Hayden looks for more results
after a postive start to the weekend
Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo dominated the opening session at Montmeló today, holding the top two spots between them for the entire 45-minute practice. It was eventually the Italian who topped the time sheets with his team-mate and local-hero just three tenths behind him, leaving the duo looking in fine form for the weekend.
Third on the timesheet was Mugello racewinner and 2007 Barcelona victor Casey Stoner (Marlboro Ducati), who went round just over half a second slower than Rossi on his Ducati Desmosedici, despite a small crash near the end of the session. The biggest rider improvement was that of Stoner's teammate Nicky Hayden - who circulated in 6th place.
Fourth on the timesheet just as he has been in the last two MotoGP races, Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) put in a similar time to Stoner under the intense heat. Dovizioso’s injured Dani Pedrosa, however, was down in 14th place as he tested the riding condition of his injured hip.
The Circuit de Catalunya, located around 20 kilometres north of Barcelona, was added to the calendar in 1992, when it hosted the European Grand Prix, before changing to the Grand Prix of Catalunya in 1996. It is a fast and demanding track with a long main straight of 1,047m, which allows the 800cc machines to hit top speeds potentially in excess of 325km/h, and some hard-braking areas such as turn one and the "La Caixa" corner at the end of the shorter back straight, as well as some fast and flowing corners. The combination of long corners and variations in camber calls for a balanced chassis set-up and puts huge demand on front tyre durability and feel. The track was resurfaced in 2005 but many riders still complain about the bumps caused by F1 testing and racing.
Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha
We made some changes to our base setting here and already it feels much better to ride. This practice went very well for us, we were strong from start to finish and to be in first position feels good. We have found out some very interesting things, especially about my feeling with the bike, but we need to keep on working because there are still some parts that we want to make better for tomorrow. I am really happy to be able to ride the bike how I want to finally but there is still plenty more work to continue with to make sure we’re in the best possible shape for tomorrow afternoon and Sunday.
Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha
I always have a few doubts coming to each new track but today everything felt really good, my bike and my Bridgestone tyres. I feel very comfortable and we can see that we have the potential to put on a really good performance here. We have a few things which we can improve so we will try to do that tomorrow but this is another good start for us. It’s very early to be making any conclusions about who will be fighting on Sunday though and for now we just have to stay focused. It feels great to be out in front of all my home fans here and I am really happy to have the FC Barcelona stickers on my bike!
Nicky Hayden - Ducati Marlboro
I know it's only sixth position but still I'm pretty happy because I was running up front throughout the session and having fun, which is what racing is supposed to be about! Basically "Vitto" (Guareschi) stayed on in Mugello and tested a lot and we have changed almost everything on the bike other than the handgrips! We’ve altered the electronics and the geometry a lot to help me get the bike turning and we’ve taken a big step. I don't want to get too excited because it's only Friday and we’ve got to keep working hard but I want to say that I am very grateful to the team and to "Vitto", Filippo (Preziosi) and "Pippi" (Cristhian Pupulin) and the Test Team in particular. Nobody here has given up on me even after a few bad races and I have always made it clear I won't give up on them. We have had to stay mentally strong and keep positive, even though that hasn't been easy. Hopefully we're on to something here and all the hard work will start paying off.
Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro
We didn't have such a good feeling in the beginning. We're trying a few different things on one of the bikes and it's working really well apart from in two areas. One is when I'm at full lean on the way into the corner, it feels a bit vague and wants to push me a metre or so wide. When I'm on the gas again it turns really well. The other point is that we’re not getting much traction, but we're getting loads of corner speed and it's turning really well. It's a case of working to find a balance and unfortunately we lost a bit of time at the end because I tipped off it in the hairpin at the end of the back straight. Basically I'd had a couple of moments before that so I was being a little careful - probably too carteful because I didn't push the front hard enough in that corner and it went a little light and tucked. Anyway, we've ended up with some reasonably competitive lap times and I'm confident we can go much faster tomorrow. I'm happy because we know what we're capable of and it's just a matter of getting it done now.
Colin Edwards - Tech 3 Yamaha
Today I didn't feel very comfortable at all and I was having an issue with the front-end feeling. Nothing feels natural and being a front-end guy as much as I am, when the front is not quite right it causes me a problem and today I just couldn't get a comfortable feeling. Keeping the front tyre loaded and generating corner speed is the biggest issue and I'm going to sit down with my guys tonight because we need to try and figure out a way to solve it with a better setting. We've always been able to quickly solve our issues this year so I'm confident we'll come out fighting closer to the front tomorrow. Today though I hit a bit of a brick wall because I was making some changes to the bike that should have improved my feeling but the lap time wasn't any better. I was having a problem getting the bike to turn and it just wasn't comfortable for me to push. If I did push the bike would just run wide and that was costing me time.
James Toseland - Tech 3 Yamaha
On paper it doesn't look spectacular but I'm really pleased with today because it was easily my best start to a weekend this season. I was seventh until the final minutes so that's encouraging and at the end I was out on quite an old rear tyre, which was moving around quite a bit. With a new tyre I'm sure I could have got a bit further up, but I wanted to get some information on the hard tyre for the race. We tried a slightly different setting on the rear shock, softening the spring to try and help the bike cushion the bumps a little bit better here because the track is quite bump to be fair. At the beginning we'd gone a bit too soft and that was making the rear of the bike sit a bit too low and we had to make a couple of small changes, but my team did a great job as always because it improved the feeling. We found a bit more grip at the end and I did my best lap on a rear tyre that had already done 16 laps and I was nearly half-a-second quicker than my previous best time, so it shows we're moving in the right direction. After today I feel quite confident for the weekend. It looks like we'll get a good dry weekend and I had a good result here last year. So I'm pleased to have something to build on.
Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda
It’s my home race and already the atmosphere and support is incredible, but of course this wasn’t one of the best days of riding for me. I had a pain-killing injection before I rode this afternoon but it’s still very uncomfortable on the bike and this means I wasn’t able to ride at my normal pace. MotoGP machines are very physical to ride - it’s not like a street bike - so it’s tough when you are not at full strength. It’s frustrating because this is one of my favourite circuits of the season and also one where I have had a lot of good results. However, we certainly aren’t going to give up. It’s a long season and although today didn’t go too well, we’ll come back tomorrow and see what we can do.
Andrea Dovizioso - Repsol Honda
Today’s result was pretty good and we are not too far from the front which is encouraging - though we still need to close the gap. This afternoon we worked on the set-up of the bike to improve the handling during corner entry and in the turn, which remains our main issue. We tried a different set-up solution on the second bike that worked well and I was able to improve the lap time and reduce the gap to the frontrunners. Fourth place today is a good start but we are still too far from the first three top riders, so we’ll continue to work on this tomorrow.
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