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Grand Prix Motorcycle racing returned to
the Adriatic holiday resort of Misano for the first time in
fourteen years today, but the party was well and truly
spoilt by the Italian weather as fierce storms turned the
first day into a washout. After the paddock was welcomed
back to the venue by temperatures in excess of 35 degrees
yesterday, it looked like the heat was going to be the chief
weather worry for the weekend. However storms overnight gave
way to showers this morning before even more torrential rain
set in around midday, accompanied by dramatic displays of
thunder and lightening. The rain eventually abated around
2pm but left the paddock, pit lane, some parts of the track
and most pit boxes flooded, forcing race direction to cancel
all remaining sessions today.
This morning's first free practice, held
in very wet conditions, nonetheless gave the riders a taster
of what to expect from the Misano track. The Fiat Yamaha
Team duo of Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards put in a
positive initial showing, finishing the session second and
fifth respectively. The MotoGP riders should have had two
more practice sessions today; an extra hour having been
added to allow them time to learn the new circuit. As a
result a revised schedule tomorrow will see a two-hour
MotoGP practice in the morning, from 0900 to 1100, before
the standard one-hour qualifying session in the afternoon.
Valentino Rossi
(Position: 2nd;
Time: 1'48.632;
Laps: 21)
"Unfortunately we had very
bad weather today but this morning my first impressions of
the track were good, better than when I came here to do some
laps with the safety commission on a street bike. I think
they've done a very good job with the bumps; we asked them
to resurface another time and now it's not so bad. Of course
in the wet we're not riding at the maximum, but it seems
okay and I was quite happy. Because of the rain we lost two
hours, which makes things more difficult for everyone, but
we have an extra hour tomorrow and the forecast is much
better so I hope that we will get some dry time.
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The Fiat Yamaha Team duo of Valentino Rossi (above)
and Colin Edwards put in a positive initial showing
this morning in Misano, finishing the session second
and fifth respectively. |
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A revised schedule tomorrow at Misano will see a
two-hour MotoGP practice in the morning, from 0900
to 1100, before the standard one-hour qualifying
session takes place in the afternoon. |
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My performance this morning was quite good, we tried a new
rain tyre on the rear and it worked well. Melandri was quite
far ahead but anyway I'm quite happy. Of course it's another
story tomorrow in the dry, but I think we have some more
improvements for the dry setting as well so I am looking
forward to it."
Colin Edwards (Position:
5th; Time:
1'49.219; Laps:
19)
"What time we had this
morning was really good! Once I'd got the hang of going the
opposite way around the track to what I was used to from my
Superbike days, I felt pretty comfortable out there and my
bike felt good in the wet. We went out initially and just
did a few laps to get a bit of a feeling, before coming back
in and changing the setting accordingly. We did almost the
whole session on one set of tyres and they felt really good,
much better than they have previously in the wet this
season. We had a lot of grip which was very encouraging.
Obviously we could have done with the extra time this
afternoon and the weather has been unbelievable but
everyone's in the same boat so we're going to have to make
the most of it!"
Davide Brivio, Team Director
"It's really unlucky that the
weather has been so bad today, we weren't expecting this
here! The first practice this morning didn't really give us
enough time to completely gauge the situation, especially as
it was wet, but anyway it's given the riders an initial
feeling and they were both quite fast. It seems Michelin
have done a good job with the development of their
wet-weather tyres so we were very pleased about this. It's a
pity we missed out on the extra session and couldn't
continue with the good work, but it's the same for everyone
and so now we will make the most of the time we have
tomorrow."
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