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Sunday, 05 March 2006 15:05 |
WSB : Two fourths for Haga in Australia
Round: 2 - Australia
Circuit: Phillip Island
Date: 5 March 2006
Crowd: 55000
Temp: 25ºC
Weather: Sunny
Yamaha Motor Italia rider Noriyuki Haga battled traction problems to grab a brace of fourth places at round two of the Superbike World Championship at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia.
The popular Japanese rider rode hard in the day's two 22-lap races to score 26 valuable points over the two races. Haga had run at the front of the day's opening race but faded when his rear traction reduced at around half-distance. Despite running a somewhat lonely fifth for most of the race, the 31-year-old continued to ride hard to pass a fading Troy Bayliss (Ducati) and fend off a late charge from Roberto Rolfo (Ducati). Race two saw Haga make some further suspension changes to lead a thrilling battle at the front with Bayliss, James Toseland (Honda), Alex Barros (Honda), Troy Corser (Suzuki) and Yamaha Motor Italia team-mate Andrew Pitt. A nasty crash for Corser saw the Yamaha riders take avoiding action and let Bayliss and Toseland build a gap. The Yamaha pair was able to stay in touch with Barros in the battle for third but the lack of traction saw them settle for fourth and fifth place at the flag.
Pitt was made to pay for an incorrect tyre choice in race one. The Australian chose a harder compound Pirelli tyre, which stopped him running at the same pace as the leaders in the opening laps. Stuck in a thrilling mid-pack battle for most of the race, he ended the race a subdued ninth. For race two he chose the same softer compound tyre as his rivals and was able to run with the leaders, eventually finishing fifth, just behind Haga.
The Yamaha Motor France squad had a difficult weekend in Australia. Still running their 2005-specification engines, the team's only points came from former MotoGP rider Norick Abe, who took 12th in race two. Fellow Japanese rider Shinichi Nakatomi crashed out of race one, before continuing his world superbike education with 19th in race two. The team's third rider, Frenchman Sebastien Gimbert, retired from the opener with set-up problems before following home Nakatomi in 20th place in race two.
Race one was won by Corser after a race long fight with Barros. Toseland finished third. Bayliss had led the opener by six seconds after obliterating the lap record on lap two. However, the Australian dropped back to eventually finish six, behind Haga and Rolfo. He gained revenge in race two, winning comfortably from Toseland, with Barros taking another podium in third. Bayliss now leads the championship on 75 points, one ahead of Toseland. Pitt leads the Yamaha riders, in fifth place with 45 points, with Haga sixth on 42 points. |
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Sunday, 05 March 2006 15:03 |
Yamaha men continue to dominate on second day at Catalunya
Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi clocked the fastest time once again on the second day of MotoGP Official Test at the Catalunya Circuit in Spain, after another encouraging session for Yamaha. With Rossi again setting the pace for much of the day, closely followed by his team-mate Colin Edwards, the pair took advantage of the warm afternoon conditions to continue to run through their pre-season testing programme at an impressive rate.
Edwards ended the day with the fourth fastest time after briefly leading the time sheets in the closing stages, shaving seven tenths of a second off his best time from yesterday and making continued progress with the race set-up of his YZR-M1 machine. Rossi lapped 1.2 seconds faster than he had managed yesterday, closing in on lap record time as both riders prepare an assault on tomorrow's timed 40-minute session, which will reward the fastest lap with the prize of a new car.
Meanwhile, Yamaha Tech 3 rider Carlos Checa continued his impressive pre-season form with the second fastest time of the day.
Valentino Rossi (1st, 1'42.477, 72 laps)
"To go so fast so early in the test yesterday was the big surprise to us, so today we have just built on that and continued to make improvements. We completed some more important tests and the base setting is good now - we had a few problems with chatter earlier in the pre-season but we seem to have solved those now and today the lap times became faster and faster. I'm also really happy because, to me, this bike feels like my daughter and now I can see it is going well for other riders - Colin and Carlos both love it. Looking at the time sheets this evening of course I am in with a good chance for the new car, but tomorrow is another day and we will have to see what happens. Hopefully the weather will stay as it has done for the last couple of days and we can complete the whole programme we had planned for this test in a positive way." |
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Saturday, 04 March 2006 17:31 |
WSB : Second row for Yamaha Motor Italia pairing
Round: 2 - Australia
Circuit: Phillip Island
Date: 4 March 2006
Temp: 37ºC
Weather: Sunny
Yamaha Motor Italia duo Andrew Pitt and Noriyuki Haga bagged second row starts during today's superpole qualifying session for round two of the Superbike World Championship at Phillip Island in Australia.
Having ended combined qualifying with Haga third and Pitt sixth, the pairing was a little disappointed at being unable to maintain their positions on the soft tyres used for superpole but satisfied with their performances in race trim.
After struggling to find a good balance for his R1 in yesterday's opening qualifying session, Pitt's crew completely revised the machine's settings for today's practice. Their work paid dividends with the Australian carving a massive 1.3 seconds from his Friday time in the Saturday afternoon, lifting him from 16th to sixth in the timesheets with a 1:33.567 lap time. However, on his grid deciding superpole lap, Pitt was one of the few riders not to better his time from the two one-hour sessions, losing one place with a fractionally slower 1:33.598.
Team-mate Haga was another rider unable to improve his lap. His 1:33.631 superpole lap was two-tenths of a second slower than his time from regular qualifying, dropping him five places on the grid - from third to eighth. The Japanese rider had made many changes to the rear suspension on his machine in a bid to improve traction in the sweltering conditions and, despite his team working late into the night and trying many different shock and swingarm combinations, Haga was unable to find a perfect setting for his qualifying lap. The team is expected to make further adjustments this evening ahead of tomorrow's two 22-lap races.
Yamaha Motor France rider Norick Abe starts tomorrow's races from 17th position after missing out on superpole by less than a tenth of a second. The Japanese rider continued to experience set-up problems, as did team-mates Sebastien Gimbert and Shinichi Nakatomi. Gimbert ended the day 21st after being baulked on his flying lap, while world championship rookie Nakatomi took over a second off his Friday time to end the day in 24th. |
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Saturday, 04 March 2006 17:29 |
Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards made their first formal track appearances of the year today as the MotoGP Official Tests got underway at the Montmelo circuit in Catalunya. The traditional pre-season curtain raiser runs for three days, with a timed 40-minute session determining the winner of a new car in an exciting climax to the action on Sunday afternoon at 1405h.
Sporting their new bright-yellow Camel livery, both Rossi and Edwards were in sparkling form throughout the day, dominating the time sheets and ending the session with the quickest times. With barely any changes made to the base set-up of their 2006 version YZR-M1 machines following recent tests, the Italian and the American were quickly on the pace despite brisk morning temperatures, backing up impressive results in contrasting conditions at Sepang and Qatar. A positive first day for Yamaha was completed by Carlos Checa (Tech 3 Yamaha), who sealed the third fastest time on only his third appearance for the team.
Valentino Rossi (1st, 1'43.608, 54 laps)
"The first day here in Catalunya has been very positive. The weather has been better than we expected, especially in the afternoon, so the tyres were running at the right temperature to be enable us to understand the performance of the bike. The data we are gathering will not be much use for the race here in May because it will be so much warmer, but at least we are moving forward with the setting of the bike. I'm pleased because the lap times have been very fast - this is the third track we have ridden at with the 2006 machine and we have been very competitive at all of them. Since 20th January we have been thinking exclusively about race one on 26th March and we will continue with this attitude for the rest of the test."
Colin Edwards (2nd, 1'44.063, 66 laps)
"We didn't change too much with the bike today - just rolled out what we had at Sepang to see how it worked. It was freezing this morning but we did some tests for Michelin and things just got better and better for the rest of the day. I'm happy with the bike, I'm happy with everything really, but as good as it looks and feels we still have a lot of work to do. It's nice to be running up at the top from the start and I must admit it's hard not to have one eye on the car on Sunday! I don't know what I would do with it if I won but we'll figure that out when it comes!"
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"It is a positive surprise to see three Yamahas at the top of the time sheets and of course we are all very pleased. It's only the first day of a long test but we hope it is a good sign of things to come. Things ran very smoothly today, we continued working to our testing programme, on the setting and on the tyres. The base setting seems to work well - this is the third circuit with this bike and it's encouraging that it has worked so well in so many different conditions. Both riders look relaxed and concentrated on the job at hand so let's just keep working this way!" |
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