bit of difficulty
getting out again, which is crucial at this track –
particularly the last corner coming onto the straight. We’re
trying to understand a lot of things but we’re getting
there and I’m confident we can take the steps we need
tomorrow. I’m lapping in mid 1’51s on the current
setting but I reckon a good race pace is going to be in the
1’50s, so we need to take at least half a second off
– more would be nice!”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – TEAM DIRECTOR
“This morning was not so bad for both riders and it
shows that we have definitely made steps forward with the
base setting of the bike coming from Le Mans, which means
the engineers and the team crews have been doing a great job.
Unfortunately in the afternoon we had some traction problems
because of the high temperatures but that is to be expected.
It is only Friday and it is the day for collecting information,
checking the performance of the tyres and making some decisions
to refine the setting of the bike for the race. If it stays
this hot for the whole weekend it will make it a very demanding
race for the riders and I think their physical condition will
prove to be very important. ”
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