MotoGP - round 3 qual 1

Posted by StickyAdmin, Friday, April 20th 2007

The first day of practice for the Grand Prix of Turkey at the circuit of Istanbul Park today saw the 19-strong MotoGP field headed by Casey Stoner (Ducati) with his team-mate Loris Capirossi in second. John Hopkins (Suzuki) clocked the third fastest time and Valentino Rossi finished in fourth position after heading the standings in this morning's practice.

Colin Edwards (Yamaha) struggled with front-end problems this afternoon and the American could only manage 15th in the combined standings. Although the sun shone all day, an overnight rainstorm and cool temperatures this morning meant the track was still wet for first practice and, although it had dried out somewhat by the afternoon, it remained quite dirty and the poor conditions meant that lap times were considerably slower than the existing lap record.

Without any testing at this track this season, the Yamaha team face a hard task to find the correct set-up and tyre combination before Sunday's 22 lap race and the tricky track conditions today complicated their task. After losing much of this morning's session to the wet track both crews worked hard throughout this afternoon's practice, which was interrupted by a red flag for a short time after Shinya Nakano fell. Team-mates Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi topped the time sheets, whilst third spot ahead of Rossi went to John Hopkins.

Hopkins consistently improved his times throughout the day and has identified some alterations that he and his crew will be working on overnight to make the latest 800cc GSV-R perform even better tomorrow.

Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) recorded the seventh fastest time of the day at a circuit that holds good memories for him following last year’s pole position and top 10 finish. The 24-year-old Australian set his fastest time on the 23rd lap on the same Bridgestone race tyre.

All the riders have one more practice session tomorrow morning followed by an hour-long qualifying period in the afternoon. Sunday’s race is round three of the MotoGP World Championship and the lights will change to go for the 22-lap race at 15.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).

John Hopkins : “I’m pretty pleased with how this afternoon’s gone. I didn’t get a lot of practice this morning as the track was too wet and really dirty. We got some good laps towards the end of the last session and we have found some things we can work on tonight that should smooth a couple of areas out. The weather for tomorrow looks like it’s going to be good and we are really looking forward to the weekend. Bridgestone has brought us some new tyres to try here and they seem to be pretty good for both performance and durability. We’ll now have to go out tomorrow, get our heads down, and qualify well!”

Valentino Rossi : "The conditions today weren't ideal for us as the track was very, very dirty. However we're not in such a bad position in fourth and when you compare it to last year, when we had some serious problems here, things are much better and I can ride the bike very well, in fact I like the track a lot more with this bike! Stoner especially was very fast today and I think that tomorrow is going to be a hard battle for qualifying. We need to work on the tyres and the set-up but I am confident that we can improve things quite a bit more tomorrow. The Japanese engineers have been working very hard during the break and today we tried out some new modifications for our engine. My first impressions are that it's a definite improvement and we can go a little bit faster. It's not a big difference but it's very important, especially here at this track. Now let's see what we can do tomorrow."

Olivier Jacque : “We started where we left in Jerez. The bike is more efficient now and both sessions have been quite significant. I felt comfortable riding the bike and my lap times improved in every run I did. The set up we found in Jerez is working well here. The engine is the same one but with the new mapping it seems to be more powerful. We also improved the balance of the bike and the gearbox, as this circuit is a little bit tricky, and worked as well with three different rear tyres and two front ones. We don’t know yet which ones are best and that is what we will try to confirm tomorrow. In short, it has been a positive first day and it is important to start like this.”

Chris Vermeulen : “I was looking forward to coming back here after last year’s performance when I got my first pole and top 10 finish. We got here this morning and it was a bit wet so we lost a lot of the session to that. When it dried out it was very slippery and dirty so we really couldn’t get a lot done, but this afternoon we had a bit more of an idea which way to go. This is the first time here on the 800 so everything was really starting from scratch; I felt comfortable this afternoon and only used one set of tyres. I set my quickest lap on the 23rd lap, which is further than race distance, and the tyres were still working well. Maybe tomorrow we can go out with a softer, grippier tyre and go a bit quicker!”

Circuit Length - 5378
Temp - 18 and dry

2007 MotoGP Turkey - Istanbul 20/04/2007
Free Practice

1. Casey Stoner Ducati AUS 1'54.200
2. Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 1'54.979
3. John Hopkins Suzuki USA 1'55.062
4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'55.120
5. Toni Elias Honda ESP 1'55.158
6. Olivier Jacque Kawasaki FRA 1'55.158
7. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'55.707
8. Alex Hofmann Ducati GER 1'55.736
9. Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'55.865
10. Marco Melandri Honda ITA 1'55.910
11. Kenny Roberts KR212V USA 1'56.071
12. Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1'56.225
13. Alex Barros Ducati BRA 1'56.233
14. Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'56.312
15. Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'56.320
17. Makoto Tamada Yamaha JPN 1'56.923
19. Sylvain Guintoli Yamaha FRA 1'57.245

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