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Monday, 27 March 2006 |
An eventful weekend at Jerez ended in disappointing fashion today as both Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards got caught in a first corner melee that ended their hopes of glory in the opening round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship. The Camel Yamaha Team pair made good starts from ninth and tenth on the grid respectively but a collision between Rossi and Toni Elías (Honda) on the inside of turn one saw the Italian knocked from his YZR-M1 and sent Edwards wide into the gravel trap.
Despite some damage to his bike, Rossi showed the character of a true World Champion as he returned to the track, battling his way back into the field and picking off several riders to secure two championship points in fourteenth place. Edwards, meanwhile, fought from second last to eleventh by the end of the 27-lap encounter. Victory went to pole setter Loris Capirossi (Ducati) in a race time of 45'57.733, but he was pushed hard by second-placed Dani Pedrosa (Honda) on his debut in the MotoGP class. Nicky Hayden (Honda) completed the podium.
Colin Edwards (11th; + 37.930)
"I probably made the best race start of my whole life, Valentino got away well too and we went together into the first bend. Elias came up on the inside and I actually saw everything happen but to be honest I thought Vale would be able to stay on the bike so I kept my corner speed and tried to just run it around the outside. Unfortunately he went down and I had nowhere to go but the gravel. It really capped the weekend off for us but the truth is that we weren't fast enough to challenge today. This track has been a real pain for us and I can't wait to get away. We've got a test tomorrow but I'll be happy when we get to Qatar, where the bike worked really well in testing."
Valentino Rossi (14th; + 1'05.766)
"We knew this was going to be a difficult race but maybe not so difficult! I saw Toni come up on the inside and he hit me; this is racing and these things happen. I have known Toni for many years and he is a good rider. He apologised to me after the race so I told him not to worry - only to remember to brake next time and if it is too late then to hit another bike instead of me! Anyway I came back on the track and had a nice battle with Alex Hofmann. I am disappointed because I wanted to win the first race of the season but there is nothing we can do now. Only work hard to make sure we don't have these problems again and look forward to the next race in Qatar."
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"It seems that everything that could go wrong did go wrong for us this weekend. On Friday morning when we needed the time to test it rained and things have gone continually against us since then. We obviously still have a lot of work to do and for some reason our bike clearly doesn't work at this circuit so we are keen to find out why, if we can, in tomorrow's test. The engineers have a lot of data and everyone is working at 100% to find a solution. We were fast at Sepang, Qatar and Catalunya so there is no need to panic and we can look forward to the next race. On a positive note I thought both riders showed character to fight back after the first corner incident and hopefully they will have better luck next time." |
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Monday, 27 March 2006 |
Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards face an uphill battle in the opening round of the MotoGP World Championship tomorrow after vibration problems returned in this afternoon's qualifying practice at Jerez. After making progress with his YZR-M1 machine in yesterday's free practice, Rossi's cause was not helped by an incident early in today's session, when he became the first of five riders to end up in the gravel after oil was spilled on the track by another competitor.
The red flags were duly raised and when the pit-lane reopened both Rossi and Edwards worked against the clock to solve their difficulties ahead of tomorrow's 27-lap race. However, bad luck struck for Edwards when he suffered a puncture to his rear tyre and the American was only able to qualify tenth fastest, one place behind his Italian team-mate.
Pole position went to Loris Capirossi (Ducati) in an outright circuit record time of 1'39.064 and the Italian will be joined on the front row by his team-mate Sete Gibernau and Japanese rider Shinya Nakano (Kawasaki).
Valentino Rossi (9th - 1'40.160, 28 laps)
"I thought we had solved a lot of the problems yesterday but today they came back. The bike is still vibrating and with the qualifying tyre the problem became worse because the extra grip on the rear pushed the front even harder. Basically we are losing time in every part of the corner. Also the crash at the start of the session didn't help but we can't use that as an excuse. I have won the first race of the season every year since 2001 but it is going to be difficult tomorrow. I have always found that it helps to start the season with a win so I will still be going for it!"
Colin Edwards (10th - 1'40.181, 23 laps)
"I suppose you could say we are up the creek but the important day is tomorrow so we still have a paddle! Just when we thought we had the problem sorted out it has come creeping back. We've had three days of tests here and now two days this weekend but we just can't get on top of it. The vibration in the corners comes in at a certain speed so the effect is like having a speed limiter on the bike. To make things worse I had a puncture in my first qualifying tyre so we lost time at the end of the session too. Things don't look to be going too well for us at the moment but we'll try to pull a rabbit out of the hat tomorrow."
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"We still have some work to do to solve the problems completely. It has been a strange weekend because yesterday we lost a whole session because of the weather and then today we had another setback when Valentino crashed on the oil left by Alex Hofmann's bike. It didn't help because we had some solutions we wanted to try on that bike. It seems things are conspiring to make life difficult for us but we won't give up. It is clearly not a good situation with regard to the starting grid but the pace of the front riders is not too far from our own. If we can make some slight improvements in the morning then I think we will be in the right shape for a good race."
Round: 1 - 2006 MotoGP Jerez
Circuit: Jerez
Circuit Length: 4423
Lap Record: 1' 40.596 (Valentino Rossi, 2005)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 39.064 (Loris Capirossi, 2006)
Date: 25 March 2006
Temp: 20ºC
Session 1 :
Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. 1st Qualifying
1 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA 1' 39.064
2 S. Gibernau Ducati ESP 1' 39.285
3 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1' 39.526
4 N. Hayden Honda USA 1' 39.666
5 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 39.734
6 T. Elias Honda ESP 1' 39.875
7 M. Melandri Honda ITA 1' 39.932
8 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1' 40.146
9 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 1' 40.160
10 C. Edwards Yamaha USA 1' 40.181
11 C. Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1' 40.215
12 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA 1' 40.340
13 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 1' 40.497
14 C. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 40.851
15 C. Stoner Honda AUS 1' 40.982
16 M. Tamada Honda JPN 1' 41.119
18 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR 1' 42.267 |
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Monday, 27 March 2006 |
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi kicked off his MotoGP World Championship defence in fine style today, setting the fastest lap time in the first free practice sessions for the opening round of the 2006 season at Jerez. After light rain showers hit the track this morning, when Rossi decided not to ride and his team-mate Colin Edwards put in just two laps, both riders were able to work without interruption in the afternoon as they aimed to iron out set-up difficulties encountered in recent pre-season tests at this circuit.
Whilst Rossi was able to overcome the majority of his problems, immediately finding the right direction to work with the team's engineers and technicians, Edwards suffered a minor setback today but he is confident that he can recover lost ground in tomorrow morning's final free practice before the crucial afternoon qualifying session. The American clocked the seventh fastest time today as Loris Capirossi (Ducati) produced the strongest challenge to Rossi's dominance, lapping 0.012 seconds slower than his Italian compatriot.
Valentino Rossi (1'41.613, 24 laps)
"We haven't fixed everything just yet but the Yamaha engineers came up with a few ideas to solve the vibrations we suffered during the test and they all worked. So far we have come up with a setting that allows me to ride in a better way to control the bike and, even though we still have some small vibrations, it is giving us less problems. This is the perfect way to start the season and I am really happy with the way the team have worked. This afternoon the track conditions were still not perfect so the times weren't so fast, but I think tomorrow it will be better. Tomorrow we have to keep working hard to come up with some more solutions and I am sure we will be in good shape for the race. There is already a good atmosphere and I can't wait until Sunday!"
Colin Edwards (1'42.266, 28 laps)
"To be honest things didn't go as we would have wished today. After losing an hour this morning because of the weather we missed out on another 45 minutes in the afternoon. I felt something was wrong but it took a long time for us to work it out. Basically there was too much pressure in the tyre and once we realised that we were able to start working properly - unfortunately it was a bit too late to be reflected in the lap times. Looking across the garage we can see that the engineers have got some really good data that will definitely help us tomorrow to refine the set-up and sort out some of the problems we had in the test. It will be two important hours but I have full confidence in the job the team is doing."
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"It looks like we are making improvements and moving in the right direction, which is very encouraging at this early stage of the weekend. We lost this morning's session to the weather but I have to say that the engineers and the technicians made the most of the available time to make the first adjustments to the bikes. Both riders have done a different job today, and our team has great cooperation so now we can put all this information together and find the best way forward for both riders tomorrow morning. Hopefully the bad weather is now out of the way for the rest of the weekend."
Round: 1 - 2006 MotoGP Jerez
Circuit: Jerez
Circuit Length: 4423
Lap Record: 1' 40.596 (Valentino Rossi, 2005)
Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 39.419 (Valentino Rossi, 2005)
Date: 24 March 2006
Temp: 20ºC
Free Practice :
Pos. Rider Manufacturer Nat. Free Practice
1 V. Rossi Yamaha ITA 1' 41.613
2 L. Capirossi Ducati ITA 1' 41.625
3 D. Pedrosa Honda ESP 1' 41.798
4 S. Gibernau Ducati ESP 1' 41.798
5 S. Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1' 41.939
6 M. Melandri Honda ITA 1' 42.108
7 C. Edwards Yamaha USA 1' 42.266
8 N. Hayden Honda USA 1' 42.276
9 R. De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1' 42.455
10 T. Elias Honda ESP 1' 42.518
11 K. Roberts Team Roberts KR USA 1' 42.538
12 C. Stoner Honda AUS 1' 42.552
13 C. Checa Yamaha ESP 1' 42.608
14 J. Hopkins Suzuki USA 1' 42.727
15 M. Tamada Honda JPN 1' 42.868
19 J. Ellison Yamaha GBR 1' 45.239 |
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Monday, 20 March 2006 |
Rinaldi Yamaha rider Stefan Everts continued his victorious pre-season form by taking another overall triumph at the Valance International in France yesterday.
The Belgian and reigning MX1 World Champion has won every major 'warm-up' event since the motocross calendar cranked into life at Mantova, Italy in February. His fifth success in as many weeks arrived thanks to another 1-1 set of results. He holeshotted both motos and enjoyed a tussle with KTM's Mickael Pichon in the first race before defeating his great rival. In the second sprint he controlled the heat from the first turn until the chequered flag.
"In the first race I holeshotted but I had a small crash after a few laps and that put me back to fourth," he said. "Two laps later I had worked my way back to second and was attacking Pichon. It was a difficult track to pass and we had a tough battle; it must have been quite spectacular for the fans! Towards the end I was able to make a pass and won the heat." "In the second moto my start was again very good," he added. "Another holeshot meant that I was able to lead from start to finish. After fifteen minutes I already had a small gap over the others."
Everts has now guided the YZ 450FM to the top of the podium in Belgium, Italy, France (twice) and the United Kingdom and is perfectly placed to stretch the run into the first round of the 2006 FIM World Championships that will take place on April 1st/2nd at Zolder in Belgium for the Grand Prix of Flanders.
"This was my last race until Zolder and the whole pre-season period has left me with a great feeling," he concluded. "I will train hard for another few days and then take a small break before the first Grand Prix so that my body is fresh. To start so well in Valance was something incredible. Half of the race is won with a holeshot. In the past I have been struggling but we have worked on the bike and hopefully we will have a hard package to beat for the GPs."
Cedric Melotte is still recovering from his injured wrist but was able to post results of 16th and 10th. Bike it Yamaha's Julien Bill grabbed a decent 6th position in the second moto. |
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