Despite the usual sultry weather conditions and a dirty Sepang track, MotoGP’s Friday free practice went quite well for most of the riders.
And if you were pleasantly surprised by an unusually tight field, this is easily explained by the fact that the venue is also used twice during the official off season tests.
Regarding the Malaysian circuit, Dorna has confirmed that they have extended the current agreement with the Sepang International Circuit which will continue to host the MotoGP World Championship until 2013.
Check out what all the riders had to say after the first day:Valentino Rossi – 1st“It’s been another good start for us here and we found a good setting straight away.
I am feeling very comfortable on the bike and so far my shoulder is okay here.
The track is quite dirty but that will get better and I love riding at this track, it’s one of my favourites and I am always happy to be on the bike here.
We are confident that we will be able to make some more improvements tomorrow and be in good shape to try for the front row tomorrow afternoon.
” Andrea Dovizioso – 2nd “I’m happy with this first session at Sepang because we were fast from the very beginning of the practice period.
Today the conditions were really extreme in terms of the heat – even more than we’re accustomed to here – so physically it was very hard.
We started from a good base today however.
We will continue work on set-up improvements and adjustments to the electronics to increase the stability at the front end under braking.
But I think we have found the limit of the tyres in these conditions, so I will also try to adapt my riding style to make further improvements to the lap time tomorrow.
Overall we made a good start today”.
Jorge Lorenzo – 3rd “Today conditions were quite difficult, with the high temperatures and a dirty track.
I’m happy though because I felt good on the bike, I rode fast and I was close to the first position.
We rode with the old engine again today but maybe we will try the new one tomorrow.
We need to work on the fourth sector, which is where we’re losing time at the moment, so tomorrow we will concentrate on that and try to improve further.
”Casey Stoner – 4th“I’m not really happy with the way things went today.
We had a small crash at the beginning of the session so had to switch bikes and do a lot of work to get it feeling better.
Every time I went out there was some small problem and we seemed to take a while to find a reasonable setting.
By the end I had established a good feeling and I wanted to make a better lap time on the second lap of my final run but I ran wide in turn one and that was that.
We’ll take this data and try to improve the bike for tomorrow.
We seem to be struggling most of all with the rear, just like at Motegi, but once we solve that I’m sure we’ll see major improvements with the rest of the bike.
” Álvaro Bautista – 5th“I am happy today because we have made a good first practice, it was important that we were able to start with a good setting because we already had a good reference point from the winter tests.
It was helpful to have that base setting, but today the conditions were much different from the test and I felt like I had less grip from the rear tyre.
I started with the harder rear, but it did seem difficult to get the feel I wanted.
I tried both my bikes with different settings and I preferred the second one because it was easier to ride.
I put a soft tyre in at the end and did a few laps with that and set a good time.
We are still a bit away from the lap-time at the winter test, so we have to improve on many things to get the bike where we want it.
We have hard work ahead of us tomorrow and I want to say a big thank-you to all my team, because they have started the weekend very well and we must continue like that.
”Colin Edwards – 6th “I’m happy to be in the top six and really close to fifth but we have still got a lot of work to do.
We changed as much on the bike in one hour that we would do in one day at the test because I was really struggling with front and rear grip.
We had to move a lot of weight off the front because I wasn’t as confident with the front tyre as I have been recently.
And I was changing the front and rear suspension a lot to try and improve the traction.
I just didn’t feel like I could carry any lean angle, so considering some of the limitations I had this afternoon, the position is not too bad.
I know I was losing time out t here so with some more overnight changes I’m sure I can be faster.
”Marco Melandri – 7th“At last! Finally we have taken a step forward with our braking issues.
We have been working hard all season without finding anything but we made improvements in a few areas today and I am very happy.
We decided to go for a radical set-up compared to usual and luckily enough it worked.
Honda have also provided us with a new part for the front end that I feel has helped us take this step forward.
Now we have to work hard without making too many changes and improve on what we already have to make sure we have a good qualifying practice tomorrow.
”Aleix Espargarò – 8th “It was since a few races that I didn’t start a Grand Prix in a so positive way.
Today, things went in the right way since the beginning and the gap of seven tenths from Valentino Rossi on a such of a long track give us good hopes for the rest of the weekend.
The bike responds well and I am hopeful that tomorrow, thanks also to the additional changes that we’ll make on the bike with my engineers, we’ll be able to gain a good position on the starting grid.
” Ben Spies – 9th “For how I felt on the bike, the lap times are not so bad because I honestly expected to see myself in dead last.
I just didn’t feel confident enough with the bike to push it as hard as I normally can but looking at the times I’m actually not too far off.
So I’m actually not as worried as I expected because if we can improve the bike like I know we will, I’ll be right up there and in a much stronger position.
I’ve just got to keep plugging away but today we were just chasing front and rear grip.
The bike didn’t feel that balanced either but we’ve got lots of ideas and I’m sure we’ll be quicker tomorrow and in a strong position to challenge for the top five on Sunday.
”Randy de Puniet – 10th“It was a quite good first session for me.
I did a 17-lap long run on race tyres with a good pace but after that I had some small technical issues thus I lost some track time.
At the end I came out on a new hard tyre and I was lapping very fast when I had a big high side.
I almost crashed so I preferred to come in.
We had really low grip today but this is a trademark of this track and today the asphalt reached 54° degrees.
We will focus on engine mapping and suspension regulations to improve the bike for tomorrow’s qualifying”.
Marco Simoncelli – 11thNot bad… we’re not far off the front and just nine tenths off the fastest time.
We’re definitely going better than in the winter tests.
Obviously we still have a lot of work to do but we have a good base to work from because even though I am in eleventh the gaps are really small and you only need to find a few tenths to make up a lot of positions.
I am sure everybody will improve tomorrow so hopefully we can too and move up the order.
”Loris Capirossi – 12th“I don’t know why I have gone like that today, because normally we go well on this track.
I have something not working well because I’m not getting a good feeling in the bike and I don’t really know what the problem is.
We will have to work hard tomorrow to get it right and then we will see what we can do.
We have to look at the data and see what the connection is between that and how the bike is working and make things better for tomorrow.
Hector Barbera – 13th“We used the same set-up to day that we had for the last race and I felt comfortable with it.
We made a rather big change after six laps which gave us some improvement, then after another six we made an adjustment for the final stint.
I am very happy, because we have taken a step forward with the setting and, thanks to this, I am much more confident with corner entry.
The session flew by, which is a sign that I was having fun.
I think that this track will be better for us to go faster, because we already have data from the winter.
I finished thirteenth, one second from the fastest time.
Far off first in terms of position, but by improving a little more we can be part of the top eight.
”Hiroshi Aoyama – 14th“We wanted to try the Motegi Set up on this track and see how I can manage it here, but unfortunately the bike with the Motegi set up had some technical problems and I had to use the other bike with a different set up.
We were not able to use the other bike during the whole session and I could not try Motegi’s Set up, which I really liked and I wanted to see if it also works here.
We have to start from Zero again tomorrow and lost a whole day of work and that is not good at all.
”Nicky Hayden – 15th“We have picked up where we left off in Japan, which is not a good thing.
We struggled a lot, right from the beginning, over the bumps mainly.
I have a lot of front chatter, we got rear chatter too, and I cannot carry any good corner speed.
We’re 1.
2 seconds off the top, which may not seem that much but the reality is that it is a lot when the field is as tight as it is right now.
That kind of gap is pretty much going to send you to the back.
We definitely need to do something for tomorrow because today was not good.
” Mika Kallio – 16th“Being last is certainly not a good way to start the race weekend, but unlike other circuits, the gap from the fastest riders is not excessive.
We started the free practice with the best winter test setting; we then worked on the bike to make it as balanced as possible.
I improved my best lap time lap after lap until the end of the session, which has not happened in the last few races.
Some balance changes on the bike had not produced the results we were hoping for, but tomorrow during the second free practice we’ll further develop other solutions in order to further reduce the gap from the front riders.
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