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2007-02-25 Valentino Rossi takes keys of BMW
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 Today we saw preview of the forthcoming 2007 MotoGP season, as Valentino Rossi has clearly shown his intentions to get MotoGP title back by taking keys of the BMW in official 40 minute qualifying session. Qualifying session was mainly battle between Rossi and Pedrosa, and it is possible that it is scenario that will mark 2007 MotoGP championship.
Colin Edwards completed success of the Yamaha by taking 3rd place, in front of reigning champion, Nicky Hayden. De Puniet has shown great improvement by taking 5th place, in front of Ducati newbie, Casey Stoner. Loris Capirossi was 7th fastest today, in front of Suzuki of Chris Vermeulen. Kenny Roberts and Carlos checa completed top 10 qualifiers in Jerez today.
Valentino Rossi (1st, 1:38.394 - 17 Laps)
After this morning, when my Yamaha worked very well, I knew that I had a chance to try to win this competition. However I knew it was going to be a hard fight as well and I definitely expected Pedrosa to be as strong as he was. It was a fun battle with him, the first real one of the year! Anyway with every qualifying tyre I tried it felt better and better and I was able to go faster; in the end my time was fantastic and my Yamaha really flew! The most important thing about this is that it shows what great work we’ve done over the winter, everyone has tried so hard and this is a nice way to say thank you to them all. This new bike is working really well with the new tyres, both with race and qualifying tyres, so this is very important too and I would like to say thank you to Michelin. It was fun to see just how far I can push this new bike and it has answered me brilliantly, I felt very confident in my Yamaha today and I was able to ride it on the limit. Colin was also very fast so this once again shows how well our bike is working. Of course this isn’t even the first race and now we have to wait until Qatar, but we’re definitely in good shape and I am excited about the season ahead!
Dani Pedrosa (2nd, 1:38.527s – 97 laps)
I’m very happy with the 40-minute timed session because I really didn’t expect to be this fast. I improved the lap time on qualifying tyres by a lot from the last time I rode here. This was the goal for the session and I did it, so I’m happy. It’s been a really good test for me because we will only have limited time in which to test tyres this season. It was a good competition with Valentino today but I was not focused on his times, I just wanted to put these tyres on the limit and concentrate on myself, which is what I did. It’s been a valuable three days, we have made progress with the set-up of the bike for the race and also qualifying, so I’m hoping we’re ready for the first round at Qatar .
Colin Edwards (3rd, 1:39.300 - 16 Laps)
That was good fun today! This morning everything really came together for both Valentino and I and we knew that we were going to be able to push hard this afternoon. The Michelin qualifiers worked great and, after some of the problems we had last year, that’s a massive relief for us. I had a few more issues than Valentino in the timed session, nothing serious but our setting wasn’t quite the same as his and I wasn’t able to match his pace, but we know what we need to work on and anyway we were still in the top three and pretty fast. Honestly both Valentino and I are just so happy with everything, it all seems to work and it seems all the effort over the winter has paid off this time! It’s good to have finally finished testing and to be leaving here on such a high note; it gives everyone that extra kick for the first race. I can’t wait to finally get to Qatar now and start racing!
Official 40-minute session lap times:
1 Valentino Rossi 1m 38.394s
2 Dani Pedrosa 1m 38.527s
3 Colin Edwards 1m 39.300s
4 Nicky Hayden 1m 39.556s
5 Randy de Puniet 1m 39.832s
6 Casey Stoner 1m 39.873s
7 Loris Capirossi 1m 39.887s
8 Chris Vermeulen 1m 40.043s
9 Kenny Roberts 1m 40.083s
10 Carlos Checa 1m 40.100s
11 Toni Elías 1m 40.202s
12 Shinya Nakano 1m 40.242s
13 Makoto Tamada 1m 40.307s
14. Marco Melandri 1m 40.396s
15 Olivier Jacque 1m 40.551s
16 Alex Hofmann 1m 40.681s
17 Alex Barros 1m 41.038s
18 Kousuke Akiyoshi 1m 41.805s
19 Sylvain Guintoli 1m 42.215s
20. Vittoriano Guareschi 1m 43.008s
21 Andrew Pitt 1m 43.026s
22 Shinichi Ito 1m 43.073s
23 Jeremy McWilliams 1m 43.202s
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YZR-M1 Valentino Rossi 2008
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