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Kawasaki
January 24, 2008
Kawasaki's competition manager, Michael Bartholemy, declared himself satisfied with the progress made by the team's four riders, as the season opening three day test at Sepang was brought to a successful conclusion this afternoon.
After two days evaluating new chassis and engine components, John Hopkins and Anthony West were able to focus this morning on fine-tuning the base set-up of their Ninja ZX-RR machines, before embarking on a race simulation as the heat, and the track temperatures, headed skywards during the afternoon.
While the two race pilots racked up the laps, test rider Tamaki Serizawa brought the paddock to a standstill when he debuted a screamer version of Kawasaki's Ninja ZX-RR.
The distinctive high-pitched scream of the development bike was enough to bring a crowd of people out of their pit boxes and onto the pit wall as Serizawa flashed across the start finish line to continue the bike's first shakedown test.
Olivier Jacque gave the screamer motor its second outing during the afternoon session, with positive results. Both test riders will continue the evaluation of the bike during the second Sepang test in early February.
Hopkins and West now head for the second test of the season, which will take place at the Phillip Island circuit in Victoria, Australia, starting on 30th January and concluding on 1st February.
John Hopkins: 5th - 42 Laps - Best Time 2'01.198
"I'm happy with how things have gone, and I leave this test pretty motivated for the next. Overall I'm really pleased with the bike; we have a couple of small things to address, but we've now got a clear understanding of what our goal is and where we need to be, and I think we're ready to make the next step. I was pretty pleased with the first race simulation on the bike; the traction control works really well, so I didn't have to adapt my riding style so much to compensate for the drop off in grip as the tyres started to go off towards the end. This is a big positive. Now I'm looking forward to getting to Phillip Island. I followed Randy in the race there, and the Kawasaki looked to be working well, now we need to take it to the next level. It's another new track for me on the Kawasaki, and I hope the test in Australia will turn out to be as positive as these last three days in Malaysia have been."
Anthony West: 15th - 39 Laps - Best Time 2'02.978
"We tried a few more front tyres again today, working towards identifying the ones that give me the most confidence in the front, and that we can continue with during the next few tests. We also tried some different engine brake and traction control settings, before running a race simulation this afternoon. The idea of the endurance run was too give me a better feel for the bike when the tyre performance has started to drop off. The only problem today was that the track temperature was already quite high when we began, and that meant that the grip had already started to fall off. It was a bit weird, because I actually went faster towards the end, which we obviously weren't expecting. One positive point is that the revised chassis components appear to have eliminated the chatter that plagued us during the race here last season although, because of the grip issues, we will need to confirm this at Phillip Island next week. It's been a hard three days to be honest, because the heat and humidity really takes it out of you. Things should be a lot better at Phillip Island next week, although it was 40 degrees there when I was visiting my grandfather over Christmas. Hopefully it's cooled down a bit now."
Michael Bartholemy, Kawasaki Competition Manager
"Overall I'm happy with the progress we've made during these three days in Sepang. Both riders have had the chance to get back up to speed after the long winter break, and John was quick to get to grips with the 2008 Ninja ZX-RR. Despite the tricky track conditions that caught out more than a few of the leading riders, John was consistently fast throughout the test and has provided Kawasaki's engineers with both the necessary data and a clear direction for their development efforts over the coming weeks. John has also set the target for Anthony, who knows he has some work to do when we get to Phillip Island next week. He didn't seem to settle as quickly as John, but his lap times improved throughout the second and third day at the test, so I'm sure he'll be able to close the gap significantly at his home circuit. We've covered a lot of ground for the first test of the season, and the contribution of our two test riders shouldn't be underestimated. Olivier Jacque and Tamaki Serizawa have completed individual test schedules equal in intensity to that of our two race pilots, and this will pay dividends for Kawasaki in terms of development. Now we must look to carry this momentum on to Phillip Island, where we'll be looking for both riders to finish higher up the timesheet."
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Fiat Yamaha
January 24, 2008
New Fiat Yamaha Team signing Jorge Lorenzo finished what was just his fourth test on a MotoGP bike in fine form today, rounding off testing in Malaysia in third place overall. The Spanish rookie posted his best lap from 63 on a Michelin qualifying tyre but also put in a string of consistently fast laps on race tyres, despite a fall cutting short his long run.
The youngster set out for his race simulation in sweltering conditions this morning and was posting some consistently fast times when he crashed on lap 17. He was unhurt however and was able to continue with Michelin tyre testing for the rest of the day, rounding off with an impressive time of 2’00.766 on a qualifying tyre, just 0.440 seconds off fastest man of the day Nicky Hayden and only 0.161 seconds off the existing Sepang pole record. Lorenzo’s team-mate Valentino Rossi meanwhile was sixth today with a best lap of 2’01.425.
The Fiat Yamaha Team will now head to their respective homes for a week before returning to Sepang for another three-day test on 5th, 6th and 7th February.
Jorge Lorenzo
Position: 3rd
Time: 2’00.766
Laps: 63
“Today was another positive day for me and it’s been an encouraging three days overall: I’m pleased with what we’ve achieved. I had a little problem this morning because I felt like I had a bit less grip than usual, so we had to work on this. Then I started my race simulation and unfortunately I crashed about three-quarters of the way through; I was a bit out of the line and when I accelerated I lost control of the bike. Before that my pace was not so bad and we had time to gather a lot of information before it happened, so it wasn’t the end of the world. I wasn’t hurt and so after that we started again with Michelin tyre testing and at the end I tried a qualifying tyre which was very good; I improved my time quite a lot. I’m really happy with the team’s work and now we’re waiting for the next test so we can continue improving.”
Daniele Romagnoli, Team Manager
“Despite the crash in his long run we got some good information and his pace up to that time was good. Overall it’s been a very good test and we’ve had some good improvement from the engine side. We’ve continued to progress with regards to the bike set-up and also with tyres, where we’ve found some good new material. Thanks to the rider and the team for their hard work and of course we’re looking forward to coming back again in ten days to continue our preparation for the season ahead.”
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Repsol Honda
January 24, 2008
Nicky Hayden completed the first MotoGP tests of 2008 with the fastest lap at Sepang today. The Repsol Honda man rode a stunningly fast lap on qualifiers to top the three-day session. He also set an impressive pace in race trim, riding his best-ever Sepang lap on race tyres at 2m 01.6s. The 2006 MotoGP World Champion spent most of the day riding his RC212V equipped with conventional valves after testing Honda’s new pneumatic-valve engine this morning. The Sepang weather was typically tropical today, with ambient temperature at 33 degrees and track temperature at 51 degrees.
Team-mate Dani Pedrosa underwent surgery yesterday in Barcelona to fix the right hand injury he suffered when he crashed here at Sepang on January 22. The Spaniard was diagnosed to have suffered a fracture in the second metacarpal and three diaphysary fragments, the bones in the middle section of the metacarpian. The operation, which fixed the damage with a titanium plate and seven screws, was carried out by Dr Xavier Mir at the USP Institut Universitari Dexeus. The usual recovery period for such an injury is six weeks, but Dr Mir believes Pedrosa should be able to return to riding sooner than that, if all goes well with his recuperation. Hayden resumes testing at Phillip Island, Australian next week, on January 30, 31 and February 1.
Nicky Hayden, fastest lap: 2m 00.326s (lap 25 of 77)
“Today’s gone a lot better than the last couple and we’re feeling positive, I feel like I’m a lot closer than I was a year ago here. This morning we checked the pneumatic valve engine, then we just focused on the standard engine and this year’s chassis, working on the general set-up. I used qualifiers for my fastest lap and they worked well. After that we did a batch of front tyres because one of my weak points here is that sometimes I struggle when this track gets hot. So I did a batch of tyres at the hottest part of the day to improve on that.
We hadn’t really tested any tyres for Michelin here until today and we wanted to do a long run. That run was decent, probably the best thing I’ve done all week. I did the best lap I’ve ever done round here on race tyres on lap 18, a 2m 01.6s. At the end of three long days that wasn’t too bad. I used a 16.5 on that run but I’ve also been trying some 16 rears here.
Now we go to Phillip Island which is quite a different track with some long corners, some high-speed stuff and a lot of changes of direction. The big thing there is tyres so it’ll be really important to do some more tyre work with Michelin there. We will also do some more work with the pneumatic-valve engine. I’ve got faith in Honda, so hopefully they can make us proud. I think it’s going to be a good season, there’s a lot of guys going fast, a lot of guys motivated. It’s an exciting time, everyone’s at zero.”
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Fiat Yamaha
January 24, 2008
Valentino Rossi rounded off the third day of testing in Malaysia with another day’s solid progress in Sepang today, the Fiat Yamaha Team rider finishing the test sixth overall out of 22 riders testing. Rossi had time to complete a full race simulation of 21 laps and recorded a general improvement compared to last year’s race, despite slowing down for a lap in the middle in order to give himself a breather as temperatures topped 34 degrees.
Rossi’s best time after 48 laps, a lap of 2’01.425, was posted on a Bridgestone qualifier but the Italian admits there is more work to do in order to maximise bike set-up when using the softer qualifying tyres. Overall it was an extremely positive test for Rossi and his crew, who managed to complete everything on the schedule thanks to good weather throughout. Rossi’s young team-mate Jorge Lorenzo had an equally promising three days and finished the test in third, with a best time of 2’00.766.
The Team will return to Sepang again in ten days time for the second pre-season test of 2008, with another three day’s work planned for 5th, 6th and 7th February.
Valentino Rossi
Position: 6th
Time: 2’01.425
Laps: 48
“The overall balance of the three day test has been very positive and we’ve worked in many different areas. We’ve tested the pneumatic-valve engine and I have a good feeling from it, plus we’ve improved our top speed compared to the race here. I’m happy about the engine so far, although we want to make as much mileage as possible with it in order to check its reliability and performance. We’ve continued to work with the new electronics in braking and acceleration and the new system is helping us to have more control and make less mistakes. Of course we’ve also done a lot of work with Bridgestone on tyres, and we have found some positive things here. We need to improve our performance with the qualifying tyre; we need more time to better understand how to set-up our bike with the soft tyres and so we will continue to work on this next time. We’ve given a lot of information to Bridgestone this week and we look forward to more work together next time. Finally I was able to complete a good race simulation and overall my pace was better than in the race last year, even though I had to slow down for a bit in the middle because it was so hot! Anyway I really wanted to finish so I kept going and in the end I was very happy with my performance. It’s been a good test for us and now we’re looking forward to next time.”
Davide Brivio, Team Manager
“This has been a very positive test and it’s clear that Yamaha have worked very hard during the winter, so I would like to say a big thank you to all the engineers. To everyone involved now it looks like we’re on our way to fixing some of the issues and weak points which we had last year and we hope that at every test we will be able to make the same amount of progress. Valentino’s level is already high but it’s only the first test after the long winter break and so I am sure he will continue to improve as well. Now we look forward to coming back in ten days time to continue our programme.”
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