ROSSI RETURNS TO DOMINANT FORM DOWN UNDER
Gauloises Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi continued his
love affair with Phillip Island on the opening day of the
Australian Grand Prix as he dominated today’s first
free practice sessions in warm spring temperatures and bright
sunshine. The MotoGP World Champion was quickly inside the
pace he set on his way to victory here last season, dipping
well under the circuit record with a time of 1’30.349
to comfortably hold off the attentions of Carlos Checa (Ducati)
after a series of quick laps at the end of the afternoon session.
Checa produced a late effort of his own to reduce the gap
to 0.270 seconds, with Nicky Hayden (Honda) and Sete Gibernau
(Honda) the only other riders able to lap within a second
of the Italian. Colin Edwards was 1.511 seconds adrift of
his Gauloises Yamaha team-mate today as he looked to combine
the setting improvements found for the YZR-M1 machine over
the course of the season with the base set-up data gathered
for this circuit during winter testing. The American ended
the day with the seventh fastest time but he is confident
of making major improvements tomorrow as he looks to recover
the excellent pace he set here in preseason.
VALENTINO ROSSI (1st – 1’30.349; 51 laps)
“This was a fantastic first day for us, especially
the afternoon. In the race at Sepang a few weeks ago we had
a few problems even though we had been very fast in preseason,
and here it has been the opposite way around. We had a few
difficulties in the morning but we worked them out in the
afternoon and found a really good setting. The balance of
the bike is excellent and when you have a good feeling at
this circuit you can have a lot of fun. It is an old style
track – very fast and very technical – and you
need courage to set a quick lap time. Normally we start the
weekend behind a few people but today we’ve been in
front and held the advantage all afternoon so I’m really
happy. We have some more work to do tomorrow, mainly with
the rear tyre, but at the moment the pace is good. The motivation
in the team is still very strong even though we already won
the championship and we want to stay that way for the final
three races of the season.”
COLIN EDWARDS (7th – 1’31.900; 49 laps)
“This is my favourite track but I didn’t enjoy
it too much today. I had some setting and tyre problems and
we definitely have some things to work out! I’m having
to fight to turn into the corners and we’re nowhere
near the level of feeling that I had with the bike during
the preseason tests here. The main reason seems to be that
we’ve improved the setting of the bike at the majority
of the tracks we’ve been to this season and here we
might just have to take a step backwards. I set a 1’30.2
during the winter so we know what we’re capable of if
we can find the right setting, which I’m confident we
can do tomorrow. I want to be leaving Australia in second
place in the championship so that I can hang on for that runner-up
spot in the final two rounds.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“It’s been a good Friday for Valentino, he has
quite a good pace and seems to be comfortable on the bike.
Now we will see what further improvements we can make. Colin
is having some problems but the team will work hard tomorrow
to bring him close to the same level as Valentino. He is challenging
for second place in the championship and we have to do everything
we can to put him in the right place to fight for it on Sunday.”
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