On the final day of testing in Sepang, here’s what the riders had to say.
MotoGP testing will be back at Losail, Qatar in the night test on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd of March.
Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) Position: 1st Time: 2.
01.
043 Laps: 38“Today wasn’t bad! The more I ride the GP9 the more we understand how to improve the set-up of the new chassis and today we made a big step forward with improving grip and feel with the new bike.
Considering that I have recently had an operation and my wrist has still not full recovered, to be the fastest rider here is a dream to be honest.
Now I have to work hard on improving my physical condition and recovering the level of movement I need to ride the bike properly without pain.
Now I know that I can step up training on my arm and hopefully the situation will have improved for the Qatar test.
The GP9 is a good bike and in every test we’ve done with it we’ve come out on top.
That doesn’t mean to say that we can afford to relax, though, and we’ll keep our heads down and keep working.
I set pretty much the same lap time on both tyre compounds and I actually prefer the harder one.
The fact we’ve gone to a single tyre rule doesn’t seem to have an adverse effect on the performance of the Bridgestones – they’re doing a great job, as usual.
”Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) Position: Time: 2.
02.
496 Laps: 62“We started out on the right foot again today and I managed to knock six tenths of a second off my best lap from yesterday.
Then in the early part of the afternoon I had a little crash in turn two, where to be honest they’ve done a bad job of resurfacing the track and it has caught a few riders out this week.
Luckily I wasn’t hurt.
Obviously I’m not happy with my lap times, I was expecting more from myself, but I have to stay positive.
I’ve improved my lap times every day and we have gathered a lot of data to work from in the next test.
The fact Casey is already so fast means that the bike has the potential – it can only be a good thing that he is going so quick.
The team is working hard and they are just as determined as I am to get the results, so that’s a good thing.
I wasn’t too bad in the first two sectors but I was losing too much in T3 and T4, where the problem I’m having with the bike being unstable and unpredictable on the exit was the worst.
The Bridgestones are really consistent and I was able to do my first long run on the Ducati without any tyre life problems.
”Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) Position: 2nd Time: 2.
01.
137 Laps: 43I am leaving this place feeling happy, because we’ve made a good start.
Everything went well: my pain is less, the bike is good and I am feeling better and better.
We finished everything we wanted to do on the bike and the setting and the rhythm is quite good.
The lap time is fast so we have made a good start.
We didn’t do the long run, but actually we didn’t need to.
Without my injury maybe it would have been possible, but in this situation we decided to leave it.
My injuries are getting better each day because they’re only cuts and they’re healing fast.
I don’t think that they made much difference to my speed here and by the Qatar test I will be back in perfect shape.
I did the fastest lap today with the hard Bridgestone tyre, so it means that the bike is good.
For sure we need to improve some more but since this year we have less testing, this performance has been very important.
The first test of the year is always difficult, even if you trained a lot in the winter, so I am happy! Qatar will be interesting, because last year we weren’t strong there, but then last year the bike was not yet ready when we went to the first race in Doha.
I am really looking forward to the next text there.
”Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) Position: 7th Time: 2.
01.
907 Laps: 61“I am very happy because today I’ve seen how fast I can ride with the Bridgestone tyres.
Today has definitely been the best day for me at this opening test of the year.
Also, we have been able to do a long run in hot conditions with 32 degrees (36 in the afternoon!), and I was able to finish 22 laps without stopping.
I was tired when I finished but it was incredible; the rhythm was good and my best lap was right at the end, when I did a 2′01.
9.
This means that I have improved over a second since yesterday and we have made a big step forward.
We need kilometres under our belt and we’ve got some week! All the team worked hard up until the last minute and now they will keep going so we can try to go even better in Qatar next month.
We have to continue in the same way as today, improving all the time, because we don’t have that much time until the first race!”Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini) Position: 5th Time: 2:01.
560 Laps: 37“I’m very happy as we improved day by day.
We started the work on a completely new machine and the feeling was good since the very first day.
We still have to do lot of runs on the track but the direction we are working is good.
Nice atmosphere in the garage …really a great team”.
Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) Position: 11th Time: 2:02.
253 Laps: 32“Today we made a further step forward and I’m very glad about this.
Today’s pace was significantly faster with a better feeling with the machine.
We focused on the machine setting and the tires.
The new 2009 technical package needs a different work but I think we are in the right direction.
I’m very motivated ….
surely still a lot of work to reduce the gap from the first riders but I can’t wait to be in Qatar for the next test”.
Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) Position: 8th Time: 2:01.
955 Laps: 54“We focused on bike set up and decided the way to follow concerning the chassis.
We understood a lot of things during these three days and I’m very confident.
We need more work to adapt the machine to the tyres, this is a very important point.
Concerning the engine, my feeling is that we need a smoother power delivery.
Today it was really hot and it was very demanding out there from a physical point of view, especially after a break of more than two months.
I did a long run of eleven laps to understand better the machine and the tyres and collect data.
All in all, we have done a very good job and everybody in the team is very motivated.
”Randy De Puniet (LCR Honda) Position: 13th Time: 2.
03.
418 Laps: 50De Puniet: “We improved the lap time but it’s not enough for me: last year I was 4th here in the same test session.
There’s a lot of things to adjust but this first outing gathered us important data for next test session in Qatar.
This morning we took a step forward and I knew I could improve more in the afternoon but we suffered some brake problems and we skipped the session for more than one hour.
Today I feel more positive than yesterday but I need more time to adjust the bike”.
Sete Gibernau (Grupo Francisco Hernando Ducati Team) Position: 12th Time: 2.
02.
727 Laps: 42“I don’t think today was the best day for us.
Even though we have done quite a lot of work on the electronics we haven’t been able to get too many answers because we had a few problems in the afternoon that prevented us from completing as many laps as we would have liked,” said Gibernau.
“In general it has been a positive three days but things went from better to worse.
We did a great job on the first day but the job seemed to get more and more complicated.
It is all part of the process for a new team but the potential is there and what we need to do now to is keep working hard, there is a long way to go, especially for me.
I’m sure that together we can make up for our shortfalls and continue to progress.
”