We’ve got the usual rider quotes from the team’s press releases after last night’s final pre-season test in Qatar, but a couple of Italian journalists picked up some gossip from the garages that the releases don’t tell.
Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi who are both senior and founding members of the Safety Commission, believe that the Qatar race should be put ahead by at least an hour because of the humidity that makes the track dangerous.
Marco Melandri was so angry with the performance of his 2010 Honda RC212V that he actually compared it to the Ducati GP bike he rode in 2008.
The MotoGP season opener kicks off April 11th in Qatar.
Casey Stoner – 1st 1′55.
352 (51 laps) “I am really happy with the test and the work we have done right up to tonight.
In the first Sepang test we had a few things to work out but we have made constant progress.
The latest big step forward with the GP10 came last night and today I was able to set a consistently fast pace.
I have been able to work with the tyres without putting too much stress on them and I was able to keep my pace on used rubber.
I like the new engine a lot, it is more manageable and I am pleased to see the other Ducati riders, especially Nicky confirming that with fast times.
” Valentino Rossi – 2nd 1′55.
860 (57 laps)“This has been another good day.
We’ve concentrated mostly on the race preparation and it feels like we’re now ready for the first race.
We did a long run at the end of the session and we got some good information, which will help us in the race.
Now that testing is over I am very excited about the season.
We’ve been strong throughout the six days of practice and it feels good to have been fast here also, where we have struggled in the past.
We have only tested at two tracks so we need to wait for another different one to fully understand the new bike, but we’re in good shape.
My M1 feels great and I’m looking forward to racing!”Andrea Dovizioso – 3rd 1′55.
879 (66 laps) “I’m really satisfied with these two days of testing because we took another significant step forward.
I’m pleased to have the third fastest time today because we improved both consistency and pace, which is a result of the hard work done by Honda and by my team.
Today we focused on fine tuning the bike set -up and also the weight distribution.
At the end of the session we wanted to do a race simulation but the track was too slippery because of the high humidity.
Still, we have reduced the gap to Stoner and we are closer to Valentino as well.
Of course we have to keep on working hard, but I’m happy to face the first round of the season with the machine package we have achieved so far.
”Nicky Hayden – 4th 1′56.
116 (51 laps)“Today went better than yesterday, we took a step forward with the set-up and my lap time was decent.
It is still taking us too long to get up to speed but there’s no doubt we’re making progress.
Tonight I did my best time on a long run and I think I could have gone even faster on the next lap if it wasn’t for the crash in turn two.
Anyway the bike is working well, the team has done a fantastic job and I can’t wait for the season to start now.
I want to say a big thanks to all the guys at Ducati who are working so hard and giving me great support.
”Loris Capirossi – 5th 1′56.
195 (58 laps)“It has been quite positive today and we have improved quite a lot from Thursday.
During yesterday’s test I was so bad that I was quite sick, but today I was nearly 100% and able to try many things on the bike.
It is easy to see that we have improved here compared to last year.
On the long run at the end I was not too happy because it was not so good, but the conditions were quite bad by then so I don’t really care about that.
The track got very humid and I didn’t want to push too hard and risk crashing.
In three weeks we are here again and I didn’t want to be injured for that.
We hope that we will have a great opportunity this season because everyone is working really hard.
I am so happy to still be with Rizla Suzuki and overall – although we know we still need to improve a little bit – we have done a good job so far this year.
”Jorge Lorenzo – 6th 1′56.
504 (44 laps)“Today my hand felt okay, maybe a bit worse than yesterday.
Of course it’s not as good as before the accident but this is to be expected! It’s hard for me in the braking areas and I can’t push any harder than I have been today at the moment, but I hope it will have improved a lot by the time of the first race.
Our bike is great, Yamaha have done a fantastic job and you can see this from the strong performance of all the Yamaha riders.
We’ve done a lot of work and tried many things, so I hope that these will help us when we come back here in three weeks.
I will keep working to strengthen my hand and I hope to be in much better condition by then.
”Randy de Puniet – 7th 1’56.
504s (66 laps) “I’m happy because I did my best lap time during the race simulation.
We confirmed the good feeling with set up and I’m confident for the race.
We did a step forward and I’m satisfied of these two days of testing.
At the end I tried the soft tyre but some riders on track slowed me a little bit so I couldn’t improve the lap time.
All in all I’m happy.
”Colin Edwards – 8th 1.
56.
722 (48 laps)“It wasn’t the ending to testing I was looking for but it wasn’t too bad.
I just didn’t really have a great feeling with the bike tonight and we need to have a think about things before we come back for the race next month.
We’ve got some work to do because I just didn’t feel as comfortable on the bike as I did last year, mainly with the front-end.
And I know I go good at this track because I had a good race last year and finished fourth.
I’m not sure what happened with the crash but I did exactly the same as Ben.
I was on the soft front tyre that I’d not really run that much on the first night.
But I was on my sixth lap on the tyre, so it should have been ready to push.
But I was down before I knew it and it is a fast crash, even if you’re only in second gear.
I’m just glad I didn’t get hurt so close to the first race because that was a fast crash.
I’m really excited about going racing now.
It seems like a long time since Valencia and I’m sure we can have another great year with the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team.
” Mika Kallio – 9th 1′56.
767 (74 laps) “What an unusual thing happen: I remained without fuel at the very end of the session while I was going to the box; I was on the side of the track with my bike looking for someone to help me move the bike, instead I realized to be lonely in the desert.
Luckily after some minutes the track assistants have arrived.
Jokes apart, today we managed to improve, even not as much as we expected, the lap times recorded last year during the Grand Prix of Qatar qualification session.
This means that we can be satisfied with the work done during these last days of winter testing.
The team has worked well and thanks to my technicians we found a good set up of the bike that we will be using in the first GP of the season here in Doha.
”Ben Spies – 10th 1.
56.
780 (44 laps) “I didn’t have a great night really but that can happen.
Everything that could go wrong went wrong tonight.
But I’ve have had a great winter and this was the first session where it didn’t go the way we wanted it to.
I’d had some small issues early on and went into Turn Two again and just lost the front.
I wasn’t really sure what happened but then four people crashed in the next 30 minutes so it must have got really humid really quick because something wasn’t right with that many people going down in the same place.
I did a few more laps to clear my head and got down to some decent times and I’m happy I did that.
But it was still a successful test and I leave confident that I’ll be competitive for the race next month.
I want to thank my guys at Monster Yamaha Tech 3 for all their effort in the winter.
We’ve done a good job and I feel we’re in a position to have a competitive start to the season.
”Aleix Espargaro- 11th 1′56.
897 (64 laps)“Yesterday night I haven’t slept very well.
I wasn’t happy at all with lap times that I had registered yesterday.
Today, however, I am pretty satisfied with how things went for me.
On the contrary compared to the last Sepang test, we managed to constantly improve and this give us great confidence for the race that will be held here in Qatar in three weeks time.
We have worked very well and for this I want to thanks all my technical staff.
”Alvaro Bautista – 12th 1′56.
898 (71 laps)“Today has been a lot more positive than yesterday, because on Thursday we had a lot of other things to do and never really got much done in the test.
Today I could concentrate just on riding and during the first time out I felt more comfortable than at any time yesterday.
I improved my lap-time by more than one second and also my riding was much better.
We tried different settings for geometry and suspension, for both the front and rear of the bike and think that we have a good base set-up for the race already.
At the end I tried to do a long run and did 15 laps, but after a full day riding I was a bit tired! I am happy because I am improving every time and I now know I am ready to race!”Dani Pedrosa – 13th 1’ 56.
935 (56 laps) “We started to make improvements early in tonight’s session, but after that we couldn’t make any more progress really and so of course I’m not satisfied with the results of this test.
It’s obvious that we’re not where we want to be as we approach the first race, so we’ll just have do our best when we come back here and try to make the improvements quickly in the practice sessions.
That’s it really.
I’m still struggling with the bike moving quite a lot at the front and that’s caused by issues at rear.
Because of this I’m also going too slowly through the corners.
We have to stay positive and be glad that I’m going into this season fully fit, and we’ll keep working to improve things.
”Marco Melandri – 14th 1’57.
605 (54 laps) “Today we worked on the geometry of the bike and the suspensions to improve my lap times.
In fact the feeling with the bike is not bad but I am not able to be as fast as I wanted.
We worked on weight distribution and tested different set up solutions to understand the direction but lap times are not coming.
I struggled a lot a lot.
At the end I tried to push but at turn 8 I put the tyre on the paint of the kerb and I crashed, fortunately without consequences.
”Héctor Barberá – 15th 1.
57.
223 (74 laps)“The evening started really well because I hadn’t been on track long before I started to match my times from the first day.
I felt more and more comfortable on the bike and that allowed us to try some different things.
It is always a drain on your time and energy because some things work and some don’t.
Either way all these tests have enabled me to see things more clearly and understand the bike more.
The most important thing about this last session was that I set my best time riding alone.
It is also positive that I did so many laps and stayed consistent on new and old tyres.
Every time I get on the Ducati I improve a lot, but obviously the level is very high – you can make up ten positions with just half a second.
The overall reflection of the preseason is that it was short because six days is not a long time when everything is so new.
Anyway, we have met our initial objectives and I think we’re ready for the first race of the year.
We have potential and I whilst don’t want to get ahead of myself I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think we could challenge for the top ten.
”Hiroshi Aoyama – 16th.
1’57.
251s (81 laps) “Today we focused working on the set up with some positive feedback, we improved the feeling with the front but we still have to work to improve also the feeling with the rear and have more traction.
We improved a bit and I’m confident as we are still learning.
I’m very excited and motivated to race with this bike in less than three weeks on this circuit.
”Marco Simoncelli- 17th 1’57.
378 (50 laps) “I’m quite confident because we improved a bit compared to the last Sepang test.
Today we have tested different set up solutions and we have worked on my position on the bike and the weight distribution.
I’m tall and I need to find the best position on the bike to ride as I like and to control it better.
I’m confident to improve my feeling with the machine and consequently my lap times.
”