Rider impressions after first day in Motegi

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2008-09-26 Rider impressions after first day in Motegi
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Weather has once more put lot of work in front of MotoGP teams and riders, as they had to set-up their bikes from completely wet FP1 to dry FP2. Casey Stoner returned to his usual top-spot in FP2, in front of Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi. Read rider claims after first day of free practice in Motegi.

Casey Stoner - 1st:
This morning we struggled to find rear grip on the wet track and we couldn't understand why, so this afternoon it was a case of taking our time to get the setting right and eventually we found a decent feel. We have a few areas to improve on and one of the things we tried towards the end of this afternoon proved to be a blind alley, so that cost us some time. Basically we tried a new tyre but it was spinning up a lot on the rear and forcing me wide on the brakes. We need to make up for that tomorrow and a dry day would certainly help! My wrist is feeling pretty good here - much better than it has for the last two races anyway, only in the dry it is a little bit more difficult, in the wet no problems. I didn't use any bandage I preferred not to because I have not the same movement. If I can I won't use it.

Dani Pedrosa - 2nd:
Track conditions were quite difficult this morning, so I struggled a bit. This afternoon everything improved. The track dried out, so we were able to start working towards the race, improving our machine set-up and especially trying the different tyres from our allocation. We found some good grip out there, but we need some more time to find the ideal combination for this track, because I am still finding the limit of the Bridgestone tyres. I am feeling better and better, and we want to keep working hard to get the best set-up because this is such an important race for us.

Valentino Rossi - 3rd:
This morning it was quite wet and we were very fast from the start. We found a good setting and the Bridgestone wet tyre worked very well for me. This afternoon in the dry however we had a few more problems and Stoner and Pedrosa were both faster than me. At the moment we’re missing a bit of front grip. This track is always quite hard and it doesn’t suit our M1 perfectly; at the moment we have some issues in the slow corners and we’re suffering a bit. Anyway, we were still third so it’s not a big problem and I am sure we will be able to improve tomorrow. I hope the weather is better for the rest of the weekend!

Andrea Dovizioso – 4th:
Today we started well and did a good job, despite the weather which was uncertain and the conditions of the track which were not optimal. This morning was wet and we tried different grooved tyres, while in the afternoon I used dry-weather rubber, even though the track still had wet spots on it. The second session we dedicated to try a new set of forks, which felt positive and we will continue to work on them tomorrow. In such uncertain conditions, I could do a long run of a dozen laps, and my hand is good, but we lose a little on acceleration out of the slow corners compared to other motorcycles. Tomorrow we will have to see how the weather situation is as it remains uncertain.

Loris Capirossi - 5th:
It has not been too bad at the end of the day because we did struggle a bit this morning in the rain to begin with, but at the end of the session we found a good solution that we were happy with. This afternoon we had the first opportunity to ride with slick tyres and even though the condition of the track is not 100% we managed to get in a whole hour in the dry and we tried many things on the bike. We made small steps every time we went out and although we are not so far from the front on positions we are quite far away on time, so we must keep working hard and try 100% to go better here. This is an important race for me because it is a special race for Suzuki and I love the track and have won the last three times here. I think maybe it will be difficult to win here again - but why not?

Sylvain Guintoli – 6th:
We made it to be competitive today in wet and dry track condition. This gives him a lot of confidence for the rest of the racing weekend. We are really fast on this track apart the third sector where I need to improve my riding style. The bike is surely very competitive here. My results have improved a lot in the last races and I hope this will allow me to find a good bike to race for next season.

Nicky Hayden - 7th:
This year, it wouldn’t be a GP weekend without a little bit of rain. Things felt awesome this morning. The bike set-up was quite similar to what we had at Indy, so the bike, the tyres, everything was working really good. I was quite fast, but it looks like the weather is going to clear up for the rest of the weekend. This afternoon things weren’t quite as great. The track looked a little patchy, so I just did one lap on intermediates when we went to slicks, the track came in quite quick. The bike felt okay in the dry but not great, though with just a few more tenths I would be quite a lot higher up the order. This track I sometimes struggle a bit in the dry. I’m close on all the splits but I’ve definitely got some work to do. I wasn’t completely happy with the set-up, the balance felt wrong, the way it was pitching back and forth into and out of the corners. I’ll try to give my guys some good information, so hopefully they can help me out and make it a bit easier tomorrow.

Marco Melandri - 8th:
This morning we had a lot of problems - we weren't totally prepared with the electronics and I was running wide for the first four or five laps. However, in the afternoon things went much better. We still have a few things to work on but the weekend has started out positively and I think that trend can carry through to the race. Now we'll see if we have another two sessions in the wet but at least it looks as though it will be dry for Sunday. If that's the case we have an idea about tyre choice and even though we have some way to go with the bike I can say I'm happy today.

Toni Elias – 9th:
I am very happy because today I have sensibly improved my performances with wet surface. For me this is very important. When the track dried out I found some complications and I have to improve a lot, but notwithstanding this we are already in a good position not too far from the bests. Tomorrow the weather should be better and this will allow us to improve our lap times also with the dry track.

John Hopkins - 12th:
There wasn't much we could do this morning in the wet, especially as the rest of the weekend is predicted to be dry, so we just refined our wet weather set-up. This afternoon the track was still damp in places, but we went out on slick tyres and evaluated all of our different Bridgestone tyre options to find something suitable for the race. We also had a revised specification engine to use and although it's not that different to what we had before, I can already feel that it's quite a bit smoother. The main area we are concentrating on is making improvements to our chassis setting as I'm struggling at a few of the hairpin corners to get the bike to turn and exit comfortably. However, we set our fastest time right at the end of the session on a tyre that had already done a lot of laps, which is positive. We'll make a few changes overnight and we're not that far off the rest of the field, so I'm feeling confident that we can work our way up the time sheets in qualifying.

Colin Edwards - 13th:
It hasn’t been a brilliant day. I went out there at the start and I was on top of the charts and thought it was all looking good. Even after about five or six laps when the times started to improve a lot I was hanging around second and third place. It felt good but as soon as some guys really got going I started dropping down the list pretty quick. I tried a couple of rear tyres and haven’t really found anything and that’s the problem. The best rear I’ve got at the moment doesn’t look like it will be good enough compared to the other guys. I did six laps at the end of the session in qualifying mode just to try and get a decent lap time in, but I couldn’t go any faster than a 49.3. I was running some of the best laps I’ve ever done at this place but I can’t get any feel from the rear. The front tyre is great but I’m spinning too much with the rear, and the burning question is how do we find more traction? We’ve made a couple of adjustments to the bike and it feels awesome. I’m not going to get the bike any better. I’m putting myself under a lot of pressure to perform, but when I go out and ride as hard and as good as I did today, to still be way down the standings is a bit frustrating. I’ll sit down with my guys and try and find a solution. I’ll never give up and I’m desperate to get a good result for Yamaha in Japan.

James Toseland - 14th:
I was completely lost this morning and to be honest we’ve been a bit lost for quite a few races. I got a good result in Misano but that was only because I was able to do the same lap time on every single lap. So when everybody else wasn’t that consistent I ended up getting a sixth. But really I was no faster on Sunday than I was on Friday. It has been a really frustrating time but we just tried something radically different with the suspension and all of a sudden it has clicked again and it is a nice feeling. Ignoring the position I’m in because I stayed out on one of the softer tyres for nearly half race distance, I am really relieved to have found something with the bike. The change has really helped with braking stability and with the contact of the rear tyre on corner entry. The feeling on the brakes and going in and coming out of corners has not been great for the last few races and we have been chasing our tails trying to find a solution. We all sat down and talked how we weren’t really going in a direction that was good enough and the team has done a great job to get back on track. Today is the nearest I have been to the front in terms of time on a brand new track on the first day, and I’ve only had limited dry time again. I don’t mind learning a track in the rain because it makes it slower, so you can feel the bumps and see the lines. The only thing is I’m missing out on dry set-up time and I’ve struggled with that all year because of how badly we’ve been hit by the rain.

Jorge Lorenzo - 15th:
Today has been strange because usually I’m not so fast in the wet but fast in the dry; today was the opposite! I don’t really know what happened this afternoon but I felt like I didn’t have enough grip in the rear on the entrance to the corner and so I didn’t have enough confidence to go fast. It felt a bit like in Donington and Assen. We’re working hard now in the team and together with Michelin and we gathered a lot of data so I hope that tomorrow we will be able to find a way to improve it. I know that I also need to work on my riding style a bit for this track. Anyway, it seems that tomorrow it will be hotter so I think this will help us as well.

Chris Vermeulen - 16th:
In the wet this morning we struggled quite a lot to get rear grip with the bike and the guys worked really hard between the sessions to improve things, but by this afternoon it had dried out enough to use slick tyres and we had a similar problem with the bike in the fact that the set-up wasn’t exactly right. We’ve got some ideas and some important data from today so I am sure that we can come back much stronger tomorrow and be pushing a lot further forward.

Anthony West - 17th:
Conditions at the circuit have been far from ideal today as this morning was wet, but it didn't really dry out totally for the afternoon session. This inconsistency in weather is not making our job any easier, and we need to make some big improvements to move ourselves further up the standings. We're struggling to get the machine into the turns, and we're also suffering with a lack of rear traction on corner exit. It felt slippery out on track, and although we've made quite a lot of changes to the chassis set-up, we haven't really found anything that's made a big enough difference to improve our lap time significantly. We will continue to work overnight with the data we now have and hopefully we can make more of an impression tomorrow.

Kousuke Akiyoshi - 19th:
I have had a few problems with the bike today and I had a crash as well which didn’t help with getting the bike set-up right. We can’t quite get the grip from the bike that we want and we still have a lot of things to sort out with engine braking and mapping as it is very inconsistent, but I know the crew will sort it out for tomorrow and we will make big steps!

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