MotoGP 2009 - Round Five - Mugello

MotoGP 2009 - Round Five - Mugello - Day One

The first MotoGP free practice of the Gran Premio d’Italia Alice weekend went with form on Friday afternoon at Mugello, as the top four riders in the World Championship standings ended the day in their corresponding positions.

That meant that Jorge Lorenzo was the man at the top of the timesheet, his best time of 1’49.870 on the 20th of his 27 laps in the hour long session giving him an early psychological advantage.

Lorenzo was the only rider to go under the 1’50 mark, with his Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi two-tenths of a second behind him in second place. Rossi, the winner of the last seven visits to Mugello, will be out to stop his young colleague from gaining any further championship advantage over the next 48 hours.

In third place Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner kept the Ducatisti happy, his bright red Desmosedici GP9 gleaming in the beautiful Italian sunshine as he lapped 0.274 behind Lorenzo.

Fourth in the championship and making ground on the top three in recent weeks Dani Pedrosa was also fourth in the session with his best time of 1’50.808, putting the Repsol Honda man just under a second behind compatriot and rival Lorenzo, as several riders – including Pedrosa – went close to top speed records for the Italian track.
Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) set the fifth quickest FP1 lap time, with sixth fastest rider Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) lapping at a similar pace to the American and Pedrosa. De Angelis ran off track at one point at the circuit where he achieved his best result of 2008, a fourth place, in his rookie campaign.

Veteran Italian rider Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) commenced his home GP in seventh place on the timesheet, whilst Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) showed his good form again in eighth. The top ten was rounded off by Italian pair Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing).

Niccolò Canepa (Pramac Racing) was the only crasher in the session as his home GP commenced in unspectacular fashion, the Ducati rider finishing 14th overall.

1 Jorge Lorenzo 1m 49.870 SPA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
2 Valentino Rossi 1m 50.065 ITA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team
3 Casey Stoner 1m 50.144 AUS DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
4 Dani Pedrosa 1m 50.808 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
5 Colin Edwards 1m 50.891 USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
6 Alex De Angelis 1m 50.898 SMR HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
7 Loris Capirossi 1m 51.007 ITA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
8 Randy De Puniet 1m 51.030 FRA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP
9 Andrea Dovizioso 1m 51.206 ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team
10 Marco Melandri 1m 51.359 ITA KAWASAKI Hayate Racing Team
11 James Toseland 1m 51.401 GBR YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha
12 Toni Elias 1m 51.823 SPA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini
13 Chris Vermeulen 1m 51.994 AUS SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP
14 Niccolo Canepa 1m 52.319 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing
15 Nicky Hayden 1m 52.403 USA DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team
16 Yuki Takahashi 1m 52.607 JAP HONDA Scot Racing Team MotoGP
17 Mika Kallio 1m 52.619 FIN DUCATI Pramac Racing

-- Ducati Report

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden worked hard in the searing afternoon heat of Mugello today, each working diligently towards different targets in the first free practice for the Italian Grand Prix. For Stoner the session provided a valuable opportunity to run back to back tests between the carbon swingarm that he has used since the start of this season with the aluminium version, whilst for Hayden the challenge lay in finding a base set-up for his Desmosedici GP9 at the fast and bumpy Tuscan circuit.

Stoner’s pace on both the carbon and aluminium swingarm was similarly good and the Australian set the pace for much of the session before giving best to Jorge Lorenzo in the final stages. Hayden’s day was not as productive, however, the American still struggling to get comfortable in his first season with the Italian machine and able to clock only the 15th fastest time.

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 3rd (1’50.144)
"The idea behind going back to the aluminium swingarm is just in order to see where we can improve more with the carbon version. The carbon swingarm is better in a lot of ways but there is one area we’re struggling to find grip with in the turns. So we’re using the aluminium one to find out where it is better and why, and then hopefully transfer that across. I don’t mind riding with one of each because we can do similar lap times so it’s not a problem. The only way it affected us today was that we had to make a lot of short runs and do a lot of testing but we’re happy with the way things went. Today was a case of spending a time learning more about our bike rather than setting it up to race, which we’ll focus on tomorrow. Considering how close we are to the top, I think we can be quite confident."

NICKY HAYDEN – (Ducati Marlboro Team) 15th (1’52.403)
“This is a very different circuit to Le Mans and to be honest I was hoping that coming here, to the track where this bike was born, we would be on the pace. Unfortunately we’re not and the truth is we’re struggling again – it’s pretty demoralising because every track we go to at the moment seems to cause us different kinds of problems. Here the worst thing is the bumpiness of the surface, which is unsettling a bike that can already be quite unstable. It is hard to change direction when the bike isn’t planted and that’s a big thing here.”

-- Repsol HRC

One of the classics of the MotoGP calendar - the Italian Grand Prix - got under way today with the fast and undulating Mugello circuit hosting the first hour of free practice in welcome sunshine. Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso opened their accounts with the fourth and ninth fastest times as they began the meticulous bike set-up process ahead of Sunday’s 23-lap race.

Pedrosa finished the day with a best lap of 1m 50.808s, set quite early in the session on the 11th of the 24 laps he completed this afternoon. Though he was 0.938s behind the fastest time, the 23-year-old Spaniard felt he hadn’t reached either his or his machine’s full potential in today’s single session and remains confident of homing in on his rivals tomorrow.

Andrea Dovizioso was enjoying the special experience of his first home race as a factory Honda MotoGP rider today. The 23-year-old Italian was quickly reminded of the particular challenges of the spectacular 5.245km (3.259-mile) circuit he likes so much and finished the day in ninth place with a lap time of 1m 51.206s. Using his feedback from today, he and his crew will continue to hone his machine’s set-up in tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions.

Top speed figures from the speed trap at the end of Mugello’s 1.141km (0.709-mile) straight indicated that Pedrosa had today set a spectacular new MotoGP top speed record of 349.3km/h (216.9mph) on board his RC212V. As always happens when a new top speed record is set, the timing equipment will be verified before the figure becomes official.

DANI PEDROSA – 4th - 1m 50.808s
“It was good to get a full dry practice session today and I think this is the first complete hour-long session we’ve had because we had interruptions from the weather in Le Mans. The track conditions were very good and the lap times we saw today are already fast. My feeling on the bike was not bad, though we need to work on our braking, corner entry, and direction changes because these are the areas where we’re not so strong. Neither I nor the bike are at our maximum potential yet so, although we’re quite a long way from the fastest riders, I’m confident we can close the gap tomorrow. It’s a very fast straight here, although I didn’t know the top speed was that high until I saw it on the timing screens. Still, top speed is not the most important thing so I’m not really worried about the record - the lap time is more critical.”

ANDREA DOVIZIOSO – 9th - 1m 51.206
“It’s great to be back riding at Mugello because this place is so special. It’s a fascinating racetrack partly because it is so difficult to master - and that’s what we found today. The track is technical and also very demanding physically. You really need to use a lot of energy to get round here quickly and it can be hard to get into the rhythm immediately and find the quickest way through the chicanes. I’m still having some problems with the handling of the bike and I’m struggling to get it turning from side to side in the way I want. So our target for tomorrow morning is to improve the feeling at the front end. We’ve collected some useful information from today’s session so me and the team will be working out ways to improve our package in this area.”

KAZUHIKO YAMANO - REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER
“We were pleased to make use of the full practice session at Mugello today, though both riders are still reporting some areas where we still have to improve our performance. There’s quite a big time gap to the riders at the top of the timesheets so both crews will be working with the data they collected today to move things forward in tomorrow’s sessions. This is an important race for both riders, and it’s Andrea’s home race, so the team will be working hard as always.”

-- Yamaha Report

The Fiat Yamaha pairing of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi got off to a flying start at the Italian Grand Prix today, taking the top two spots in the opening practice session at Mugello. After the rain-interrupted French round, sunny Tuscany is a welcome change for the riders and the Spaniard and the Italian looked in fine fettle around the 5.245km track this afternoon.

Lorenzo leads the championship from his team-mate by just one point and he looked in top form once again this afternoon. He was the only rider to dip under the current lap record as he quickly found a good setting for his M1 and Bridgestone tyres for the undulating, high-speed track.

Home-town hero Rossi also spent time at the top of the standings but finished up just under two tenths behind his team-mate in second position. He is confident that a few small set-up tweaks in the morning will improve things further as he seeks an incredible eighth consecutive win at his favourite racetrack.

Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 1Time: 1'49.870Laps: 27
"This is a great start but it's too soon to speak about the race or jump to conclusions; we've only had one practice! It's true however that I didn't have any problems today and I felt very happy for the whole session. Each time we come to a new track we don't know exactly what to expect because we're still learning the new Bridgestone tyres but at the moment we seem to be fast each time and I feel very comfortable in this period; this is positive. It's very hot here, even hotter than in Spain but I am okay with that because we've had too much rain and we all need some sunshine! I hope it will continue like this for the weekend because it's better for everyone."

Valentino Rossi - Position: 2Time: 1'50.065Laps: 28
"We did quite well today and it looks like we're in good shape. It is only Friday so there's a long way to go yet, but it's looking like it could be a great battle on the track because the first few riders are very close. We have a few small things to work on still with the setting because I can't ride exactly how I want to yet, but we already have a good rhythm and we have important data to help us improve further. This is a great track for me and it doesn't matter if Mugello comes after a bad race or a good one, it's something apart from the 'normal' championship and I always feel great motivation. Plus the sun is shining so I am very happy!"

Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
"We've got the weekend going in the best way, especially because Jorge is already under the lap record which shows how comfortable he is. We're very happy with the bike but we have already found some areas that we can improve so this will be our task for tomorrow. Let's hope we can keep going in the same way because we know that everyone else will improve as well."

Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"Valentino was consistently fast and amongst the top riders for the whole hour so we have made a good start. We still have some small adjustments to make and hopefully that will help us to find a few tenths more. It's very hot and if it remains like this then it will be a hard race for the riders but it's better than rain! We're feeling positive and we will continue to work and improve our package tomorrow."

Strong start for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 in Mugello

Colin Edwards and James Toseland made a strong start to the Italian MotoGP weekend in Mugello today, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo finishing opening free practice in fifth and 11th places respectively.

American Edwards recovered superbly from the early setback of losing his number one YZR-M1 machine to a minor problem to clock the fifth quickest time in a session run in hot and sunny conditions at the spectacular Mugello circuit. The 35-year-old adapted brilliantly to the hardest Bridgestone compound rear tyre used so far in the 2009 MotoGP world championship to clock a best time of 1.50.891. Bridgestone opted to use the hard compound tyre today to cope with extreme track temperatures that peaked at 50 degrees and the high-speed nature of the 3.259 miles track.

Toseland ended the session in optimistic mood after he posted the 11th best time with a 1.51.401. An early set-up issue that hindered Toseland's ability to change direction resulted in the British rider having to contend with an arm pump problem for the majority of the session.

The problem was exaggerated at the Mugello circuit, one of the fastest and most technical tracks on the calendar, but the 28-year-old was still able to show encouraging form and he was only 0.5s away from the top five. Toseland's Yamaha YZR-M1 is carrying a number 50 sticker this weekend to show support for former Tech 3 rider Sylvain Guintoli. The French rider is currently recovering from leg injuries suffered in a British Superbike Championship crash at Donington Park earlier this week.

Colin Edwards 5th 1.50.891 - 25 laps
"I'm reasonably happy because I did most of the session on my second bike. I had a very small problem with my number one bike and my guys did a great job to get me out so quickly on the second bike. The second bike though had stiffer suspension settings and I had a little bit of front-end movement that was holding me back a little bit. And with the hard compound Bridgestone tyres at the end of the session I was getting a bit more movement. But I've got to say that Bridgestone has done a great job. They are really simple and really easy to understand when you have the experience. It's the hardest rear I've tried all year and it feels great, despite the high track temperatures. And its typical Bridgestone because the more laps you seem to do on it the faster you go and even now that is still freaking me out. I think we've easily got half-a-second to come from the bike but I've got to smooth my riding out a little bit. Without getting the bike quite dialled in with the stiffer suspension settings I wasn't as smooth as I'd normally like to be, but we have got plenty of ideas to change it and I'm confident we're in for a good weekend."

James Toseland 11th 1.51.401 - 24 laps
"That wasn't a bad session really and I'm pretty happy. I didn't start off feeling very comfortable on the bike and fair play to Gary Reynders and my team because they did a good job in solving some of the problems and we always went in the right direction with the set-up. It was really difficult to change direction with the setting I had at the start and it gave me arm pump and I never suffer with that. But because I was forcing the bike with my arms at the beginning of the session, once I'd got arm pump I couldn't get rid of it. Without that I'm sure the package I had was capable of going another three of four tenths quicker and that would put me in the top six. I felt comfortable too on the hard tyre because the last time I was on that was in Sepang in testing when I had my big crash. So to be half-a-second off fifth place on that tyre, I guess we're friends again. It was hot out there with 50 degrees on the ground but the hard tyre was working pretty well for me. I'm optimistic and confident for the rest of the weekend because the time I lost was with my arm problem and not the bike, so I'm really looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and doing a good job. I'm carrying Sylvain's race number on my bike as a gesture from the whole Tech 3 Team to show we're all thinking of him and wishing him a quick recovery. He's a great guy and we all want to see him back out on track as soon as possible."

-- Suzuki Report

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP completed the first free practice session at Mugello in Italy today with Loris Capirossi less than a second off a provisional front row start at his home Grand Prix.

Capirossi (1'51.007, 24 laps) was seventh overall on the timesheets, but he was only 0.863 away from the third fastest time of the day. He worked extremely hard with his crew throughout the hour-long session to improve his Suzuki GSV-R, saving his best for last as he recorded his two quickest laps of the day at the very end on the session.

Chris Vermeulen (P13, 1'51.994, 25 laps) also improved steadily throughout the afternoon as he too produced his fastest lap on his final circuit of the 5,245m Italian track. He believes there is still a lot more to come from him, the bike and the whole package, and will be working hard with the crew this evening to hopefully make things happen tomorrow.

The whole MotoGP field basked in warm sunshine today as air temperatures reached 27ºC and track surfaces got up to 52ºC. With the hills of the Tuscan countryside looming large over the circuit like some monolithic spectators, championship leader Jorge Lorenzo recorded the best time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki will take to the track again tomorrow morning for the final hour of free practice, before the excitement of the qualifying session takes place in the afternoon. Sunday's 23-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) when the excited hordes of fans at trackside will be whipped up into a frenzy come race-time.

Loris Capirossi:
"It was not easy today as we struggled a bit to get a good feeling from the front of the bike, but it was good to have a full hour to work with because we were able to get through a lot of changes. We tried a couple of runs with different settings and then one with a very extreme setting. We will certainly improve tomorrow, but having said that the bike is not too bad at the moment. I really enjoy riding here at this track, but at the moment - until we get the setting right - it is just not quite perfect!"

Chris Vermeulen:
"It's great to come back to Mugello; this is certainly a circuit that most of the GP field enjoy. It hasn't been a good circuit for Suzuki in the past as we have suffered a bit with the high-speed turns and the long straight. During today's session we made some progress with the bike and tested both tyre compounds to see which one gave the best feeling and durability - we've certainly got a direction with that. My biggest issue at the moment is with front grip and making the bike steer a bit better. We'll be working hard with the engineers this evening and we already have some ideas how we can improve."

Paul Denning - Team Manager:
"It has not been the start to the weekend at Mugello that we'd hoped for, but we got through a lot of work and the direction that we need to improve in is very clear. Loris took a big step forward at the end to get within a second of the fastest guys, but he still has some big restrictions holding him back. If we can fix those in the morning things don't look too bad at all in that department.

"Chris has been rather unwell during this week and it is not clear if that had any significant effect during the session, but we know that he can go a whole lot better than that and the pressure is on to take big steps tomorrow morning, which I'm sure he can achieve."

-- Bridgestone Report

Tyre compounds available: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard

In its first competitive appearance since pre-season testing, the hard compound Bridgestone rear slick tyre was the favoured option for almost all riders during Friday’s hour-long first free practice session, coupled with the hard compound front Bridgestone slick.

Mugello is the toughest test for the Bridgestone slicks so far this season, with the circuit’s numerous bumps, the high track temperature and high average lap speed working both front and rear tyres very hard.

Having confidence in the front end is key to lap times here – braking hard over crests into fast and flowing corners means riders have to trust completely in the grip and stability from the Bridgestone slicks to fully commit.

All riders with the exception of the Rizla Suzuki duo started with the medium compound front slick, denoted by the white mark around the sidewall, but by the end of the session every rider went faster on the hard front Bridgestone.

By the end of the session, Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner was the only rider in the top five not using the hard compound rear Bridgestone.

The top spot was hotly contested by Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, Casey Stoner and eventual fastest man Jorge Lorenzo, who was the only rider to lap quicker than last year’s fastest race lap of 1m50.003s on his Fiat Yamaha machine.

Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development
“Even though the riders have had no previous track time on the hard compound rear Bridgestone since the start of the season it is providing them with a good level of confidence straight away. We can see that the consistency and grip from both the medium and hard compounds is good, showing that these two compounds were the correct choices for this weekend. Ultimately, with a track temperature similar to that of last year’s race, the harder compound Bridgestones gave better performance.”

-- Minor Categories

250

World Championship leader Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar) set out his stall in the 250cc category, the Spanish rider wrapping up FP1 0.244s ahead of closest rival Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing), who incidentally also sits second in the general standings.

Bautista’s best time of 1’53.814 on the last of his 26 laps will give him confidence overnight as he seeks to extend his lead at the top of the standings this weekend - at the home track of fellow title candidate and reigning 250cc World Champion Marco Simoncelli. Indeed, an off-colour Simoncelli was down in eighth in this session, more than a second behind Bautista.

There was plenty of Spanish representation at the head of the timesheet as Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team) and Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens) lapped third and fourth fastest respectively, whilst Italian competitor Raffaele de Rosa (Scot Racing) completed the top five.

125

Friday’s action had got underway earlier in the afternoon with a familiar figure at the head of the 125cc timesheet in free practice 1 as another World Championship leading Spaniard, Julián Simón, went round quicker than any of his single cylinder rivals.

The Bancaja Aspar rider, who leads the standings by 5.5 points from team-mate Bradley Smith, set the pace with a 1’59.437s lap towards the end of the session – to send out a message to the rest of the 125cc field.

Closest to Simón on this occasion was another team-mate, Sergio Gadea, who lapped 0.284 behind his compatriot. Home rider and a double race winner already this year Andrea Iannone (Ongetta Team I.S.P.A.) was third fastest with a similar time to Gadea, whilst aforementioned Englishman Smith was fourth, less than half a second behind Simón. Nico Terol (Jack & Jones Team) was half a second off the pace in fifth.

Red Bull Rookies

A sweltering day in Mugello ended with the two qualifying sessions for the Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup. Sturla Fagerhaug put one hand on the winner's trophy with a superb demonstration of speed in the first session and while the others scrambled to catch up the 17 year old Norwegian concentrated in the second session on bike set-up and getting ready to race.

French 16 year old Nelson Major put in a blinding lap towards the end of the first session to place himself second on the grid just one 10th of a second slower than Fagerhaug but in doing so used the best of his rear tyre so could not come close to matching it in the second 30 minute session. That second period gave fellow Frenchman, 15 year old Florian Marino, the opportunity to move into 3rd, just 6 10ths away from pole.

The front row is completed by Daijiro Hiura, the 14 year old Japanese, who was frustrated not to be able to improve on his 1st session time. He was almost bettered by Kevin Calia, the 14 year old Italian, who heads up the second row in front of Danny Kent, Jakub Kornfeil and Jake Gagne.

Naturally Fagerhaug was quite content with his day's work. "I was happy with the first session, we made some changes to the bike after the free practice this morning which really helped the bike over the bumps, plus I tried some different lines so that I missed the worst of them where I could. We then made some more changes for the second session but I was not so comfortable on the bike and stopped during the session to change it back. Plus some of the guys just wanted to follow me all the time so that was a bit frustrating. I was happy that I put together some consistent quick times and in the end I did a good practice start so I am looking forward to the race - you never know with my starts but I hope it will be better than Jerez."

Major explained why his second session time was 3 quarters of a second slower than the first. "The rear tyre was finished and that made the bike move around a lot. I didn't want to push it too hard. I am happy though, I took it easy early in the first session. I just got my confidence back after crashing last weekend on my 600 when I had an engine problem and then I felt good so I could go fast. I think the race will be fun."

Marino was equally pleased with his 3rd. "I worked hard for that, we changed the bike through the day and I pushed and pushed. I think it will be a great race," concluded the on-form Frenchman who won on his 600 last weekend in France. Hiura was also quite happy with 4th. "I was not as fast in the second session because I was alone the whole time and without a slipstream it is hard to really do a good lap time but I think it will be OK for the race, I think I can run at the front."

The best of the local heroes was Calia and he was in the hunt all through practice, improving by a second between the 2 sessions. "I like the track here, I am happy to be racing at home and I feel confident now that my wrist is 100%." He broke his left wrist in the pre season Estoril test back in late March.

Danny Kent, the 15 year old Englishman, put himself in 6th place just 0.7 sec behind pole and was happy with that. "The second session was a lot better than the first, I concentrated on learning the track and I think I got going better, found some better lines and could carry more corner speed."

The 15 year old Czech Jakub Kornfeil, fresh from his Alpe Adria Cup win in Brno last weekend was not really thrilled with 7th. "I want to be quicker but I seemed to be on my own all the time. I feel good on the bike though and I think I can make a good race." Similarly Jake Gagne, the 15 year old Californian is looking for good things from 8th place. "We improved the bike through the day so things are pretty good, it was moving around a bit at the rear in the end but for me that is a whole lot better than not having a good feeling in the front which is where we started the day."

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