The Camel Yamaha Team remained in Jerez yesterday for an intense
afternoon of testing in an effort to find some answers to the problems they
faced over the course of the season's opening weekend. Valentino Rossi
and Colin Edwards completed 72 and 76 laps respectively and made some
positive steps towards understanding the cause of the vibration that kept
their lap times down during the weekend's practice sessions and forced
them to start from the fourth row of the grid for sunday's race.
Rossi, who was brought down by another rider at the first corner of the
race after a lightening start, also completed one run yesterday on the
2005-specification YZR-M1, in order to compare its performance with the
2006 bike and gather more data to help the engineers find a final
solution ahead of the next race.
The Camel Yamaha Team now have a week's rest before they travel to
Qatar early next week for the second MotoGP race of the season.
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"After such a disappointing opening weekend to the season, it was
important for us to have the chance to test yesterday. It was a very useful
and interesting day for us and we were able to collect a lot of
important information which we believe will help us. It was good to be able to
go back to some of the settings that we tried over the weekend and to
evaluate them in a more relaxed atmosphere, without the time pressure of
a race weekend.
"In addition we decided to have Valentino ride the 2005 M1 for a few
laps so we could compare its performance at this track with that of the
new bike. It was interesting to see the difference - a few things about
the '05 bike are better at the moment, but overall it seems the '06
bike is still a more improved package and Valentino's fastest times
yesterday were on the 2006-spec M1. Anyway the data from this comparison
should help us a lot as we continue to develop the new bike. Valentino was
able to make some good improvements to the performance of the '06 bike
so this is encouraging for Qatar. Colin's test wasn't quite as positive
but after yesterday we now have a better idea of what to do in order to
bring him back to the level he was at in Barcelona. It's been an
important day for us and now the Yamaha engineers will work hard to evaluate
the data gathered so that we can come to Qatar and fight at the front
with both riders where they belong."
Times:
1. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'39.910
2. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1'40.504
3. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team,1'40.798
4. Casey Stoner (AUS) Team LCR, 1'40.821
5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'40.845
6. Carlos Checa (SPA) Yamaha Tech 3, 1'40.932
7. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'40.966
8. John Hopkins (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1'41.096
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, 1'41.178
10. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 1'41.193
11. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda, 1'41.234
12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1'41.400
13. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'41.442
14. Chris Vermuelen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP, 1'41.554
15. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team KR, 1'41.861
16. James Ellison (GBR) Yamaha Tech 3, 1'42.924
17. T. Okada (JPN) 1'43.265
