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PREVIEW ? CHINESE GRAND PRIX - SHANGHAI 14/05/2006
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CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM FOLLOWS EXPRESS ROUTE TO THE ORIENT
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CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM FOLLOWS EXPRESS ROUTE TO THE ORIENT
The whirlwind start to the 2006 MotoGP World Championship continues
next weekend as the paddock?s globetrotting journey heads eastwards
across Asia to the Shanghai International Circuit in China. After
visiting Spain, Qatar and Turkey in the opening three rounds of the
series, the Camel Yamaha Team take their points quest back to the skies
for another ?flyaway? race, before returning to start a European road
trip that covers seven races in nine weeks - starting at the Le Mans
circuit in France only seven days after the Chinese event.
Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards arrive in the country known locally
as ?The Big Land? with a mixed bag of results under their arms after an
unpredictable start to the campaign. Rossi followed up a first-corner
fall at Jerez with victory in Doha before battling to fourth place in
Istanbul after a weekend dogged by technical difficulties and bad
weather. It has been a similar story for his Texan team-mate, who has
shown excellent pace in practice but has yet to find a set-up package
that will enable him to compete for race victories and podiums.
The Shanghai circuit was designed by architects Hermann Tilke and Peter
Wahl and its layout was inspired by the shape of the Chinese character
'shang', which stands for 'high' or 'above'. Other symbols represented
in the architecture of the circuit facilities originate from Chinese
history, such as the team buildings, which are arranged like pavilions
on a lake to resemble the ancient Yuyan-Garden in Shanghai. One of the
circuit?s most impressive features is the extraordinary main
grandstand, which holds capacity for 29,000 spectators and provides a
spectacular view of almost 80 percent of the circuit.
VALENTINO ROSSI: TIGHT AND TECHNICAL
After taking a surprise wet-weather victory at this circuit last
season, Valentino Rossi is hoping for an identical result in different
conditions this time around. The torrential rain that fell during the
inaugural event at Shanghai one year ago set the scene for one of the
most impressive performances of Rossi?s career but, given the choice,
the World Champion is hoping for a much more straightforward way to
demonstrate his superiority next Sunday.
?Out of all the victories in my career, China last year was the one I
least expected because of the problems we had with the bike during the
weekend and with the rain on race day,? explains Rossi, who became the
all-time record points scorer in Grand Prix history thanks to his
fourth place finish in Turkey last week ? a result that outs him fifth
in the championship. ?It was the first time I had won in the wet on the
Yamaha, so it was a special victory, but this year I would definitely
prefer a dry race. The 2006 version M1 didn?t work as well as we had
hoped in the wet practice sessions in Turkey and we need as much dry
track time as possible to get the bike setting as I like it.?
Like Turkey the Shanghai circuit was designed by Hermann Tilke, but it
is much more similar to the German architect?s other effort at Sepang
in Malaysia, with tight bends and long straights that, according to
Rossi, make the rider?s skill in setting the bike up even more
important. ?My first impressions of the circuit last year were very
good but then it wasn?t as much fun as I expected,? explains the
Italian. ?It is actually quite tight and technical and is very much a
Formula 1 track, so all the riders have a lot of hard work to do
finding the right setting for the bikes. It is not ideal for MotoGP ?
it is a very demanding circuit and it will test the riders and the
bikes to the maximum.?
COLIN EDWARDS: EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Colin Edwards says he is unsure about what to expect in China after
experiencing such mixed fortunes at each of the opening three rounds
this season. Like his team-mate, the American is hoping for favourable
circumstances from the opening practice in order to gather crucial
set-up data for the 2006 version YZR-M1 machine.
?Because we had so little dry time at Shanghai last year I think there
is a big question mark for everybody about what is going to happen,?
says Edwards, who currently lies ninth in the championship on 19
points. ?It will be important to find a good setting for the bike as
quickly as possible so that we can get some endurance testing in before
the race and make sure we don?t have the problems we?ve struggled with
in previous weekends. This is a very important Grand Prix for us and we
simply have to end it with a decent result before the championship
heads back to Europe.
?The test at Istanbul on Monday was quite beneficial because it gave us
an idea of the lap times we could have done in the race if we weren?t
interrupted by the rain on Saturday, which was encouraging, although it
didn?t win us any points back! We got a lot of laps in, which is what
we need right now, so the engineers have some good data to work on over
the next week before the race and I?m confident they can come up with
something for us in China.?
VALENTINO ROSSI: INFORMATION
Age: 27
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1
GP victories: 80 (54 x MotoGP/500cc, 14 x 250cc, 12 x 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc)
First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc)
GP starts: 160 (100 x MotoGP/500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 40
World Championships ? 7 Grand Prix (1 x 125cc, 1 x 250cc, 1 x 500cc, 4
x MotoGP)
COLIN EDWARDS: INFORMATION
Age: 32
Lives: Conroe, Texas
Bike: Yamaha YZR-M1
First GP: Japan, 2003 (MotoGP)
GP starts: 51 x MotoGP
World Championships - 2 World Superbike
DAVIDE BRIVIO: POSITIVE THINKING
Camel Yamaha Team Director Davide Brivio is looking towards the Grand
Prix in China as a major opportunity to turn around the team?s
early-season fortunes. Having enjoyed a particularly fruitful weekend
in Shanghai at this stage last season, the Italian is hoping the event
can prove to be a turning point for the team at the start of a critical
phase of the championship.
?Last year?s race in China was very important for us because we won,
and won well, in the wet and this helped us to find the solutions to
some problems we had with the dry setting, so we are hoping it can be
the same this time,? says Brivio. ?It has been a difficult start to the
season but despite the bad luck of Valentino?s crash in the first round
at Jerez he is still very close to the top. We?re looking forward to
seeing what both he and Colin are capable of when the problems are
solved and hopefully that can start in China.
?Now we have eight races in eleven weekends, which is a lot and puts
pressure on everybody. For example our drivers will be going straight
from China to pick up the trucks and driving them to France without a
break, but I think it is worse for the riders because they have no time
to rest. In any case the next three months are the core of the season
and a period where the situation regarding the championship becomes
much clearer. The conditions are the same for everybody so we have to
make sure we work to the best of our abilities and come through with a
good share of the points.?
TECHNICALLY SPEAKING: COLIN EDWARDS? SUSPENSION TECHNICIAN ROBERT
GRONLUND
Despite being drawn by the same hand as the Istanbul Circuit in Turkey,
Shanghai has different characteristics that draw closer comparisons to
the other Herman Tilke circuit of Sepang. Combining fast straights and
hard braking zones with a series of slow and difficult corners, bike
set-up is again a question of finding a compromised balance, whilst the
big unknown this weekend will be the conditions ? with last year?s
mixed bag of weather and the typically hot and humid climate making
grip levels a complete mystery until Friday morning practice.
?In some ways Shanghai is similar to Turkey but in other ways it is
very different,? explains Robert Gronlund, Colin Edwards? Ohlins
suspension technician. ?For instance, it doesn?t flow as much as that
track but it does have a mixture of fast corners and very hard braking
zones, so in terms of the set-up the key is again to have a good
compromise ? especially with the suspension. The bike needs to turn
well into the slow corners because, like with the final section in
Turkey, you can lose a lot of time there.
?The thing about Shanghai is that we have only been once and it was
sometimes wet and sometimes dry, so we have a very limited amount of
data. Really we?re not worried about that though because we feel we
made an important step during the test in Turkey. We have reduced the
vibration problems we had at Jerez and Qatar and found a solution to
the difficulties we had at Istanbul ? just generally making the bike
easier to ride. A lot will depend on the grip levels at Shanghai and it
certainly won?t be easy, but we are looking forward to it.?
CIRCUIT INFORMATION
Pole Position left
Length: 5451 m
Width: 12 m
Right corners: 7
Left corners: 7
Constructed in: 2004
Shanghai Lap Record: Alex Barros (Honda) 2005 ? 2?13.716*
Shanghai Best Lap: Sete Gibernau (Honda) 2005 ? 1?59.710
Shanghai 2005 Results*:
1. VALENTINO ROSSI (Yamaha) 50?02.463
2. Olivier Jacque (Kawasaki) +1.700
3. Marco Melandri (Honda) +16.574
8. COLIN EDWARDS (Yamaha) +31.033
* Wet Race