MotoGP Test in Jerez

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IRTA MotoGP tests, Jerez, Spain
March 28th 2009
First day of two-day test

Dovizioso fastest Honda rider at start of final preseason test

Factory Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was Honda’s top performer at Jerez today, the Italian seventh fastest overall, 1.030 seconds behind pace-setter Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha). Lorenzo was
0.3235 seconds inside the track record
established by Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa during last year’s Jerez GP race.

This weekend’s two-day Jerez test is MotoGP’s first European outing of 2009 and also the final test session before the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on April 10/11/12. It is thus a vital two days for all riders and teams, especially considering this winter’s reduced offseason testing programme, so this morning’s heavy rainfall wasn’t exactly welcome. But conditions dried up around lunchtime, allowing Honda’s six MotoGP riders to make useful progress at the technically challenging Spanish circuit, all of them setting their best times at the very end of the day. Ambient temperature reached 16 degrees, track temperature 20 degrees.

Dovizioso had a busy day, with a good number of upgrade parts to put through their paces. The 23 year-old Italian, looking forward to his first MotoGP race on a factory bike next month, announced that he was happy with improvements made to the overall balance of his factory RC212V. Dovizioso and his crew also worked at enhancing feel from the rear tyre to further improve corner-exit performance.

San Carlo Honda Gresini pairing Alex de Angelis and Toni Elias were just a fraction of a second slower than Dovizioso. De Angelis was satisfied with his day’s work, improving both turning and traction performance to establish a good base for tomorrow’s final day of testing. The San Marino rider did suffer a tumble, but only after he had run wide onto the still-wet trackside grass.

Elias is delighted with the engine performance of his RC212V V4 engine, but is still looking to improve rear-end performance. The Spaniard’s spectacular riding style doesn’t put a lot of heat into the rear tyre, so he is working at adapting machine set-up to increase the load to the rear end.

Frenchman Randy de Puniet continued to move forward with his LCR RC212V, testing tyres and focusing on getting maximum performance out of a harder compound Bridgestone. Like Dovizioso, de Puniet used a different brand of tyre last season so has had to work hard to adapt his riding style and machine settings to suit the Japanese tyres.
Tomorrow de Puniet will shift his focus towards engine mapping and a long-distance tyre test.

Yuki Takahashi continued climbing his MotoGP learning curve today. The former 250 GP winner is Honda’s sole MotoGP rookie this year, and the Japanese is still focusing on learning his machine, rather than chasing fast lap times.
Takahashi started testing at lunch time, once the rain had gone, focusing on front-end set-up of his RC212V. When testing ended at 6pm he declared himself very happy with the progress made.
Tomorrow he will focus his attention on the rear end, working to further improve corner-exit performance.

Japanese star Kousuke Akiyoshi is at Jerez this weekend, riding as substitute for Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa who is still recuperating from the left wrist and knee injuries he sustained during testing at Losail, Qatar, earlier this month. Former Suzuka Eight Hours winner Akiyoshi (34) is helping the team continue their preseason testing work, evaluating various parts and set-up options which will help Pedrosa on his return. Pedrosa’s target is to return to action at Losail in two weeks’ time.

Highlight of tomorrow is the 45 minute official ‘qualifying’ session, televised throughout the world, during which riders compete to set the fastest one-off lap time to win a high-performance sports car.

Honda rider quotes and lap times

Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 40.821s, on lap 74 of 74 “Despite the rain this morning the track dried quite quickly so we could make good use of the day. That’s good because Honda has brought a lot of new material here and we’ve got a lot of things to test. In general the package has improved and we’ve made progress on both the engine and chassis side. Obviously we want to take another step to make sure we’re fully competitive at the first race, so we’re planning to have another good day tomorrow.”

Alex de Angelis, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 40.900s, on lap 75 of 75 “At the start of the day we had a few problems finding traction and also getting the bike turned in tight corners. The team made some modifications and the bike felt better, so I was pushing to improve my lap times when I crashed.
Basically I just ran a little wide on the exit of the corner, touched the grass at the side of the track, which was still wet from this morning, so I lost the front and couldn’t keep it upright.
Luckily I was unhurt and I was determined to get back because things had just started to improve for us. The guys did a great job to set up my other bike quickly and I was able to get back on the pace. Now we have a great base to work from tomorrow.”

Toni Elias, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 41.049s, on lap 80 of 80 “I’m not completely satisfied with today because we haven’t improved as much as I would have liked. We’re over a second off the fastest guys and I want to be much closer. We have a great engine – it is really, really good – but we have to make the chassis work much better. We’re struggling to get enough heat into the rear tyre to gain the traction we need and it is something we have been working on all preseason. The new tyre restrictions haven’t helped us out with this, but it is down to us to adapt. We only have one day of testing left before the start of the season so we want to try and make the most of every available minute tomorrow.”

Randy de Puniet LCR Honda MotoGP: 1m 41.168s, on 77 of 77 “It was a good day and we did a good job, even if the position is not so brilliant. However this is our first outing in Europe and we had to put kilometres on the clock to clear up some points.
I am pretty sure we can improve our lap time tomorrow because today I lapped with a hard compound rear tyre. Honestly our target is
different: we expect to qualify between the 6th and 10th position. We have got a good level and I am aware that Stoner, Rossi and Lorenzo are very fast but the following positions are still open.
I am getting used to these tyres and think we will keep on working on engine mapping in tomorrow’s last day of testing. We also kept one tyre to test and will do a race simulation after the BMW competition.”

Yuki Takahashi, Scot Racing Team Honda: 1m 41.362s, on lap 73 of 73 “The weather was not so good at the start of the day, so we stayed in the pit until almost one o’clock. I wasn’t so happy about that but the weather got better and we were able to start testing. I am very happy with what we did today.
I still need understand this bike, it’s my first year in MotoGP, so I want to ride many laps and try many things. Today we tried many things with the front end – suspension, weight distribution and so on. I think we found a good setting for the future. Tomorrow we want to focus on testing different things with the rear end. The priority is to continue getting better, step by step.”

Kousuke Akiyoshi, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 42.286s, on lap 69 of 69 “This was quite a good first day. Though it rained in the morning, we managed to do some work on wet settings, which was useful. It’s my third time on this machine and there is still a lot of power to get used to! When the circuit dried we were able to begin working on a range of engine and chassis settings and the progress was pretty good, taking one step at a time. I’m quite happy with my lap time from today, and we’ll be looking to improve that further tomorrow.”

Free Practice Nr1 Classification times

Nr / Rider / Nat / Team / Bike / Time
1 / Jorge LORENZO / SPA / Fiat Yamaha Team / YAMAHA / 1'39.791
2 / Valentino ROSSI / ITA / Fiat Yamaha Team / YAMAHA / 1'39.861
3 / Casey STONER / AUS / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI / 1'39.906
4 / Chris VERMEULEN / AUS / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / SUZUKI / 1'40.572
5 / Colin EDWARDS / USA / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / YAMAHA / 1'40.579
6 / Loris CAPIROSSI / ITA / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / SUZUKI / 1'40.650
7 / Andrea DOVIZIOSO / ITA / Repsol Honda Team / HONDA / 1'40.821
8 / Alex DE ANGELIS / RSM / San Carlo Honda Gresini / HONDA / 1'40.900
9 / Nicky HAYDEN / USA / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI / 1'40.987
10 / Toni ELIAS / SPA / San Carlo Honda Gresini / HONDA / 1'41.049
11 / James TOSELAND / GBR / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / YAMAHA / 1'41.122
12 / Marco MELANDRI / ITA / Hayate Racing Team / KAWASAKI / 1'41.160
13 / Randy DE PUNIET / FRA / LCR Honda MotoGP / HONDA / 1'41.168
14 / Mika KALLIO / FIN / Pramac Racing / DUCATI / 1'41.226
15 / Yuki TAKAHASHI / JPN / Scot Racing Team MotoGP / HONDA / 1'41.362

Fastest Lap: Jorge LORENZO 1'39.791 159.561 Km/h Lap: 97 Circuit Record Lap:Dani PEDROSA 1'40.116 159.043 Km/h 2008 Circuit Best Lap: Jorge LORENZO 1'38.189 162.164 Km/h 2008

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IRTA MotoGP Tests
Jerez, Spain, Sunday, March 29th 2009

Final day of two-day test

Honda riders ready for MotoGP season opener at Qatar on April 12

Honda’s six MotoGP riders completed their offseason testing programmes at Jerez today, allowing them to look forward to next month’s long-awaited Qatar season opener, the first of 17 races for the 2009 World Championship.

Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was once again the fastest Honda man, the Italian running seventh quickest on his factory RC212V during this afternoon’s 45-minute ‘qualifying’ session, televised around the world and topped by Casey Stoner (Ducati). The outing was briefly red flagged, after Briton James Toseland (Yamaha) fell heavily, suffering concussion. The track was then soaked by a rain shower with five minutes of the 45 minutes remaining, spoiling some riders’
plans to complete the session with their fastest run of the day. Conditions were cooler than yesterday, with ambient temperature at 13 degrees and track temperature at 19 degrees.

Still working to extract maximum performance from his RC212V, Dovizioso announced himself satisfied with these two days of testing and is now very much looking forward to making his race debut as a factory MotoGP rider. The Italian rode a lot of laps today, making important improvements to power delivery and stability, even though the rain cost him crucial dry track time. Dovizioso made the most of the rain anyway, venturing out on the wet track during the final two hours of the day. He recorded the fastest lap time during this period, clocking a 1m 51.488s on a drying track.

San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Elias ended the 45 minute ‘qualifying’ session less than a tenth of a second slower than Dovizioso, but the Spaniard wasn’t happy because he knows he can go faster.
Elias and his crew have been working at adapting machine set-up to get more heat into the rear tyre, but have been unable to find a solution here, despite their best efforts. They are optimistic that they will be able to get on top of the problem at the very different Qatar track.
Despite the difficulties, Elias’ RC212V recorded the fastest top speed at Jerez today.

De Puniet was happy with the work he did with his LCR Honda crew today. The Frenchman worked at getting the most out of his RC212V on used tyres to ensure that he can perform well in the all-important later stages of races. He was 13th during the 45-minute televised outing, but knows he would have been faster if he hadn’t made a minor error during his quickest lap. De Puniet had planned to do a race simulation during the final two hours of the day but the rain spoiled that plan, so he did a couple of runs on rain tyres instead.

MotoGP rookie Yuki Takahashi continued to improve on his Scot Racing Team RC212V, the young Japanese rider cutting a further half a second off his best Saturday lap time. After concentrating on front-end settings yesterday, Takahashi and his technicians worked mostly on the rear end of the machine, looking to further improve performance through corners and on corner exits. Takahashi spent his final day of preseason testing thinking more about improving machine set-up for the first race, rather than worrying too much about recording ultra-quick lap times.

De Angelis had hoped to run closer to the front this afternoon but the knock-on effects of yesterday’s tumble hampered his plans. The crash crucially used up one of the rear tyres in his tyre allocation, forcing him to run second-hand rubber this morning when he was aiming to push the limits in search of a better set-up. Like his San Carlo Honda Gresini team-mate, de Angelis wanted more heat in the rear tyre of his RC212V, today’s cooler conditions not helping matters.

Kousuke Akiyoshi, riding as substitute for the injured Dani Pedrosa, made a valuable contribution to Repsol Honda’s weekend, the Japanese rider focusing on making improvements to power delivery and chassis balance. Akiyoshi was looking forward to doing his very best during the televised 45 minutes but his hopes were dashed when he slid off his RC212V at the hairpin.

Pedrosa is currently working hard at recuperating from the left wrist and knee injuries he suffered when he crashed during testing at Qatar earlier this month. The Spaniard is aiming to be ready for action when the MotoGP World Championship returns to Qatar for the season-opening GP.

The night-time Qatar Grand Prix takes place under floodlights at the Losail racetrack outside the capital of Doha on April 10/11/12. MotoGP then heads further east for the Japanese GP at Motegi on April 24/25/26 before returning to Jerez for the first race of the European season on May 1/2/3.

Honda rider quotes and lap times

Andrea Dovizioso, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 40.168s, on lap 51 of 77 “During these two days of testing the machine has improved quite a lot, especially the stability and power delivery which were two important areas we were working on. My lap times on paper look reasonably good on their own, but if you compare them with Casey’s, the gap we need to close is still quite big. After the 45-minute shoot-out it started raining and this spoiled our programme for the afternoon, so we still have some things to try in dry conditions which might move us further forward. As far as the wet set-up, my feeling with the bike and tyres is good and I’m happy about this. Now I’m looking forward to getting to Qatar for the first race.”

Toni Elias, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 40.266s, on lap 42 of 43 “It was more difficult today because of the cooler temperatures but it is the same for everybody and the fact is that even though the track was cold, Stoner was hot! We’re not happy to be 1.6 seconds behind but with the difficulties we’re having in setting the bike up at the moment, it is to be expected. The important thing is that we know what we have to work on, we’ve known it since Qatar, but it is clear that the solution wasn’t going to come to us at this circuit. We have to be patient because we know the bike is good, we have a great package and a great team – we just need a bit more time to work things out. We have good data from Qatar and I can’t wait to get there and go racing again!”

Randy de Puniet, LCR Honda MotoGP: 1m 40.646s, on lap 52 of 60 “Before the 45-minute session we worked especially on a used rear tyre to find better grip and we fixed some points on the chassis and suspension set-up. We found good solutions, because I set a good lap time on the used tyre, but I expected something better with a soft tyre in the qualifying session, maybe three or four tenths faster, but I made a small mistake in my last lap. Anyway we must continue our job because I am sure we can close the gap with the middle group. Honestly my intention is to qualify in the top ten and my squad is doing a very good job to adjust the machine for the first race in Qatar.”

Yuki Takahashi, Scot Racing Team Honda: 1m 40.814s, on lap 49 of 65 “I’m happy with the improvement we have made during the two days here. Today we worked particularly on the rear end of the machine. The rain during the afternoon gave me a chance to check how my Honda works in the rain, and I have to say that its character does not change on a wet track, which is a positive thing. Of course, I wish that we could have some more practice time, but now I am looking forward to my first race on the RC212V.”

Alex de Angelis, San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1m 40.869s, on lap 39 of 40 “Unfortunately after the crash yesterday I had to use a new tyre so that meant I had to run a used tyre this morning and that is obviously not the ideal way to test new technical solutions with the bike. We’ve been off the pace here today but we’re going to keep working hard to be in the mix in Qatar. Our problem has been getting heat into the tyre but hopefully the track conditions are going to be warmer once the season starts so we’re still optimistic and very determined about what lies ahead.”

Kousuke Akiyoshi, Repsol Honda Team: 1m 42.206s, on lap 34 of 40 “This was another positive day where we worked on both chassis balance to improve the handling and the engine balance for driveability. My pace on the first section of the lap was very good and actually nearly as fast as the quickest riders.
We were losing some time however in the middle section of the lap. Towards the end of the timed session I had a fall at the hairpin which was a shame, but the overall results from this test, in spite of the rain today and yesterday, are quite good.”

Combines free practice times

Nr / Rider / Nat / Team / Bike / Day1 / Day2
1 / C.STONER / AUS / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI / 1'39.906 / 1'38.646
2 / V.ROSSI / ITA / Fiat Yamaha Team / YAMAHA / 1'39.861 / 1'39.365
3 / L.CAPIROSSI / ITA / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / SUZUKI / 1'40.650 / 1'39.757
4 / J.LORENZO / SPA / Fiat Yamaha Team / YAMAHA / 1'39.791 / 1'39.829
5 / C.VERMEULEN / AUS / Rizla Suzuki MotoGP / SUZUKI / 1'40.572 / 1'39.848
6 / M.KALLIO / FIN / Pramac Racing / DUCATI / 1'41.226 / 1'40.149
7 / A.DOVIZIOSO / ITA / Repsol Honda Team / HONDA / 1'40.821 / 1'40.168
8 / S.GIBERNAU / SPA / Grupo Francisco Hernando / DUCATI / 1'41.737 / 1'40.228
9 / T.ELIAS / SPA / San Carlo Honda Gresini / HONDA / 1'41.049 / 1'40.266
10 / C.EDWARDS / USA / Monster Yamaha Tech 3 / YAMAHA / 1'40.579 / 1'40.305
11 / N.HAYDEN / USA / Ducati Marlboro Team / DUCATI / 1'40.987 / 1'40.401
12 / M.MELANDRI / ITA / Hayate Racing Team / KAWASAKI / 1'41.160 / 1'40.405
13 / R.DE PUNIET / FRA / LCR Honda MotoGP / HONDA / 1'41.168 / 1'40.646
14 / Y.TAKAHASHI / JPN / Scot Racing Team MotoGP / HONDA / 1'41.362 / 1'40.814
15 / A.DE ANGELIS / RSM / San Carlo Honda Gresini / HONDA / 1'40.900 / 1'40.869

Pole Position Record: Jorge LORENZO 1'38.189 162.164 Km/h 2008 Circuit Record Lap: Dani PEDROSA 1'40.116 159.043 Km/h 2008 Circuit Best Lap: Jorge LORENZO 1'38.189 162.164 Km/h 2008

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