DISAPPOINTMENT AT MUGELLO FOR KAWASAKI PAIR
Anthony West was the sole Kawasaki finisher in today's Italian
Grand Prix at Mugello, bringing his Ninja ZX-RR home in a
points scoring position after a technical problem caused his
Kawasaki teammate, John Hopkins, to crash out of the race
after just seven laps.
Both Kawasaki riders lined up on the grid today knowing they
were facing a tough task, after rain affected practice sessions
on Friday and Saturday left them with limited dry track time
in which to perfect the race set-up of their Ninja ZX-RR machines.
Hopkins crashed out of contention just seven laps into the
race, after a fault with his quickshifter meant he was unable
to backshift on the approach to the ultra-fast turn one, and
he was left with no option but to run straight on.
West once again showed the determination for which he is
rightly known and raced on to the end, to be rewarded with
15th position and another points scoring finish.
While today's result was frustrating for the Kawasaki Racing
Team, both Hopkins and West are now more determined than ever
to end the recent run of bad luck with a strong performance
at next weekend's Grand Prix of Catalunya.
Anthony West
#13 - 15th Position
"I'm starting to sound like a stuck record now, because
every time I get off the bike I'm explaining the same problem.
It's fairly simple; the rear just spins up when you get on
the gas out of the turns and the bike goes sideways when it's
supposed to go forwards. This is a real, physical problem,
not something that exists only in Anthony West's head. Now
I'm looking to the team for a solution, because I came to
MotoGP to race, and so far this season I've had little opportunity
to do so. Whether the team can find a solution before the
next race, which is only one week away, I don't know."
John Hopkins
#21 - DNF
“We saw in qualifying that we were some way off the
pace in race trim, so we decided to take a chance with some
fairly big changes ahead of morning warm-up today. It was
a gamble that paid off, because the set-up of the bike was
much improved in the race. But then, just seven laps into
the race the bike developed a fault with the quickshifter
and I couldn't backshift approaching turn one. With no way
to scrub off speed the crash was inevitable. It was a big
crash, and I count myself lucky that I managed to walk away
uninjured. Obviously I'm frustrated because this is the second
time in a row that a technical problem has put me out of the
race. This cannot be allowed to happen again."
Michael Bartholemy
Kawasaki Competition Manager
"This was another disappointing weekend for the Kawasaki
Racing Team. The changeable weather during practice on Friday
and Saturday meant we were under pressure to maximize dry
track time on Saturday afternoon, but then we hit some problems,
which meant we didn't qualify as high as we were expecting.
We made some quite major changes to set-up ahead of the race,
which certainly worked for John, but then this improvement
was undone when a technical problem caused him to crash out
of the race. Once again, Anthony battled on to the end, riding
around the problems he's having with rear traction to finish
in the points. We are obviously working to solve this issue,
but with so many races in such a short space of time, it's
not proving easy. After two retirements in as many races,
now we must focus on getting both riders to the finish line
in Catalunya."
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha 42'31.153; 2. Casey Stoner
(AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +2.201; 3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol
Honda Team +4.867; 4. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda
Gresini +6.313; 5. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha +12.530;
6. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha +13.806; 7. Loris Capirossi
(ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +14.447; 8. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA)
JIR Team Scot +15.319; 9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda
Gresini +15.327; 10. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
+30.785; 15. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +1'00.736;
DNF. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team +17 Laps
|
