2005 MotoGP: ESTORIL

2005 MotoGP : R2 of 17: April 17 , 2005, ESTORIL

CIRCUIT:

• ESTORIL, Portugal
• Loocated 20 minutes from the Portugese capital Lisbon
• MotoGP's slowest track, bumpy, slow twisty circuit; very long main straight; high wind
• 4.182km; 2.599 ml; twisty slow corners, new track for Motorcycle GP in 2000
• 4 left turns, 9 right turns
• 28 LAP RACE
• Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 38.412 (Loris Capirossi, 2003)
• MotoGP lap record: 1' 39.189 (Valentino Rossi, 2003)
• PREVIOUS WINNERS
• 2004 winner: Valentino Rossi Yamaha
• 2003 winner: Valentino Rossi Honda
• 2002 winner: Valentino Rossi Honda
• 2001 winner: Valentino Rossi Honda
• 2000 winner: McCoy, Yamaha

RACE RESULT: BARROS WINS

• Sete Gibernau led from the start until he crashed 12 laps from the finish: “A real pity because I was leading with a good gap ... I wanted to avoid a physical battle. But when it rained I had no reference in front of me – there was no flag to warn me. With this new rule it makes it hard on the race leader.”
• Alex Barros was quickest during practice sessions, took pole and won the race. This is his 6th win in premier class.
  “I made a strike today, I’m unbelievably happy, this has been a perfect weekend ...."

APR 17, 2005; some rain

• 1 Alex Barros, Honda RC211V , 28 laps
  “I made a strike today, I’m unbelievably happy, this has been a perfect weekend. I have to thank both the team and Michelin, they have given me great things to work with. We’ve taken every session here, pole position and victory too. I also want to thank my sponsor Camel, who have filled me with confidence. This morning the conditions were difficult, and in the warm-up we went out on wet tyres but the track wasn’t that damp. The race was even more complicated. The track was virtually dry at the beginning but then there were a few drops. There was a moment when Sete took a bit of an advantage, then he slowed and I caught him up. I began to push and push, trying to put pressure on him, even though I could feel the raindrops on my helmet and on the bike. Then he lost the front end and crashed out, he was at the limit. They put out the white flag, but I didn’t think about coming in for one moment, it wasn’t raining enough for that, and it wasn’t even worth putting on intermediate tyres. It was a tough race, the track was in difficult conditions, but the satisfaction is enormous. Valentino pushed me hard at the end, and though I tried to respond, I lost a few seconds on the last laps, but only because I was preparing my celebrations!”
• 2 Valentino Rossi, Yamaha
  "That was a really difficult race for me. The conditions were so strange, with patches of rain here and there. In the beginning it was light rain, then it got worse and worse so that the first part of the track was very wet. It was a horrible feeling to ride with slicks in the wet. Anyway, I'm very happy to have finished in second place because we're now 20 points ahead, and this was a very important race for us in terms of the championship. The bike still has a few problems and we have a lot of work to do. Today was a bit of miracle really, there was quite a lot of luck involved! I gradually got used to the conditions during the race but it's not ideal to ride like that. The new wet race rules are better for TV but it's not entirely safe, although it's clearer now for all the riders when the race has been declared as wet. I think it's impossible in our sport, though, to find a perfect rule for that."
• 3 Max Biaggi, Honda
  "Someone has certainly said that today Max Biaggi is there. Let me tell you: Max Biaggi has always been there. But today we also had a good bike. Even if we can do much, much better. HRC’s potential is far higher than that. Unfortunately I had to race with the second bike because bike No.1, the machine I had the better feeling with, had a technical problem. Definitely, today’s third place leaves us satisfied. I’m happy for me and especially for my team: finally I saw them smiling and I thank them all. This podium was really needed to recharge our batteries on the way to China’s GP. Our job is not done yet, but we are on the right way: the answer I was looking for is in the electronics.”
• 4 Melandri, Honda
  “I’m very happy with that result. I chose hard compound tyres, which made things difficult at the start, but as the race went on I could battle with Colin and Checa. But I had trouble with my visor misting up and I rode the last eight laps with it open.”
• 5 Checa, Ducati
• 6 Edwards, Yamaha
• 7 Hayden, Honda
• 8 Nakano, Kawasaki
• 9 Capirossi, Ducati
• 10 Xaus 11 Bayliss 12 Roberts 13 Rolfo 14 Elias 15 Ellison
• DNF:
• Gibernau: “A real pity because I was leading with a good gap ... I wanted to avoid a physical battle. But when it rained I had no reference in front of me – there was no flag to warn me. With this new rule it makes it hard on the race leader.”
• Hopkins

RACE REVIEW: YAMAHA

• Valentino Rossi finished second in the Portuguese Grand Prix today after a difficult race with changing weather conditions in Estoril. His Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards showed a marked improvement in his performance but made a small mistake on the slippery track and slid out off from fourth position four laps from the end. He remounted and finished sixth, taking ten points in the process and helping the Yamaha Factory Team to move to the top of the Team Championship standings.
• Starting from fourth, Rossi kept his grid position until he passed Max Biaggi (Honda) on lap four and moved into third place. He had to work hard to keep in front of his fellow Italian and was unable to keep pace with eventual winner Alex Barros (Honda) and Sete Gibernau (Honda) as they opened up a gap over the rest of the field. Meanwhile Edwards was engaged in a close battle with Marco Melandri (Honda), the pair changing positions several times with neither able to make the pass stick.
• With 20 laps to go and the rainfall heavier, white flags were displayed due to a new MotoGP rule whereby Race Direction can grant the riders permission to make a pit stop and change bikes if they choose to. Since the rain never became much more than a gentle drizzle, all riders chose to continue to race on slick tyres. The difficult track conditions took their toll however when race leader Gibernau crashed out on lap 17, elevating Rossi and Edwards to second and fifth respectively. On lap 20 Edwards passed Melandri and was finally starting to open up a gap on the Honda rider, when he was caught off-guard by the slippery track at turn one and slid off. Luckily he was unhurt and remounted immediately, while Rossi stuck behind Barros and eventually finished 2.771 seconds behind the Brazilian, with Biaggi in third.
• For the Fortuna Yamaha Team, like everyone else in the MotoGP field, the new flag to flag format made for a challenging race. But both Ruben Xaus and Toni Elias approached the race with the same frame of mind - to learn and survive. They managed to do just that with Xaus finishing a respectable 10th while Elias struggled with the extra burden of a knee injury - the result of yesterday's crash.
• Colin Edwards (Gauloises Yamaha Team) 6th "That was a good race although of course I am disappointed about falling. The bike felt completely different from the Jerez race and I felt like I could have kept pace with Rossi and Barros quite easily. Unfortunately I was fighting with Melandri and for the first half of the race I just couldn't make the pass stick on him; gradually the leaders just edged away. Finally I got away from him and I was pushing in order to keep a space between us, but I hit that slippery patch at turn one and went down, it just caught me off guard! Everywhere else on the track was okay and you could get the bike fully leaned over, but turn one was just like ice. It was my mistake and I'm annoyed, but the rest of the race was really encouraging and a big improvement."
• Davide Brivio, Gauloises Yamaha Team "That was a race in very difficult conditions with the change from the dry to the wet. Congratulations to all the riders who finished the race. It was a good race for Yamaha; with Valentino we've scored 20 important points. It would have been easy to make a mistake so he did very well to keep pushing and finish in second without any problems. For Colin this was a big improvement from the last race, we fixed some problems after the last test in Jerez and he quickly found a good base here. He made a small mistake but he was able to recover and finish still in a good position. It was an encouraging race for him and I hope this is the start of a good season."
• Ruben Xaus (Fortuna Yamaha Team) 10th "Throughout the weekend we improved our pace and because of this I was looking forward to a dry race. I had to start from the fourth row, which wasn't easy, and I couldn't find a really good rhythm until the latter stages of the race. Of course by then it was too late to do anything. It was a very difficult race and to be honest I was just happy to survive. I spent most of the race running around on my own and that made it very lonely and the race seemed to drag on forever. I hope Shanghai is dry!"
• Toni Elias (Fortuna Yamaha Team) 14th "It was a really difficult weekend for me. It started good but ended with me struggling, physically, due to the injury to my knee. The rain kept changing the track conditions for us, which made it very difficult. Even so I think it was a very good experience and I have to keep thinking in this way - to learn."

QUALIFYING:

GRID, APR 16, 2005

• 1 Alex Barros, Honda RC211V 1m 37.202 *** his first pole in over 2 years ***
  "I’m really happy, that’s easy to see, we’ve been going well all weekend. Straight away we showed that we have a good base set-up in the bike, whilst regarding the tyres, Michelin has helped enormously in getting over the issues caused by the cold track surface, colder than during last year’s race. In the first forty minutes of the official session I worked for the race mostly, trying to get the right rhythm for it, and just towards the end we stuck in a soft tyre which allowed me to take this pole. I’m truly pleased for myself and the whole team and I hope to have a good race tomorrow.”
• 2 Sete Gibernau , Honda RC211V 1m 37.3 (crashed during practice)
  "It was already going to be a tough Grand Prix for us but the crash this morning has only made things worse. My shoulder was damaged some more and we've had to work around it a little. We've got a good pace and I was able to do a fast lap thanks to the painkillers but it's pretty clear I won't be able to ride like that through the whole race. I don't want to rule anything out though - the treatment I get tonight will be very important but we have to be ready to suffer and be calm enough to realise that if I am limited by my physical capabilities then it will be important to just gather as many points as possible because it's a long season."
• 3 Carlos Checa Ducati 1m 37.456
• 4 V. Rossi Yamaha 1m 37.643
  " The bike has changed a lot since we raced here last year so we have had to work hard on the setting. It was probably better this morning than it was in the afternoon but it is virtually impossible to get a perfect set- up at this track and fourth place isn't bad. I'm still having problems getting heat into the left-hand side of the tyre. We tried some different tyres today to try and fix that but we're still not at 100%. There are four or five guys with a good rhythm and I think the pace will be very fast tomorrow. If the weather is good then it should be a group race and it will be a very tough battle."
• 5 Melandri
• 6 Capirossi
• 7 Edwards
• 8 Biaggi
• 9 Hayden
• 10 Nakano
• 11 Hopkins 12 Xaus 13 Bayliss 14 Roberts 15 Elias
• 16 Rolfo 17 Ellison 18 Byrne 19 Battaini 20 Tamada (crash)

YAMAHA QUALIFYING REPORT:

• Gauloises Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards will start from the second and third row of the grid respectively for tomorrow's Portuguese Grand Prix after a highly competitive qualifying session at Estoril this afternoon. In bright sunshine and tepid ambient temperatures of 16º degrees, both Rossi and Edwards mounted pole attacks in an entertaining finale but were unable to convert their good race pace into a front row grid position.
• Rossi, who has taken victory for the past four successive seasons at this circuit, qualified fourth fastest with a 1'37.643 after working intensively on the race set-up of his YZR-M1 machine until the final 15 minutes. The World Champion appeared to have sealed third place on the grid for tomorrow's race after lapping inside last year's pole record but he was dislodged by a surprise late flurry from Carlos Checa (Ducati, 1'37.456).
• Rossi's Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Edwards also lost places in the late scrap for times, making a mistake on his best lap and dropping to seventh place with a 1'38.003. Alex Barros (Honda) took pole position with a time of 1'37.202 and is joined on the front row by Sete Gibernau (Honda, 1'37.329) and Checa.
• The Saturday MotoGP programme turned out to be a day of bruised and battered fairings for the Fortuna Yamaha Team with both Ruben Xaus and Toni Elias tasting the dirt - once for the former and twice for the latter. Despite this both riders put in respectable performances - Ruben 12th with a 1'38.949 and Elias 15th with a 1'39.836 - and are looking forward to race day.

FRI PRACTICE, APR 15, 2005

• 1 Alex Barros, Honda 1m 38.516
  "I’m very happy, not only because of setting the fastest time, but also because our rhythm today was very consistent. We did some good work, getting a good base set-up for the bike, even though the conditions aren’t perfect; it’s cold and the asphalt hasn’t got much grip. This morning we had fifteen minutes maximum on a completely dry track, while it was better in the afternoon, if a little cold. You had to be careful because it was hard to keep the tyre warm, especially on the left hand side, seeing as the track has ten right turns and only four left. However, we’ve started off better than in Jerez, that’s for sure, and even though I still haven’t seen the others’ pace, I can easily say that ours is faster than during last year’s race. Tomorrow the forecast is for better weather and the others will also improve, but we will try and do so too, working through some of the finer details of the set-up. I think that a good race pace would be in the low 1’38s, with a few laps in 1’37 perhaps. I’m sorry that Troy crashed, I didn’t realise until the end of the session because I saw him riding right to the end.”
• 2 Sete Gibernau , Honda 1m 39.065
• 3 Nicky Hayden, Honda 1m 39.072
• 4 C. Edwards Yamaha 1m 39.144
  "we definitely made an overall improvement to the bike at the Jerez test. I find that the throttle connection to the engine is much better with the new exhaust, which is an important aspect at this circuit. I've never ridden the Yamaha here before but I had a feeling it would work well and in the twisty sections it's awesome. MotoGP racing is never easy but if we can work on our strong points and make those twisty sections even better then we have a good chance. "
• 5 C. Checa Ducati 1m 39.200
• 6 V. Rossi Yamaha 1m 39.446
  "Friday isn't so important for the grid any more but it is important to use this time constructively to work on the set-up. We are okay but we have some difficulties, especially with the rear-end, and there is not a lot of grip at this circuit anyway. I was close to falling twice in that session. Some things are not working perfectly and the conditions are making it very hard. It's difficult to get the tyre to the right temperature, especially on the left side, because the conditions are changing all the time. We are not at our maximum yet but I hope the weather is better tomorrow so we can sort everything out. People are talking about rain on Sunday but I'm not worried because we know our bike works well in the wet."
• 7 Biaggi 8 Nakano 9 Elias 10 Hopkins 11 Roberts
• 12 Capirossi 13 Tamada 14 Melandri 15 Xaus 16 Bayliss (crash)

RACE PREVIEW:

HONDA

• BIAGGI: "I left Spain hoping to have paid off my dues to bad luck or whatever it was. I go to Portugal united with my team more than ever. The Jerez race did not really match my expectations, or those of my team. I trust HRC completely and in Estoril we must solve this. We are very motivated and the first race, even though it was difficult, didn’t discourage us. I like the Portuguese track, and I never wanted to be part of the game as badly as now.”
• HAYDEN: "After crashing out of the first race I’m happy we can get back on the bike quickly and put Jerez behind us. It’s hard to look at positives so soon after such a knock but the team is really strong and we are super-determined. I’ll be fine when I get on the bike on Friday for the first Free Practice. But I missed the race last year as I broke my shoulder, so I haven’t got a huge amount of experience round the track"
• GIBERNAU: " I'm feeling very highly motivated for the next Grand Prix and all I'm thinking about is recovering as well as possible over the next three days in order to continue in the same vein that we have started the championship. It's a shame there isn't a spare week between the two races but I'm confident this will have a minimal effect on our work."
• BAYLISS: "We haven’t tested in Portugal this year but I’ve ridden there a couple of times and the track isn’t too bad. The Honda has always gone well there and I can’t wait to get back on it. I want to make another step forward with the RC211V, I’m getting more and more comfortable in the saddle and I’m sure we’re going to have a few great races during this season.”
• TAMADA: "Things didn’t go too well in Jerez. I can’t wait to get back on the track after my first Grand Prix on Michelins and I still need some time to fully adapt to them. I have good memories of the Estoril circuit and I’m confident of fulfilling our potential there.”

DUCATI

• CAPIROSSI: "it's a tight and bumpy track, so it's very physical. Other than that it's quite a nice circuit, with a long main straight which should be good for us. It's also got one of the greatest corners in MotoGP, turn five, which you attack at 230kmh. It's a lot of fun, when you get it right! Apart from my injury I'm fairly happy with things so far. This year's bike is much better than last year's, much more balanced. The tyres are also improving - at some tracks they are already competitive, at other tracks we need to do a little work. The main thing is that we already have a very good working relationship with Bridgestone, they're good people and they work very hard."

KAWASAKI

• NAKANO: "Estoril is a strange track with a very fast straight and tight infield section. But this part should suit our new big- bang engine because we have good traction and smoother acceleration. This year will be very interesting for Kawasaki at Estoril, because last year we didn't perform very well either in qualifying or the race. I think we can expect similar performance to Jerez and now I'm relaxed and confident, there is always a lot of pressure at the first race."

YAMAHA: MotoGP set-up report - Estoril, Portugal

2004 MotoGP race summary

• Valentino Rossi put on a show of supremacy during the 2004 Estoril MotoGP, storming to a clear five second win over Honda rider Makoto Tamada. Tamada was himself four seconds ahead of Alex Barros (Honda) and championship rival Sete Gibernau (Honda). Fellow Yamaha rider Carlos Checa also rode a strong race to complete the top five.
• Starting from second on the grid in perfect sunshine, Rossi slid in behind Loris Capirossi at turn two, but shortly after he passed the Ducati rider and took the lead. From this point Rossi was unchallenged for the rest of the 28-lap race, taking his sixth victory in his debut season with Yamaha and the 65th of his Grand Prix career at that stage. Checa spent the early part of the race engaged in a battle for fifth with fellow Yamaha rider Marco Melandri, before the Italian fell on lap eight, leaving Checa to hold onto fifth place ahead of John Hopkins (Suzuki).

  2005 Set-up Report YZR-M1

• Estoril is a technically challenging venue, due to a combination of its design and geography. The 4182m circuit is situated 32km west of Lisbon on the western coast of Portugal, 7km from the beach resorts of Cascais. As beautiful as the costal area is Estoril is regularly hit by offshore winds which can result in a light film of dust forming on the track surface. Combined with its flat camber and irregular use, grip levels are always at a minimum for the first few days during the Portuguese MotoGP. That is until a clean racing line is formed.
• As the circuit naturally becomes cleaner and faster over the course of the GP weekend the ideal chassis set-up also changes. The new one session qualifying format will prove a great benefit to the teams and riders here, allowing time to find the best package before having to push hard on Saturday afternoon - hopefully at which point the track will have a clean line.
• Compromise is the key in Estoril, with its high-speed straight - topping 320kmh - combined with some seriously hard braking - especially into turn one. also the most popular passing point. Add in a sequence of tight twists and turns, a few fast sweepers, the meanest chicane on the championship calendar, and you need a bike set-up that can do everything well.
• The engine alone must cater for all extremes here. Predictability, due to the low grip levels, low to midrange power must satisfy the drive needed off the half dozen second gear corners as well as the everlasting high-speed right hander onto the main straight. Here the rider needs high amounts of grip, confidence and predictability to achieve the drive necessary in order to reduce the risk of being passed on the line at the chequred flag.
• Chassis wise the first target is a balanced, neutral geometry; offering good turn-in characteristics while also catering for the big braking areas - such as turn one. The base setting will be similar to those used at Donington, only with slightly higher rate fork springs to deal with the extra weight transfer under deceleration. Meanwhile the rear spring will be softer to improve feedback under power, although it is a fine line, with the circuit reasonably narrow and the limited amount of grip off the racing line there is little room to run wide.
• The focus will be on a set-up suited more to the latter part of the race, at which point the grip levels will be fading - more so than at any other circuit. Again the low grip levels are a factor, as are the repetitive bumps in the track surface on the exits of the turns, which can unsettle a fast bike on old tyres easily.