Rizla Suzuki MotoGP rolls out into the light
 Rizla
Suzuki MotoGP has completed the first-ever MotoGP event held
at night, as it tested at Doha in Qatar on Thursday evening.
Loris Capirossi was the first rider to take to the track
to test the awesome floodlights that have been erected around
the 5.38km Losail International Circuit. He was closely followed
on to the track by team-mate Chris Vermeulen as the pair set
about preparing their Suzuki GSV-Rs in readiness for next
week’s race at the same venue - also to be held at night.
Vermeulen completed 80 laps onboard his machine, as he recorded
a fastest time of 1’57.522 to give him 14th place on
the timesheets. Capirossi circulated 66 times and his quickest
lap of 1’57.551 gave him 15th spot.
Both riders worked hard to find significant advances in set-up
and handling improvements from the last test at Jerez in Spain,
and will be looking to better their lap-times and positions
during tomorrow evening’s session.
Track temperatures dropped to 15ºC as the cool desert
air made tyre choice a major issue and proved a thorough test
for the Bridgestone technicians present at the track. Today’s
fastest time was set by World Champion Casey Stoner on his
Bridgestone-shod Ducati.
Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more test session tomorrow which
will be the final time Capirossi and Vermeulen take to the
track before next week’s practice begins for the first
race of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship, also at Qatar.
Loris Capirossi:
“It is really interesting riding in the night and my
feeling is that it is good out there, it’s not like
daylight but I am very impressed. We are working a lot on
the bike and we have tried something different to find the
best setting. We know the way to minimise the problems we
have at the moment, we are still struggling a bit with traction
which was the same as we had at Jerez. I think we are working
really hard and the team is very close - we only need a bit
of time to make sure we are 100% and fully competitive for
the first race.”
Chris Vermeulen:
“It was quite strange out there to begin with as it
wasn’t as bright as I thought it would be, there were
still quite a lot of shadows so it took a bit of getting used
to. The circuit has done a great job though as it is difficult
to supply the level of light we need to race a MotoGP bike,
but they have made that possible. From the bike’s point
of view we had a big problem when we arrived here, but today
we seemed to have partially solved that and that was certainly
our priority at this test. Things are definitely heading in
the right direction and I hope that we have sorted this problem
so that we can really work on some proper testing and getting
some pace out of the bike.”
IRTA Qatar Night Test Session One classification:
1. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1’55.330: 2. Jorge Lorenzo
(Yamaha) +0.689: 3. Randy de Puniet (Honda) +0.732: 4. Andrea
Dovizioso (Honda) +0.791: 5. James Toseland (Yamaha) +0.921:
14. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) + 2.192: 15 LORIS
CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +2.221:
|
