The Losail circuit proved one thing right during last night’s MotoGP first free practice, Qatar would be the first circuit where CRT machines would suffer where power and speed is everything and to borrow a phrase from the fantastic and politically incorrect Colin Edwards it’s like “shoveling sh*t uphill.
”Randy de Puniet who was close to the satellite Ducati’s at Jerez where the MotoGP bikes are slightly restrained due the circuit configuration, yesterday he was more than three and a half seconds from Casey Stoner and more than a second from MotoGP rookie Stefan Bradl, with both riders lamenting chattering issues.
Be it that the track last night was covered with sand and not completely rubbered – which Nicky Hayden strangely enough said helped him – and lap times where very high, but tonight when the MotoGP class has two sessions, the gap between the two categories could become even bigger as the Stoner and Lorenzo really start to lap in earnest.
More rider quotes from Thursday’s FP1:Ceal Crutchlow – 6th ” That’s not a bad way to start 2012 at all and I’m pretty happy to be in the top six.
At the start of the session I was way down and not really going as quick as I should, but once I got my head down and got into a good rhythm I was always around the top six and that is very positive.
I didn’t change anything on the bike at all and I kept the same soft rear tyre on throughout, so I’m sure had we put in a new tyre at the end like some of the others did, I could have been a bit faster and possibly inside the top four.
I’d like to get the bike turning better but I’m not going to complain starting the new season inside the top six.
It is a good platform to build on for the rest of the weekend and now I’m really looking forward to the race on Sunday night.
” Alvaro Bautista – 7th“The 2012 season is finally underway on a track that always has grip problems in the first session.
We have tried to work to find a good feeling for the bike but I had some problems in corner entry with a little front end chatter that prevented me from being able to push.
We used the same hard rear tyre for the whole session and with the track in these conditions that gave us a lot of spinning that made it difficult to get on the gas, so tomorrow we will work with the electronics and the chassis geometry and try to improve my overall confidence with the bike.
” Andrea Dovizioso – 8th“I’m satisfied with the first session and the feeling with the bike was immediately good.
Straightaway I had a better feeling at the beginning than I did at the last test in Jerez, so we could work on improving the bike.
I still need to understand how to use the maximum potential of the Yamaha.
It has some very good points, which I like a lot, but I know in some parts I can be faster, particularly on the exit of the corner.
We need to improve in that area but I know we have some good ideas for tomorrow and I am confident we will make the bike better.
The gap to the front is quite big at the moment but tomorrow the conditions will be better and I am sure I will be much closer.
” Hector Barbera – 9th“I’m happy with how we are working on during the free practice of today.
I had a good feeling with my Ducati and we had a good pace race.
We had a few small issues with the front tyre that took quite a lot of time out of our session today.
We made several runs to test both the hard and the soft tyres, but the general situation didn’t improve.
However we are confident on the work done and we should be able to change the situation.
”Stefan Bradl – 12th“Well… it was not so good as I expected because we are a little bit too far away.
But I am pretty sure we know we are in a difficult set up direction because I feel very hard to go into the corners.
This layout is completely different compared to Jerez where I loaded the front so I feel that our bike needs some more weight in the front.
We made a little change during the session but it was not enough and we used just one set of tyres so we have plenty for the other days.
The overall situation is ok but I am sure we can do better than this”.
Randy de Puniet – 13thWe are the fastest CRT bike again, which is positive for me.
We struggled quite a lot with the suspension but that is to be expected because this was the first session, the track was dirty and quite slippery.
We tried a couple of things that didn’t work as we hoped, as well as working on the electronics and gearbox settings.
It is day one and we have made a good start, if not as good as we hoped.
We’ll get faster tomorrow though because we know what we need to do to improve the suspension.
”Michele Pirro – 15th“The first day hasn’t gone bad at all, we have tried to get as many laps in as possible to get confident with this bike at this track, having never ridden it here before.
We continued the work we started at Jerez and made gradual progress.
I have great confidence in the team and I am more and more certain that we will get more competitive as the season progresses.
Unfortunately the bike is still very young, with only a few hundred kilometres on the clock, so like everything it will need time.
I have the right people around me though and I will try to improve in every session.
I didn’t expect to be just three tenths behind De Puniet, who is an experienced rider on a competitive CRT bike, so that’s a nice start for me and my guys.
Aleix Espargaro – 16thWe have started well and even though there wasn’t much grip the bike was predictable.
We managed to gradually improve grip and then when we put a soft tyre in the rear we ended up with the same traction problems on the front that we had at Jerez.
The front was a little unstable under acceleration too so we have to work out why that happened.
We thought we’d be struggling more than we are in terms of power and top speed here compared to the factory bikes although we are losing out a lot in acceleration.
I think we can close the gap to the guys in front of us, we just have to keep working.
”Danilo Petrucci – 20th“It was a very particular experience is very difficult to learn in hurry a new track and do it during the night is very strange! I am quite satisfied, we hadn’t any problem and the grip of the TR003 is good.
I am just worried for my right arm because I have the same pain of Jerez and this gives to me many problems when I’m riding my bike”.