Valentino Rossi rounded off his testing activity a
little early in Jerez yesterday after he began to feel
an increased level of pain in his recovering right
hand, which he broke at the final race of the
season. Nonetheless the Italian managed to complete
almost his entire schedule of testing activity and
his first test on Bridgestone tyres was deemed to be
a positive one by Yamaha and Bridgestone engineers
alike.
Rossi had planned to complete a long run yesterday but
decided to stop early rather than put more stress on
his hand, and he also decided not to test any more
qualifying tyres following his work on soft rubber
on Wednesday. With most of the rest of the riders
choosing to test qualifiers however, Rossi’s best
lap on race tyres, a time of 1’41.538, put him 11th
in the final standings, with the time sheets topped
by Dani Pedrosa after a lap of 1’38.562.
Valentino Rossi (11th, 1’41.538, 32 laps):
“Today I
tried to do my best but I wasn’t able to ride fast
due to my hand; it started hurting a lot today and I
had no power to ride with it in such conditions. The
fracture is still hurting and furthermore I have not
ridden or trained for almost one month, so it is to
be expected that today my hand would be tired. I
knew I was not in perfect shape, and I also expected
to have some problems at this first test back.
Anyway, we were able to finish our programme and
despite today I think it’s been a positive first
test with Bridgestone. Of course we still have work
to do on the bike in general and with regards to
adapting it to the new tyres but I can reconfirm my
first feeling of two days ago, which was positive.
Now we have a better idea where we need to work hard
in order to improve further. I would like to take
this chance to say a big thank you to all my team,
my mechanics and to all the Yamaha staff for their
great effort throughout the season. I know that I
will find them again at the beginning of 2008 with
the same motivation, if not even more than ever.
Thanks to everyone!”
Davide Brivio –Team Manager: “Today we decided to
finish early because Valentino was not able to ride
at 100% due to pain in his hand. Anyway, it is quite
normal, since he had a bad crash in Valencia and he
has not ridden since. It is not a big problem for us
because we were able to finish our working schedule
and test program, so we preferred to stop the test
early in order not to put unnecessary stress on his
hand. It’s been a very interesting test session here
in Jerez; we had the chance to meet all the
Bridgestone engineers and technicians who will work
with us next season and we got very interesting
information from them and from the new tyres. In
return we were also able to give them important
information to work on, and now we need to analyze
all the data and work hard on it during the winter
in order to be as ready as possible in January. Now
Valentino and the team have some holiday time, which
they deserve because they have worked hard all year,
then we will be back at Sepang in January for the
final preparation before the 2008 championship”
Masahiko Nakajima – Fiat Yamaha Team Director: “Today Valentino’s
physical condition did not allow him to ride as much
or to be as fast as he wanted, so we decided to
finish the session early. We expected this, because
he rode quite hard for three days and we knew that
he was not at 100%. This test session in Jerez has
been very positive for us, for the team and for the
rider, mainly because we have understood the
performance of the new Bridgestone tyres. This test
was enough to collect good data for the future that
will also help us with the direction of our
development for the next season. I do not want to go
into details at this stage, because it is too early
to do so at the very first test with Bridgestone,
but let me say that this has been a very good test.
As far as the bike is concerned, here in Jerez we
tested some new improvements to our electronic
control system and in this field too we collected
some very interesting data. Now we will be able to
implement this information at the first 2008 test”.
Meanwhile 2008 Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo signed off
for 2007 in impressive style in Jerez yesterday,
finishing third overall and recording a best time of
1’39.464 on qualifying tyres, just 0.062 seconds off the
2007 race pole position. Lorenzo completed 90 laps on
the final day of testing in Spain, including a long run
in which the MotoGP rookie recorded more impressive
times. After eight days of testing since the end of the
season, Lorenzo is looking increasingly comfortable on
his new bike and he was also able to complete some tyre
testing today with Michelin, finding some good rear-tyre
rubber. Lorenzo’s 2008 team-mate Valentino Rossi was
11th today after stopping early due to some pain in his
recovering hand, the Italian recording a best time of
1’41.538, whilst Dani Pedrosa was fastest with a lap of
1’38.562. The Fiat Yamaha Team will now enjoy a
month-long winter break, before getting back to work at
Sepang in Malaysia on 22nd, 23rd and 24th January 2007.
Jorge Lorenzo (3rd, 1’39.464, 90 laps):
“Today I felt
even better than yesterday and I did a very good test
session. Yesterday I had some pain because of the number
of laps I had done the day before, but today I was fully
recovered and everything went well. I felt very
comfortable with the M1 and during the race simulation I
had very positive impressions. The lap times are
becoming faster and faster, and this means that we are
working in the right direction. The traction on the rear
is improving, thanks also to the new material from
Michelin, so I am satisfied. Actually I didn’t expect to
be so fast in the race simulation; I went beyond my
expectations. At the end of the third day we can say
that this has been a very good test session and my
overall feeling is, of course, better than after the
Sepang test. We still have a lot of work to do, but the
atmosphere inside the garage is concentrated, relaxed
and very professional, so I am sure we will achieve our
goals before the season starts. I am looking forward to
being in Sepang, in January, to test new engine
specifications and to try to be even faster.”
Daniele Romagnoli – Team Manager: “Today was a positive
day. We continued to improve the set-up of Jorge’s bike
and we found a good basis to work from. We also tested
new tyres from Michelin and we found some good material,
above all for the rear, that accepted the torque of the
engine well and had good grip. Jorge keeps on improving
his feeling with the bike and now we can say that he
finally feels comfortable with it. Today we completed a
long run that was definitely positive, especially since
it’s the first one for Jorge riding the M1. He was very
fast, even faster than the 2007 race pace. Finally he
tested two qualifying tyres that enabled him to lower
his best time by one second, and we consider this to be
a very good result. I would like to thank the rider, who
rode a huge amount of laps, and the team, who performed
a great job throughout the entire test session. Now
let’s take some well-deserved rest and then we will meet
again in Sepang in January, to start the new challenge.”
Masahiko Nakajima – Fiat Yamaha Team Director:
“Today Jorge
rode 90 laps, so first of all I would like to say that
the amount of laps he did in three days has been very
impressive, with an average of about 80 laps per day!
There’s no need to say that we are very happy with his
attitude in all the tests held so far. At the end of
this test session, Jorge is third overall and this is
quite impressive for us. It means we are on the way to
achieving the final goal, which is to adapt the bike to
his riding style. Jorge showed us his talent and
potential, and demonstrated that he has the ability to
give us very good data and information to help in the
work for next season. We are still on the way to
defining the base set-up of his bike, but it is quite
evident that his riding is becoming closer to that of
the other MotoGP top riders. He is braking better and
has better and better corner speed, and we have not
found the final set-up yet! Now we know how to improve
his bike further; we know the right direction and now we
need to analyze the data we collected here in Jerez and
then fix the final set-up at the next Sepang test in
January”.
MotoGP Test Lap Times, Jerez (Thursday)
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1’38.562
2. Nicky Hayden (Honda) 1’38.848
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1’39.464
4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1.39.747
5. Shinya Nakano (Honda) 1’40.121
6. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1’40.184
7. Alex de Angelis (Honda) 1’40.185
8. James Toseland (Yamaha) 1’40.213
9. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 1’40.398
10. John Hopkins (Kawasaki) 1’40.984
11. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1’41.538
12. Marco Melandri (Ducati) 1’41.619
13. Tadayuki Okada (Honda) 1’41.715
14. Nicolo Canepa (Ducati) 1’41.793
15. Anthony West (Kawasaki) 1’42.343
16. Vittoriano Guareschi (Ducati) 1.42.850
17. Shinichi Ito (Bridgestone) 1’43.001
