Riders speak after Valencia MotoGP 2015 Day One
Jorge Lorenzo – P1 – “The day started positively and we improved the bike a lot in the afternoon. The bike is working really well and I feel strong, with good concentration. I‘m riding well, but the bike, to be honest, is working very well for me to keep a high pace, even with old tyres, so I‘m very happy about the beginning of the weekend.”
Marc Marquez – P2 – “I’m happy because I went out on track and got back to enjoying myself riding; it was important and something I was really looking forward to doing. It’s been a positive day because we did a good job with the setup of the bike. In the second session we worked hard with Sunday’s race in mind, riding with used tyres and also testing the hardest compound. We are pretty clear about how we can continue to improve tomorrow, because the track temperature increased a lot and if it stays like this, we will have to concentrate on the durability of the tyres.”
Dani Pedrosa – P3 – “Even though we finished third for the day, it’s not been a great start to the GP. My first feeling when I went out on track this morning was that we needed a bit more grip with the rear. We spent most of the day working on this issue and we must continue to work on the bike setup tomorrow to solve this small problem and to be faster for qualifying. I’m not sure how the race will play out at the moment, I’m just focusing on improving for tomorrow.”
Andrea Iannone – P4 – “In the end it was a good day, but to be honest I expected to struggle less and be a bit closer to the leaders. In any case I am quite satisfied because the weekend has just begun and we managed to improve from this morning by only making a few small modifications, which were very beneficial. We got closer to the front and so we will continue in this direction to gain some more tenths, in order to be ready for Sunday.”
Valentino Rossi – P5 – “When I’m riding I’m more relaxed and I’m quite happy about these two first practices, because already this morning my pace was not so bad and I was also quite competitive with the used tyre, which is very important for the race. I’m also happy that in the afternoon we tried something different that made me increase my rhythm and improve my lap times. I used the hard tyres and it wasn’t so bad and after I tried the soft to make a comparison and make the right choice for Sunday. It’s true that we have to decide our strategy now, because I think it will be difficult to use the 15 minutes of qualifying like a free practice, so I think maybe I can do the normal procedure anyway.”
Andrea Dovizioso – P7 – “It was a very difficult afternoon in that there was not much grip on the track and it was very difficult to control the bike. I was not able to do even one clean lap, because I made several mistakes which were caused by lack of grip. The rear tyre also showed an odd pressure drop so we now have to try and understand the reason why. In any case we must improve my feeling with the bike for tomorrow and so we’ll be working in that direction.”
Pol Espargaro – P8 – “It has been a very positive first day and I am pleased because it has been quite a long time since we had such a strong start to the weekend. I was able to ride my time fairly easily and the tyres are working really well here, especially the rear which has a lot of grip. This is certainly also thanks to the high grip level of this circuit, which I like riding at and that I know very well. Therefore, I enjoyed being on my Yamaha today and to see the lap times being strong straight away is a really good feeling after this tough season. Now we will see how the weekend unfolds with the changing grip levels and the weather conditions, but we will do our best and try to continue this positive momentum until Sunday’s race.”
Aleix Espargaro – P9 – “It’s been a positive day, it’s good to start from a base and improve from there. This morning I struggled a little with the feeling at the front: I didn’t feel I could make the GSX-RR turn as I wanted, but in the afternoon things definitely went better. We are trying many different set-ups and the path we are on is pretty positive. With the softer tyre I had already a good fast lap and with a used tyre also the pace is consistently fast. I’m very confident with the soft tyre, usually the first attempt with the soft is pretty cautious but here I could immediately find a good feeling and be fast straight away.”
Cal Crutchlow – P10 – “Overall I’m happy enough, we used the hard rear tyre for a long time in the afternoon session and it was not so quick, but I was working a lot on the set-up. Then we put in the soft tyre and we managed to get in a really nice lap time, even though I found a couple of guys on the track on my fast lap, so I’m positive going into tomorrow. I’m happy enough with how the season has gone, but although it’s the last round we have to treat it like any normal race weekend and do our very best for myself and the team. Everybody likes to finish the year on a good note and I did last year with a fifth place here and I hope to try and do the same again.”
Maverick Vinales – P11 – “This morning I went out to the track with too much enthusiasm and unfortunately I had a minor crash on the very first lap; my brakes were not at the right temperature and in turn 8 I went into the gravel. This changed our program for the day, we had to recover and to do everything quicker, but finally we made good improvements. This morning I struggled a little with the electronics and the traction, but in the afternoon the feeling was definitely better. With a new set of tyres I could lap very fast, improving a lot the lap times I did last year in testing. Since we lost some time today, I have the feeling that we still have room for improvement; tomorrow we will try to be more consistent and cut some more tenths. The electronics can be improved I think, as well as the set-up and my lines. I’m confident that we can improve a lot.”
Michele Pirro – P13 – “It wasn’t an easy day, because I still haven’t found a good feeling with the bike and I wasn’t able to be as fast as I would have liked. We worked on both bikes, testing some new detail parts and now we have to analyze the results to see what we need tomorrow in order to improve our times. My goal is to get inside the top ten and directly into Q2: my bike is going strong and so it’s only a question of feeling, but tomorrow I’m sure we’ll manage to find it.”
Bradley Smith – P15 – “Today was not great in terms of the end result, but I am fully confident that we can progress more tomorrow and get back to where we should be. Throughout the day, we improved gradually and made some small steps forward but we wanted to be as ready for possible for the GP and so we did a lot of laps on the rear tyre in order to get a good race setup. Anyway, we started to find a good direction in FP2 and I am sure that we will be much more competitive with new tyres when we get going again tomorrow. The main area where we have to improve is sector four which is the part of the track that I am struggling with and which also prevented me from setting a stronger lap time. Yet, I’m convinced that the team will work hard tonight and we will surely be back inside the top ten tomorrow morning.”
Stefan Bradl – P16 – “In general the weekend started off well. I’m quite pleased with how the first free practice session went in the morning because we started from the setup we had used in Malaysia and everything worked well. In the afternoon the conditions were better to be able to try the harder front tyre and we also continued to do some tests with the soft rear to work on race pace. Unfortunately, however, in the last run we were slowed by a problem with the engine brake which cost us a few places in the combined standings for the two sessions. In any case I am optimistic for tomorrow. Once this problem is solved we’ll be able to be fast again.”
Nicky Hayden – P17 – “Today wasn’t spectacular but compared to the other races it’s not so bad. This afternoon were quite competitive with the guys we normally race with so we need to keep improving from here. We need to stop the bike from wheelying a little bit and improve the edge grip, which is important here in some of these long corners. I think we have a good direction with the bike. We need to qualify well – the last few races qualifying has been my weakest point so it would be nice to get a decent grid slot and try to have some fun on Sunday.”
Loris Baz – P18 – “I am pleased with what has been done today: it was a good day of work. The overall feeling is positive and I lapped for most of the session with worn tires. In the end, I used fresh tyres to improve my lap-time and I’m confident for tomorrow’s qualifying.”
Jack Miller – P19 – “Today was not too bad, it could have been a little better. The bike was alright, but we’ve still got a lot of work to do, that’s for sure. We’re struggling with the braking and also to get a bit of grip, so they will be our main focuses for tomorrow although the times were okay. We’re improving each time we go out on the bike, it’s just the other guys are as well! We’re very close to Nicky (Hayden) so we’re doing okay, it’s going to be a close one this weekend, but it looks like our bike will be competitive here so hopefully we can keep improving and have a good race on Sunday.”
Alvaro Bautista – P20 – “We did well in the morning, even with our times and a good feeling. In the afternoon we worked on the bike to improve performance, especially going into turns, but I didn’t do as well as I had expected and we weren’t able to improve our times. Evidently the change we made was not effective, but that’s fine. It’s important to always have something new to try and in any case we have time to improve tomorrow.”
Eugene Laverty – P22 – “Today was tough. The first session was okay, I immediately went half a second faster than I managed when we tested the bike for the first time here. That was positive but then in the afternoon the asphalt felt more slippery and that made my problems worse. We need to find a solution to our rear grip problems because we are having issues here that I haven’t had with this bike before. It is lacking grip even off the gas, so it’s sliding in corner entry and then continues to slide on the gas. It’s the first time I have ever had this feeling so we need to improve this tomorrow. We have to discuss the best way because it is a very peculiar problem.”
Scott Redding – P23 – “Today was the most difficult day I’ve had on the bike. It just felt like the bike wasn’t working for me and I spent all my time fighting with it rather than riding it. It was spinning and pumping at the rear and the front felt like it was going to close all the time, more so on the softer option tyre, which should have better. I couldn’t put two laps together because of having to fight the bike in every corner and when I pushed harder I was making mistakes and running wide. We tried a few things but they didn’t give an improvement. We need to look for a solution tonight; maybe the electronics can help us, but we need to find something.”
Toni Elias – P24 – “It was a very positive Friday’s practice. I think I can still lower my lap-time, but I’m satisfied with the work done. I already have some clear ideas for the race and I am confident for it. The pace is good and the feeling is positive even with worn tyres. The goal for qualifying is to close the gap with the other Open bikes.”
Jorge Lorenzo tops Valencia MotoGP Day One
Movistar Yamaha’s Lorenzo produced a 1’31.111 in glorious sunshine (Track temp 29˚C) during Free Practice 2 to end Friday at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana fastest. The Spaniard is bidding to lift his third MotoGP World Championship as he trails Rossi by seven points in the standings heading into this weekend’s Valencia MotoGP finale. His time was less than a second off Marquez’s Pole Record from 2013 (1’30.237) and he managed to finish 0.364s quicker than his title rival Rossi, as Lorenzo aims to make it a clean sweep of the Spanish rounds in 2015, having already tasted victory at Jerez, Catalunya and Aragon.
Repsol Honda’s Marquez (+0.139s) was one of the few top riders not to improve his time in FP2, but his 1’31.250 that saw him top FP1 was good enough to secure second overall on the combined timesheets. The man who will have to hand over his MotoGP™ title on Sunday managed to pull off a couple of remarkable saves throughout the day, at turn 8 in FP1 and turn 2 in FP2, when it looked certain he was going to crash.
His teammate Dani Pedrosa (+0.266s), the man who has won two of the last three races and has six wins to his name at Valencia, completed the provisional front row. The Spaniard is aiming for his 100th MotoGP™ podium on Sunday and he would be only the second person to achieve the feat after Rossi. Ducati Team’s Andrea Iannone (+0.333s) improved by over seven-tenths throughout the day to finish in fourth as the leading Desmosedici.
Movistar Yamaha’s championship leader Rossi, who will be forced to start from the back of the grid in the race after his appeal for a stay of execution to the CAS was rejected, was just 0.031s further back from Iannone in fifth. The ‘Doctor’ improved by almost three tenths throughout the day and finished just 0.364s off the pace of his title rival Lorenzo, as he bids to lift his tenth world title come Sunday’s race.
Octo Pramac Racing’s Danilo Petrucci (+0.464s) improved by 0.999s after ending FP1 in 12th to finish in sixth overall on the Satellite Ducati. He finished 0.067s ahead of Andrea Dovizioso (Ducati Team) on the factory GP15 in seventh. Dovizioso was the only other rider in the top ten, along with Marquez, to not improve his time in FP2.
Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) came out on top in the battle of the brothers, as he finished in eighth, just four thousandths of a second ahead of Aleix Espargaro (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in ninth.
LCR Honda’s Cal Crutchlow completed the top ten, with Maverick Viñales (Team Suzuki Ecstar) in 11th and Avintia Racing’s Hector Barbera the leading Open class rider in 12th.
Ducati Team’s wildcard Michele Pirro was 13th fastest, while Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) improved from 17th in FP1 to end the day in 15th overall, but was still 1.397s off the pace of Lorenzo. Smith won’t be too downhearted though as he was down in 14th after Friday’s practice at Sepang, but recovered to finish fourth in the race.
Nicky Hayden (Aspar MotoGP Team) celebrated being inducted into the MotoGP Hall of Fame during the break between sessions by ending the day in 17th as the leading Open Honda rider.
Australian Jack Miller (LCR Honda) was 19th, with Irishman Eugene Laverty (Aspar MotoGP Team) in 22nd.
EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Scott Redding struggled throughout the day and finished down in 23rd overall, over two seconds off Lorenzo’s pace. Anthony West, (AB Motoracing) filling in for the injured Karel Abraham was in 25th, while Alex de Angelis’ replacement Broc Parkes (E-Motion IodaRacing Team) finished the session in 26th.
Lüthi ends Friday quickest in Moto2
Derendinger Racing Interwetten’s Lüthi managed to set the fastest time in Moto2 at the Gran Premio Motul de la Comunitat Valenciana on a Friday that saw less than 0.9s separate the top 14 riders. Lüthi, who is aiming for his second win of 2015, continued the form that saw him finish second in Sepang to set a 1’35.560 in FP2. The Swiss rider’s time was just over half a second off Pol Espargaro’s 2013 Pole Record (1’34.957) and saw him head the rest of the Moto2™ field by over two tenths, despite crashing after the checkered flag had been shown at the end of FP2 at turn 11.
Speed Up Racing’s Lowes (+0.201s) was second fastest after he set his fastest time in FP1, the Brit failing to improve in the afternoon. Lowes is looking to bow out on a high with his team and add to his four podiums in 2015, before making the switch to the Gresini Team next year.
EG 0,0 Marc VDS’s Tito Rabat (+0.274s) was third on his return from the broken radius that has kept him out of the last three GP’s. The 2014 Moto2 World Champion is making the step up to MotoGP next year with his team, and is clearly determined to end his Moto2 career with a win.
Paginas Amarillas HP40’s Alex Rins (+0.434s) ended the day in fourth, despite crashing in FP2 at turn 8. He finished just 0.055s ahead of AGR Team’s Jonas Folger (+0.489s) in fifth, who is chasing his third podium in four races.
Rins’ teammate Luis Salom (+0.656s) failed to improve in the afternoon, but still ended the day sixth on the combined timesheets, just eight-thousandths of a second ahead of Julian Simon on the QMMF Racing Team Speed Up bike in seventh.
Takaaki Nakagami (Idemitsu Honda Team Asia), Simone Corsi (Forward Racing) and Sandro Cortese (Dynavolt Intact GP) completed the top ten, while Alex Marquez (EG 0,0 Marc VDS) had to settle for 11th after a crash with 10 mins to go in FP2 at turn 12.
Technomag Racing Interwetten’s Dominique Aegerter was 28th on his return from injury and just 0.001s behind the pace of his teammate Robin Mulhauser in 27th, but unfortunately Aegerter was forced to withdraw from the GP after FP2 due to the pain from his injuries and will be replaced by Josh Hook for the rest of the weekend.
Kent gets title hopes off to dream start in Moto3
Leopard Racing’s Danny Kent got his bid to become the first British World Champion since Barry Sheene (500cc) in 1977 off to the perfect start at the Comunitat Valenciana – Ricardo Tormo circuit by ending the first day of practice on top. The British rider leads the only man who can deny him the title, Miguel Oliveira, by 24 points with only 25 up for grabs on Sunday.
Kent set his fastest time in the morning as he headed FP1, as the majority of the leading riders failed to improve in the warmer afternoon FP2 session. Kent’s time of 1’39.930 was good enough to see him end Friday quickest, despite finishing down in fifth in a highly competitive FP2 that saw only a second separate the top 23 riders.
RBA Racing Team’s Isaac Viñales was only 0.036s behind the pace of Kent in second, as the Spaniard was the only other rider to break the 1’40 barrier. Kent’s teammate Hiroki Ono (+0.085s) completed the provisional front row as he looks to bounce back from two DNF’s in the last three races.
There were three Leopard Racing Honda’s in the top four as Efren Vazquez, who topped FP2, (+0.093s) set the fourth fastest time with less than a tenth of a second separating the top four riders.
Estrella Galicia 0,0’s Jorge Navarro (+0.131s) was fifth fastest as he improved on Friday afternoon, while Enea Bastianini (+0.174s) on the Gresini Racing Team Moto3 Honda was sixth.
Red Bull KTM Ajo’s Miguel Oliveira, who has won three out of the last five races, ended the day in seventh as he aims to become the first Portuguese World Champion, although he was only +0.180s off the pace of his rival Kent.
Niccolo Antonelli (Ongetta-Rivacold), Romano Fenati (Sky Racing Team VR46) and wildcard Niccolo Bulega (Sky Racing Team VR46) completed the top ten.
Fabio Quartararo was in 14th on his return from injury.
Remy Gardner was 16th (1’40.443) : “It’s been a good day with a good performance and result. The gap to the top is just half a second and this is the most important thing. During the second Free Practice I’ve found a lot of traffic but me and my bike are ready for tomorrow’s qualifying and I’m sure that we can do it very well in this Grand Prix”
