Friday, 15 May 2009
The MotoGP riders were unable to make the most of the reversion to hour-long practices at Le Mans as rain interrupted the first premier class free practice of the Le Mans weekend.
Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso was the fastest MotoGP rider on Friday at the Grand Prix de France as the rain returned at Le Mans and cut short the work that the teams could undertake on the first day.
Under cloudy skies rain began to fall just over half way through the first hour long premier class practice session since the rule change reversion to 60 minute sessions, at which point Dovizioso had set the fastest lap with a best effort of 1’36.136.
The second quickest rider in the curtailed practice was Australian former World Champion Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro) with a time of 1’36.194 on the eighth of just ten laps, whilst in-form home rider Randy de Puniet was just behind the front two.
The 2007 Le Mans race-winner Chris Vermeulen (Rizla Suzuki) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) also featured in the top five, both within half a second of Italian youngster Dovizioso.
Fiat Yamaha colleagues Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo were sixth and seventh fastest respectively, at the track where they completed a memorable one-two last year.
Rossi’s compatriot Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) also featured in a top ten which was rounded off by The Doctor’s former team-mate Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3).
After the rain arrived a number of riders went back out on track towards the end of the session on slick tyres but they were unable to improve their times.
Despite the precipitation there were no crashes to report and the MotoGP stars will be back in action for another hour-long run on Saturday morning at 9.55am, before qualifying on Saturday afternoon at 1.55pm.
Dovizioso – 1st
"I'm happy today because we have started in the right way here at Le Mans," said Dovizioso. "I like this track and I was able to be fast right from the beginning of the session.
"Unfortunately it started raining in the middle of the practice and so we didn't do many laps - only 16 in total. This meant we couldn't test so many options on the machine but anyway, we were able to get some useful information and learn that we need to improve the set-up for corner entry.
"The lap times overall were not very fast today and I think they will come down by around two seconds - so today's lap time is not indicative for the weekend."
Casey Stoner – 2nd
"In the first part of the session it felt like we maybe had a problem with the rear tyre because the bike was pretty difficult to ride but we haven’t analyzed the data yet so we don’t know what really happened. We were in and out of the garage a few times before deciding on a complete change, swapping onto my other bike with a completely new tyre. I immediately had a better feeling but we still weren’t getting enough temperature into the tyre, which we think was because the rear setting was too stiff and we weren’t getting enough weight transfer to load the rear and make the tyre work. We changed the set-up but we only had time to do half a lap and then the rain came, which was effectively ‘game over’. It wasn’t much of a session for us because we only completed three proper laps so it would be useful if we could have a dry weekend to have more time to work on the setting. Unfortunately with the way the weather forecast is, I don’t think we’re going to get that!"
Randy DE PUNIET- 3rd
"It was a very short session but I feel confident as my first run out was pretty good," said de Puniet. "The machine was set up as we raced in Jerez with some little adjustments."
The Frenchman decided to stay out while many others pitted as the rain came, and was pleased to get some mileage on the wet track.
"This is Le Mans' typical weather so I am not surprised about that," said de Puniet. "Considering the weather was changing rapidly I stayed outside as long as possible but, at 20 minutes to go, the rain became heavier and I stopped my daily to-do list.
"We will try some engine mapping in tomorrow's session and keep our fingers crossed for the weather conditions."
Dani PEDROSA - fifth
"My physical condition is getting better all the time and I can bend my knee a lot more now - I've almost got full movement," he said.
"Still, I haven't been able to train physically at 100 per cent though, so my condition isn't perfect yet, but it's getting better all the time."
| Valentino Rossi - 6th "We always seem to have bad luck with the weather here! The conditions weren't easy today, it was quite cold and the track wasn't so good, and then it rained and so we couldn't use all of the session. It was still useful to get some laps done in the dry though, even if we couldn't learn as much as we would have liked to today. Every lap has it's own small problems and during the first rain break we made some modifications to our setting and actually I was quite confident that we were on the right track. We hoped to get a few more laps before the end of the session once the rain stopped but unfortunately it started again and so we had no real chance to check our work. We know we're fast in the rain but I prefer it dry…the problem is that you never know with Le Mans, the weather seems to change every five minutes!" |
Jorge Lorenzo - seventh
“It’s a pity about the rain because we needed the time today, but this is the situation so we have to deal with it. I just hope it doesn’t continue. At least we had some dry track time but the situation of the track wasn’t so good and I was quite slow. We need time at each circuit to learn how our bike works with the Bridgestone tyres and we didn’t really have enough time today, but we will keep trying tomorrow and hopefully we can improve our pace.”Colin EDWARDS 10th
"It was a really weird day to be honest and I'm a bit confused," said Edwards. "My record proves that I like this track and we know the Yamaha is a really strong package in Le Mans, but right from the start nothing really seemed to work.
"It's obvious we've got a couple of small issues to solve for tomorrow because [works riders] Valentino [Rossi] and Jorge [Lorenzo] are not up near the top either. So out of the box nothing really seems to be working and that is very strange.
"From my side I just don't feel comfortable. Braking and corner entry I'm not that confident and I was running wide quite a lot. It felt like we had a lot of weight on the rear but I need to get my thinking head on tonight, sit down with my guys and figure something out.
"We'll check over some data with Yamaha too because right now I'm a little bit confused. But we've definitely got to do something to make it more comfortable."
James Toseland12th
"From the off we're not too far away but we need time to try things on the bike," said Toseland. "I'm sure the guys behind me are saying the same thing, but we still need to find a comfortable setting and it is a frustrating scenario when you only have one session on a Friday.
"We made the wheelbase longer to get a bit more stability from the bike and I did eight laps and we made some changes based on comments about the good and bad points. But then it started raining so I couldn't see if the changes were moving me in the right direction."
Nicky Hayden - 15th"We thought we were going to have an hour today but it seems like the weather decided we should stick to 45 minutes! It was a shame about the rain because we obviously have a lot of work to do and we’re in a new situation, where me and Juan need to learn about each other, but we only got two runs in the dry. I constantly got a little faster, a little faster, and then I was really just getting going on my second run when it started to rain. For a while it looked like it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to rain or whether the sun was coming back out but unfortunately the conditions were never back to what we needed. I was planning to go out on the softer tyre and see how that felt but we didn’t get that chance. It’s early days to comment on the relationship with Juan but he clearly knows his stuff and we’ll see how we go."
Bridgestone announce
'white line' markings
Bridgestone officially introduced sidewall markings for its softer compound slick tyres during Friday free practice at Le Mans, after testing possible solutions during the previous Spanish Grand Prix.From the French Grand Prix onwards, it has been decided that the softer slicks will be marked with a white stripe around the sidewall.
That means that fans watching trackside and on TV will, as in the case of Formula One - where Bridgestone has been the single tyre supplier since 2007 - be able to see instantly which type of rider is using which type of tyre.
Crash.net had asked Bridgestone if it was planning just such a move before the season began.
Surprisingly, there was “no plan to differentiate tyres in MotoGP as is done in Formula One” at that time, but Bridgestone's Hiroshi Yamada now believes it will be “well received”.
“We trialled tyre markings in Jerez with some different methods of tyre marking and after that weekend we decided to apply a white painted stripe to the tyre sidewalls,” he explained.
“This will allow spectators, photographers, TV crews and anyone watching MotoGP to distinguish between the harder and softer compound Bridgestone slick options.
“We have experience of doing this in Formula One, where Bridgestone is also the Official Tyre Supplier, and the feedback we have from that series has been very positive.
“Now four races into our first season as MotoGP's Official Tyre Supplier, we have implemented a system that lets us transfer this experience to our MotoGP tyres, and I hope it will be just as well received in this paddock,” he added.
A green line around the tyre sidewall is used to distinguish the softer compound in Formula One.
GRAND PRIX DE FRANCE
Le Mans Dry Session
MotoGP
Free Practice Nr. 1
1 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'36.136 14 16 282.6
2 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'36.194 8 10 0.058 0.058 287.8
3 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'36.293 8 15 0.157 0.099 285.4
4 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'36.301 12 16 0.165 0.008 274.5
5 3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'36.476 10 17 0.340 0.175 274.2
6 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'36.751 14 18 0.615 0.275 285.9
7 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'37.024 12 19 0.888 0.273 265.9
8 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'37.024 13 17 0.888 281.8
9 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'37.224 14 17 1.088 0.200 280.4
10 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'37.269 15 18 1.133 0.045 269.1
11 24 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'37.270 15 18 1.134 0.001 266.4
12 52 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'37.738 8 16 1.602 0.468 264.0
13 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'37.800 16 19 1.664 0.062 271.0
14 59 Sete GIBERNAU SPA Grupo Francisco Hernando DUCATI 1'37.875 8 18 1.739 0.075 279.3
15 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'38.032 14 21 1.896 0.157 279.5
16 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'38.323 7 17 2.187 0.291 268.1
17 72 Yuki TAKAHASHI JPN Scot Racing Team MotoGP HONDA 1'38.639 12 18 2.503 0.316 275.0
18 88 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing DUCATI 1'39.116 15 18 2.980 0.477 258.3
Fastest Lap: Lap: 14 Andrea DOVIZIOSO 1'36.136 156.715 Km/h
Circuit Record Lap: Valentino ROSSI 1'34.215 159.910 Km/h
Circuit Best Lap: 2008 Dani PEDROSA 1'32.647 162.617 Km/h
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