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After a gruelling fortnight of
back-to-back races, there was one final day's work left for
the Fiat Yamaha Team yesterday as they completed a day of
tyre testing at Montmelo. Despite having had little time to
recover from their efforts during yesterday's spectacular
MotoGP race, Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards were
nonetheless back out on their M1s under the sweltering
Spanish sun for a full day's work, concentrating exclusively
on testing a variety of tyres for Michelin.
Today was especially important as it was the last time the
team will test until after Brno in August, by which time
they will have completed five more races. The unofficial
fastest time of the day was set by John Hopkins on a
qualifying tyre, who posted a lap of 1'41.40. Rossi
completed 77 laps and was fourth fastest in a time of
1'42.72 whilst Edwards set a best lap of 1'43.41, putting
him 12th fastest after 82 laps.
The team and riders now have a ten-day
break in which to recharge their batteries before the next
pair of races, firstly at Donington in the UK, where Rossi
lives, and then at Assen in Holland.
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The team and riders now have a ten-day break in
which to recharge their batteries before the next
pair of races, firstly at Donington in the UK, where
Rossi lives, and then at Assen in Holland. |
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After a gruelling fortnight of back-to-back MotoGP
races, there was one final day's work left for the
Fiat Yamaha Team yesterday as they completed a full
day of Michelin tyre testing at Montmelo. |
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"With Valentino and Colin we've concentrated entirely on
tyre testing with Michelin; that was the main target of
today and really the only job we've done," said Team
Director Davide Brivio. "We've done quite a lot of testing
over the last few weeks, after Le Mans and then also here
and we've given a huge amount of information to Michelin and
improved each time. Le Mans was a very important test and
put us in good shape for Mugello but of course there's
always room for improvement and that was the aim of today's
test. We tried working in a slightly new direction today
with both riders and it seems to be working well, we're
pleased with the day's work. Of course when you're working
at this level the improvements and changes are only very
small but they're always important and this is why we keep
on working so hard. We also had a test rider here today,
Andrew Pitt, so that we could test additional tyres and get
even more information. We're really making every effort in
this area together with Michelin so we have to thank them
for their hard work. Now we have some time to rest, which
everyone really deserves after such a hard two weeks, and
then we'll go to Donington and see how we get on there!"
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