EVENTFUL FIRST DAY FOR GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM AT MOTEGI
Gauloises Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards
tackled the opening day of action at the Twin Ring Motegi
circuit today as high temperatures and bright sunshine provided
ideal track conditions for the first free practice sessions
of the Grand Prix of Japan. Rossi was the fastest Michelin
rider on a day otherwise dominated by local tyre manufacturer
Bridgestone, the Italian just 0.054 seconds off lap record
pace in the afternoon despite suffering from a gearbox problem
in the morning session. Colin Edwards also had a problematic
first day at the difficult Japanese circuit, suffering only
his second crash of the season in the morning and then struggling
to regain confidence in the afternoon. Nevertheless the American
ended the day having established a good feeling for the YZR-M1
machine and he is confident of making major progress with
more time on the bike tomorrow. With John Hopkins (Suzuki)
setting the pace ahead of Loris Capirossi (Ducati) and Kenny
Roberts (Suzuki), none of Rossi’s championship rivals
are ahead of him on today’s time sheets as the Italian
looks to seal his fifth consecutive title on Sunday.
VALENTINO ROSSI (4th – 1’48.574; 47 laps)
“We had a gearbox problem this morning with one of
the bikes not downshifting properly so we probably lost about
15 minutes of the session. Also, for the first time in some
years, we are having difficulty with the tyres and we need
to address that. Michelin have always worked very well for
us and now they are working very hard to find a way forward.
Taking that into consideration, fourth place is not so bad
but we still have a lot to do. My rivals for the title are
behind me but at the moment I am not thinking about that too
much. My target for Sunday is to finish on the podium and
then we’ll have a look at where everybody else has finished.
Motegi is not my favourite circuit but there are some sections
that I like, such as the right-hander after the bridge.”
COLIN EDWARDS (11th – 1’48.985; 47 laps)
“I’ve got no excuses for the crash, it was completely
my fault. I got into the corner too hot. I ran about half
a metre off line and lost the front end, trying to force it
back into the corner. Thankfully I’m not used to crashing
this season and you forget how fast these bikes are moving
until you jump off! We lost a bit of time because of it and
needed the afternoon to play with the setting and tyres, but
it probably took me four or five laps to get my confidence
back up. By that time I’d used the best part of the
tyre and wasn’t able to put a fast lap in at the end.
We came here with the setting we found in the Brno test and
it works great at this track. The only problem I had today
was trying to keep the front wheel on the ground so we’ll
work on that and see what we can come up with tomorrow.”
DAVIDE BRIVIO – GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR
“As with many Fridays this season we have some work
to do with both riders. We need to understand the bike setting
and work hard with Michelin to try understand the tyres, and
it is always hard to do both these things at the same time.
Tonight we will analyse the data and the information that
we have gathered so that we can come up with some solutions
tomorrow – this is always the way on a Friday, it is
what they are for! In that respect you could say it was just
‘another day at the office’ for us!”
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