BURNING THE MIDNIGHT OIL IN QATAR
The lights were switched on at 17.45 hours, local time, at
the Losail International Circuit in Qatar today as MotoGP's
first official night test kicked off, prior to the first round
of the 2008 season next week. It all happened in preparation
for the race on 9th March, also at the track, which will be
the first Grand Prix ever to be run at night.
The history-making illuminations, powered by nearly five
and a half million watts of electricity and which represent
the largest permanent sports lighting system in the world,
lit the 5.4km circuit as the premier class riders started
the first of two nights of testing.
Kawasaki Racing Team rider, John Hopkins, took to the track
on the 800cc Ninja ZX-RR despite still recovering from a groin
injury sustained at Phillip Island in January. The 24-year-old
Anglo-American managed 71 laps and a best time of 1'56.614,
putting him in an impressive seventh position on the leader
board, just over a second off Casey Stoner, the fastest man
of the session, and a mere 0.043 seconds off sixth placed
rider, Andrea Dovizioso.
Getting used to the lighting was the first hurdle and one
which all the riders seemed to overcome fairly quickly. However,
as Hopkins pointed out as he tested Bridgestone tyre combinations
throughout the seven hours, low, night time track temperatures
will make for a difficult decision on the rubber come the
race.
He did, however, continue to forge ahead and recorded his
fastest lap of the session right at the end: a positive sign
of things to come.
Anthony West, after making great progress during the last
test at Jerez earlier this month, continued to test new chassis
components on his Bridgestone-shod machine and was feeling
increasingly confident in the revised set up.
The 27-year-old from Queensland, Australia, had just put
in his fastest time of the test when he lost the front and
crashed at turn 16, the final right-hander before the long
stretch down the start/finish straight. Bruised but otherwise
unhurt, West climbed aboard his second bike and went back
out to do some further laps.
The test ran until 01:00 hours, one hour later than scheduled,
due to the official, switching-on ceremony delaying the advertised
start. Tomorrow's test will begin at 17:00 hours, local time,
and run until midnight.
John Hopkins
7th - 71 Laps - 1'56.614
"The priority today was to decide on a tyre for the first
race next week and we evaluated many different combinations
of both race and qualifying tyres. It's been a while since
I've been able to get on the bike and get stuck into testing
because of my injury, although this is slowly improving day-by-day.
The most difficult thing has been maintaining fitness whilst
recovering but I managed to do some training this week and,
despite still feeling sore, we got through quite a lot of
laps today. The lighting around the circuit is good fun as
it's a bit different from the usual, but the track temperature
is quite low and I could really feel it in the tyres, which
are going to be a crucial factor for the race. Now we know
what tyre selection we will be using, we are going to concentrate
on the machine set-up tomorrow."
Anthony West
18th - 51 Laps - 1'57.787
"Tonight, our main task was to get accustomed to the
floodlit circuit and to try a new chassis option we have.
The frame we tried has made a big improvement to the rear
grip, which we have had trouble with previously. The bike
felt really good and I started pushing a bit hard, which caused
me to crash. I lost the front at the last corner and I'm a
bit bruised but no major problems. The lighting of the circuit
is not totally consistent and it is a bit strange riding at
night. The track does look a bit different, and it's hard
to find my lines, but overall it's not hugely dissimilar to
how it is in the day. I hope that tomorrow we can get some
more laps on the bike in these conditions and continue working
with this chassis."
Naoya Kaneko
Kawasaki Technical Manager
"This was the first practice under the lights at night.
These conditions are quite unique because in usual circumstances
the track temperature increases throughout the day, whereas
in this situation the track temperature decreases and the
humidity increases the closer we get to midnight. We completed
various tyre tests, which indicated some direction we could
take on race tyres, although we may need to adapt our set-up
tomorrow to be able to make the most of the best race tyre.
We have also tested some new machine components which, combined
with the different tyres we have used, will bring some advantages
and some disadvantages. Tomorrow, our main aim is to find
the best compromise and finalise our race set-up."
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'55.330; 2. Jorge
Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha +0.689; 3. Randy De Puniet (FRA)
Honda LCR +0.732; 4. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JIR Team Scott
+0.791; 5. James Toseland (GBR) Yamaha Tech 3 +0.921; 6. Alex
De Angelis (RSM) Honda Gresini +1.241; 7. John Hopkins (USA)
Kawasaki Racing Team +1.284; 8. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol
Honda Team +1.291; 9. Valentino Rossi (46) Fiat Yamaha +1.419;
10. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha Tech 3 +1.432; 11. Toni Elias
(ITA) Alice d'Antin Ducati +1.677; 12. Nicky Hayden (USA)
Repsol Honda Team +1.680; 18. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki
Racing Team +2.457
|
