2005 MotoGP TESTING

2005 MotoGP TESTING

FINAL PRE-SEASON TEST - JEREZ, MARCH 25-27

DAY 3, MARCH 27, 2005, JEREZ

• 1. Nicky Hayden , Honda, 1m 39.983
  "This has been a great test for us. The team has worked really hard and I've tried my best to do everything they've asked of me. I got my best lap today on a qualifier but it's important to do that at this stage, in less than two weeks I'll have to do that for real!
  2. Marco Melandri , Honda, 1m 40.291
  "This test has been very positive for us we did a lot of good work over the three-days. I ran a race simulation and was able to run in 1m 41s consistently. Maybe I could have been faster if I had used a set of tires with a softer compound. Michelin gave me some qualifying tires to test and they were impressive. We have a break before the GP but I can't wait for the race"
  3. John Hopkins , Suzuki, 1m 40.418
  "This test has been really good for me and the team. I proved that I can go as fast as anybody on race tires and we have also showed that we were able to step it up in the rain and run in the top places. The biggest achievement for me this weekend was showing that I could ride as fast as any other rider in the wet. I am now looking forward to racing, I can't wait!"
  4. Valentino Rossi , Yamaha, 1m 40.539
  5. Loris Capirossi , Ducati, 1m 40.559
  6. Alex Barros , Honda, 1m 40.569
  7. Sete Gibernau , Honda, 1m 40.662
  8. Colin Edwards , Yamaha, 1m 41.284
  9. Makoto Tamada , Honda, 1m 41.380
  10. Max Biaggi , Honda, 1m 41.431
• ROSSI, 4TH: "We went quite well until lunchtime. However, during the afternoon we tried some new things and they didn't go quite as well as we had hoped. We had some troubles in the braking sections because the bike was quite nervous when the tyre was coming to an end. We know we can do better and what we have to improve, so we are not too worried, it's just that there is not quite enough rear grip after I've done a lot of laps. The front is okay because we already fixed this in Barcelona. Anyway, I'm now really happy to finish the testing and I am feeling okay about the first race, the bike has good potential and I am looking forward to a good battle this year!"

DAY 2, MARCH 26, 2005, JEREZ - RAIN, WET CONDITION

• 1. Shinya Nakano , Kawasaki, 1m 42.112
  "It's a good feeling to be fastest, although there were still some wet patches from the rain. In the dry the Bridgestone tyres are very compatible with this track, and I just worked to provide as much data as possible. The new type Bridgestone wet tyre, combined with the big-bang engine, is a noticeable improvement from last year in the rain. There is now better side grip and easier throttle control in slippery conditions, but there is still more work to be done."
  2. Nicky Hayden , Honda, 1m 42.139
  3. Sete Gibernau , Honda, 1m 42.278
  4. John Hopkins , Suzuki, 1m 42.359
  5. Marco Melandri , Honda, 1m 42.573
  6. Alex Hofman , Kawasaki, 1m 42.699
  7. Valentino Rossi , Yamaha, 1m 42.710
  8. Kenny Roberts , Suzuki, 1m 43.083
  9. Colin Edwards , Yamaha , 1m 43.095
  10. Troy Bayliss , Honda, 1m 43.130
• ROSSI, 7TH: "I was really pleased to get the chance to try the bike in the wet and I was very happy with the level we were at in the rain. The afternoon was drier but we were not quite as good as yesterday; we tried out a different rear tyre, but it didn't really help. Still, it was important to try and I am glad because we've learnt something from testing it. As a result, we were slower this afternoon but still not bad, and I was more or less happy. I hope that tomorrow it will be dry so we can go back to the settings we had yesterday and make the final alterations we need before we come back here for the first race in two weeks time."
• EDWARDS, 9TH: "I was really happy with the bike in the rain, and I think we were about 90% right with it. All the electrical aspects and the settings were good. The track was a little bit slippery this afternoon after the sun came out, but in some ways that was good because it exaggerated some of the small problems we still have. Now we know what we need to do about them tomorrow and, hopefully, how to fix them. The most important thing for us tomorrow is to find more traction."

YAMAHA PRESS RELEASE: DAY 2, MAR 26

• The second day of the Jerez IRTA Tests began with heavy rain and Gauloises Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards spent the morning doing some worthwhile wet-weather testing on the soaked track. The rain eased off as the day wore on and by mid afternoon the Spanish sun had appeared and, coupled with a brisk wind, had dried the track enough for the riders to go back out on slick tyres and put in some faster times. Rossi and Edwards continued to test tyres and work on set-up and finished the day seventh and ninth fastest.
• The riders were pleased with the performance of their new 2005-spec YZR-M1s in the wet conditions. Both the world champion and his new team-mate made the most of the better conditions later on and continued testing right up to the six o'clock deadline, although with the track still slightly slippery, none of the 22 MotoGP riders were able to better their times from yesterday.
• Despite placing 13th and 14th respectively both Fortuna Yamaha Team riders Ruben Xaus and Toni Elias were happy with their progress today - taking advantage of the wet conditions to familiarize themselves with the YZR-M1's wet set-up. Elias also had another reason to smile as it's the Spanish youngsters 22nd birthday.
• The fastest rider of the day was Shinya Nakano, who posted a time of 1'42.112 on his Kawasaki. Honda rider Nicky Hayden was under a tenth of a second slower with a time of 1'42.139. Sete Gibernau (Honda, 1'42.278) was third and Suzuki rider John Hopkins, fastest yesterday, was fourth today with a lap of 1'42.359. Rossi completed 42 laps, setting his best on the 39th in a time of 1'42.710, just inside the existing lap record of 1'42.788 but slower than his time from yesterday of 1'41.273. Edwards, who posted a time of 1'42.018 during yesterday's session, recorded a best time today of 1'43.095 on the 55th of 57 laps.

DAY 1, MARCH 25, 2005, JEREZ

• 1. John Hopkins , Suzuki , 1m 40.893
  "I'm really excited after today's test. We have learned a huge amount for the race here in two weeks time. The target now is to set-up the GSV-R to run consistently fast for the 27 laps of the race. To top the time-sheets today is a reflection of my confidence in the bike and all the hard work Suzuki has done over the winter. I'm having a great time!"
  2. Nicky Hayden , Honda , 1m 41.045
  3. Valentino Rossi , Yamaha , 1m 41.273
  4. Sete Gibernau , honda, 1m 41.397
  5. Marco Melandri , honda, 1m 41.626
  6. Alex Barros , honda, 1m 41.637
  7. Makoto Tamada , honda
  8. Alex Hofmann , kawasaki
  9. Shinya Nakano , kawasaki
  10. Colin Edwards , yamaha
• ROSSI (YAMAHA) 3RD: "I am happy with today because the bike worked well. It was the first time for us with the new bike at this circuit and I had a good feeling from the start. We continued working on settings; we found a good base setting in Barcelona, which we've continued with here. We've tested some good tyres from Michelin today, with improved traction. I think it will be possible to try to fix some other small problems tomorrow and make more progress, but we're already in a good situation. It might rain tomorrow but this wouldn't be a bad thing anyway, it's important to try the bike in the rain at some point!"

OFFICIAL PRE-SEASON TEST, IRTA

• Catalunya circuit, Barcelona, Spain
• 3 DAY TEST - FRI, SAT, SUN
• Quickest on Sunday will be awarded a BMW car

DAY 3, MARCH 20, 2005, FINAL TIMES

• 1 Sete Gibernau , Honda, 1m 41.851 *** WINS BMW CAR ***
  "I'm really satisfied with the results of this test. We've completed all the work we had planned for here and the result is very good. Last night I got together with the team to prepare the endurance; I think that to plan for the fastest lap would have been a mistake. Setting the fastest time was simply the fruit of all the hard work we had done previously. We are still having a few problems on corner entry when the tyres have gone off so that's why I did a race simulation with used tyres. That's the area I'm most interested in working on so that we can get to Jerez with the best possible motorcycle. I'm happy to have taken the pole, especially for all the people here who have given me such superb backing. I hope they enjoyed themselves."
• 2 Max Biaggi , Honda, 1m 42.26
  "I said I was not here for the superpole, but to be true I’m very disappointed because I didn’t even have a chance to take up the challenge. My motorcycle shut off just a few minutes before the end of the session when I pitted to get a qualifying tyre. The fault was down to a part that costs just a few euros. I can’t believe this happens! In the morning session I fell on oil left on the track by another bike and my mechanics had to rebuild my bike in a very short time. These things cannot happen; especially this year when we only have one hour for all qualifying. We still have a lot of hard work to do because we still need to grow stronger. I trust my team. We can make it!”
• 3 Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, 1m 42.270
  "I'm happy because we did a great job here today during the test. Yesterday and Friday we had some problems and we didn't really understand why. We tried to follow a different way but it wasn't right. Today was much better. I made a small mistake in my hot lap in the qualifying session and I was second, but anyway I feel much happier. The bike was much better to ride and felt good on the race tyres. It's fun to ride again, which is an important thing for me. We've still got a lot of work to do so hopefully we can continue in the same way at Jerez and find a good base setting for the circuit."
• 4 Alex Barros , Honda, 1m 42.506
• 5 Nicky Hayden , Honda, 1m 42.507
• 6 Marco Melandri , Honda, 1m 42.797
• 7 Makoto Tamada , Honda
• 8 John Hopkins , Suzuki
• 9 Colin Edwards, Yamaha
  "I'm not disappointed with today but I have to say I'm not totally happy either. The main focus of the day was to run through a whole bunch of stuff that we could then either eliminate or proceed with. That's what these tests are for and from that point of view it was positive. We've also done a lot of work on the tyres and at the moment I would say we've got a top five bike on our hands. Next week we've got to keep working, test a bunch more settings and make sure we've got the number one bike in time for the first race."
• 10 Loris Capirossi, Ducati
• 11 Nakano 12 Hofmann 13 Itoh 14 Roberts 15 Bayliss 16 Elias 17 Guareschi 18 Xaus 19 Aoki 20 Rolfo 21 Byrne 22 Ellison 23 Battaini

DAY 2, MARCH 19, 2005

• 1 Max Biaggi , Honda, 1m 42.260
  "Other pieces of the puzzle are taking the right spot. The final drawing is the one of a RC211V respectable on every circuit. Today we confirmed different solutions we've been working on during the winter. We went in the track with some new parts about chassis and suspension geometry. I consider very important that we have clear ideas about the job to do, but still theres a lot to work on. It means that we can grow much stronger and also that Honda potential is very high. The feeling with my team is getting stronger day by day, I'm happy about it. Even the lap times are not that bad, but, once again, I'm here for my new bike, I'm not looking for a new car."
  2 Alex Barros , Honda, 1m 42.506
  "I'm quite satisfied, but not completely, because I think we can go even better with both the qualification tyres and the race tyres. I lapped consistently around 1'43.0 whilst I think that the right pace is about a 1'42.8. I want to get there tomorrow and to do so we will work on the set-up during the morning. Tomorrow will be a strange day, we won't be able to make use of a hundred percent of the time to test things. We will begin at 11.30 like today, because the asphalt is too cold before that. We will stop at 1.00pm to do the official MotoGP photo and then from 2pm to 2.40pm there will be the qualifying period. It is the first time I have tested with the qualifying tyres this year, but I "only" took half a second off my time, whilst I think they are worth more. I still have to improve there."
  3 Sete Gibernau , Honda, 1m 42.796
  "I am very satisfied with the level we are working at this preseason.
  They've been two very intense days with a lot of testing and they have confirmed that every small step we take is very important. I am very focused on my job, following my own line and I appreciate the interest being shown by Honda. We haven't used qualifying tyres at all today and we were consistently at the top. I want to do a race simulation tomorrow and get the bike as ready as possible for the first Grand Prix, which is only days away. The 'superpole' tomorrow would be good for all the people who have come here to support us but it's not the most important thing."
  4 Marco Melandri , Honda, 1m 42.926
  5 Nicky Hayden , Honda, 1m 42.953
  6 Colin Edwards, Yamaha, 1m 43.123
  7 Makoto Tamada , Honda, 1m 43.207
  8 John Hopkins , Suzuki 1m 43.250
  9 Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, 1m 43.291
  10 Kenny Roberts , Suzuki, 1m 43.563
  11 Nakano 12 Capirossi 13 Bayliss 14 Checa 15 Elias 16 Itoh 17 Hofmann 18 Xaus 19 Rolfo 20 Guareschi 21 Aoki 22 Byrne 23 Ellison 24 Battaini 25 Shimizu
• EDWARDS, 6TH: "To be honest I'm really happy with today. As far as the bike set-up is concerned, it's barely been touched since the Sepang and Phillip Island tests. We tried a couple of things out but more or less ended up going back to where we started, and I feel comfortable with that. It's a good sign because it means we've got a good base setting for the bike which should work at most of the circuits. We'll make some small changes tomorrow to see if we can refine things but we won't be straying too far from what we have. This morning I tested a whole bunch of front tyres and in the afternoon we moved on to the rears, so it was a solid day's work for me."
• ROSSI, 9TH: "We've had a few problems and worked on the setting to try and get a better feeling but we didn't manage to fix things today. We honestly don't know why we are not able to work at 100%. We've tried a few different ways but we've made some mistakes. Tomorrow I'll try to win the car but today we weren't fast even on qualifying tyres. We've got a lot of work to do. Hopefully the weather stays nice so that we can continue working and prepare for the next test at Jerez."
• Jeremy Burgess (Yamaha chief engineer)
  "Racing wouldn't be any fun if there wasn't some hard work involved. I suppose we were too good last year so we've decided to make things interesting by creating a few problems for ourselves! We'll keep working tomorrow and see what we can come up with - there is still a long way to go before the start of the season."

DAY 1, MARCH 18, 2005

• 1 Max Biaggi , Honda, 1m 43.158
  2 Sete Gibernau , Honda, 1m 43.254
  3 Makoto Tamada , Honda, 1m 43.347
  4 Marco Melandri , Honda, 1m 43.433
  5 Valentino Rossi, Yamaha, 1m 43.518
  6 Colin Edwards, Yamaha, 1m 43.882
  7 Alex Barros , Honda, 1m 43.902
  8 Loris Capirossi , Ducati, 1m 43.974
  9 Carlos Checa , Ducati, 1m 44.102
  10 Kenny Roberts , Suzuki, 1m 44.282
• BIAGGI, 1ST: "My goal is to improve the race setting. We tried some new front tires but basically the bike is still the same. Tomorrow we'll test some new parts, mainly suspension. We are looking for an easier way of riding our RCV, especially in the corners. I'm very satisfied with my team, we are all giving the best. There is the right atmosphere to deliver our job"
• GIBERNAU, 2ND: "For the first day we've done a good job. We've tested a lot of things and that always means you lose time because you have to come in to pit so often. Despite that we've been at the top from the start and that has to be a good sign. We've got less things to test tomorrow so we'll be able to focus a little more on certain aspects. I'm very happy because Honda have brought us a bit of everything we asked for and we set a good pace every time we went out"
• ROSSI, 5TH: "We're having quite a few problems finding the right set-up and I haven't had great feeling so far, especially with the front. I hope tomorrow we feel better but we need to find a solution to this problem. We have to work on engine performance as well over the next two days and find out what's going wrong. Anyway, I am confident that the team will find out the way we need to go and we have two more days to get there."
• EDWARDS, 6TH: "Catalunya is a very different style of circuit to Phillip Island and we were able to evaluate some different things with the new bike, although the actual material we had available was the same as the past tests. The long straight here has shown that we're probably a little bit down on top speed at the moment but we're making up for that everywhere else, so I'm pretty happy with how things are going. The grip isn't the best at the moment with the new surface but it just needs a while to bake in and I imagine it will be much better by the time the race comes around here in June."

MORE TEST RESULTS

• QATAR TEST, MARCH, 2005
• 1 Makoto Tamada Honda 1m 57.63s
• PHILLIP ISLAND AUSTRALIA TEST, FEB, 2005
• 1 Valentino Rossi , Yamaha, 1m 29.68
• SEPANG TEST, JAN, 2005