Following Valentino Rossi's hard-fought victory in yesterday's Grand
Prix of Qatar, the Italian was back out on track today alongside his
Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards for a one-day test today. Despite
Rossi's win, the team still saw remnants of their vibration problem arise
during the weekend and today's test was aimed once again at working to
understand and finally eliminate this problem from the 2006 YZR-M1.
As at the last one-day test in Jerez, Valentino Rossi completed a few
laps on the 2005 M1 in order to compare its performance with the current
bike and gather more information. Besides this Rossi and Edwards, who
completed 58 and 66 laps respectively, spent the day trying out various
different settings and both riders made some encouraging improvements
with some consistently fast lap times. Just a small group of MotoGP
riders stayed on to test alongside the Yamaha riders and the fastest
unofficial lap was set by Marco Melandri (Honda) in a time of 1'55.95. Rossi
was second quickest with a lap of 1'56.25 and Edwards third in a time
of 1'56.35.
The MotoGP paddock now has a two and a half week break before the third
Grand Prix of the season in Istanbul commences on April 28th.
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director
"It's always quite hard to get up early and go testing the morning
after a victory, but today was really important for us and the riders; the
whole team has worked hard all day and made the most of the time we had
available. In truth we still haven't completely solved our problem, but
we've been able to gather a lot more important information and now we
have to use this in the best possible way between now and Istanbul.
We've definitely made some big improvements today, for both riders. We've
tried many different settings which have made the problem much less
critical, allowing the riders to ride the bike at a better level. Valentino
was obviously able to win yesterday and in the race the problems
virtually disappeared, but we knew that they were still there and today we
managed to make some good steps forward. Colin had a difficult race and
this test has been really important for him; he's finished the day in a
much better situation.
"Valentino once again tested the 2005 bike so we could make some
comparisons. We know that with this bike the situation is different and we
don't have vibration, but we also know that the 2006 bike is better in
most other ways and has more potential. We also tested a qualifying tyre
today as this was when the problem was at its worst during the race
weekend, so this was interesting also. Overall it's been a good day for us
and hopefully Yamaha can use all this information to our advantage so
that we are ready to fight with both riders at the front in Turkey."
Unofficial Lap Times:
1. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda, 1'55.95
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'56.25
3. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, 1'56.35
4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, 1'56.36
5. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, 1'56.61
6. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team,1'56.77
7. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, 1'56.86
