Motogp Winter Testing
In precipitous conditions for the Official MotoGP Practice at Spain's Catalunya circuit, Camel Yamaha Team's Colin Edwards handled the slippery conditions better than anyone else, scoring himself a new BMW Z4 in the process. Edwards' time of 1'57.102 on the YZR-M1 was over two seconds better than team mate Valentino Rossi (who crashed whilst trying to better his own time) and over a second ahead of overall second place getter, Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden.
"When I saw the weather before the session started, I thought to myself that the car would end up in the hands of whoever was prepared to take the most risks", Edwards commented after his win. "It is nice to win the car, but every rider out there wants to win races. I feel I am in a position to do that this season."
The wet conditions for the 40 minute Official Practice threw up some unfamiliar names near the top of the time sheets - James Ellison, Kenny Roberts and Randy de Puniet - whilst both Rizla Suzuki riders, Chris Vermeulen and John Hopkins, made the top ten, in fifth and ninth place respectively. The Ducati Marlboro pair of Loris Capirossi and Sete Gibernau were well down the order on the GP6 Ducati MotoGP bikes, in 14th and 16th place.
MotoGP Official Practice - Catalunya, Spain - March 5
1. C. Edwards Yamaha 1'57.102
2. N. Haydden Honda 1'58.921
3. V. Rossi Yamaha 1'59.360
4. J. Ellison Yamaha 1'59.619
5. C. Vermeulen Suzuki 2'00.001
6. M. Melandri Honda 2'00.218
7. K. Roberts Roberts 2'00.225
8. C. Checa Yamaha 2'00.551
9. J. Hopkins Suzuki 2'00.621
10. R. de Puniet Kawasaki 2'01.249
The 250cc class was also present at Catalunya, the official test session a good opportunity for Anthony West to measure himself and his Kiefer-BOS Racing Aprilia against the rest of the field. The result? Not as good as the Aussie would have hoped for, 11th fastest on day one, 14th on day two. Spain's Jorge Lorenzo, on a factory Aprilia recorded the fastest overall time, Aprilias filling the top five positions after the second day.
"There is a lot of work to do because this is a new team for me", West conceded after the first day. "It's also the first season my team has worked on Aprilias - they ran Hondas last year."
Better news for the Australian at the final 250cc test session, the IRTA test at Jerez on March 8 - 9, West inside the top ten for both days of testing. Lorenzo is still the man to beat, topping the time sheets on both days, the factory Fortuna Aprilias in first and third position in the final hitout before the 250cc season opener, also at Jerez, on March 25.
After cutting the deficit between his non-factory Aprilia and the factory bikes, West was upbeat about racing. "The best thing from this test was being able to do similar lap times consistently. Some of the others were quick for a lap or two, but then their times fell away. I think I can move up a few places over a full race distance."
MotoGP's IRTA test followed the 250s on March 10 - 11, the factory Ducatis the strength this time around in vastly improved weather conditions. Loris Capirossi lapped under Valentino Rossi's 2005 pole lap, his 1'39.411 the best of the session, Marlboro Ducati team mate Sete Gibernau close behind with a 1'39.663 on his GP6. The Camel Yamaha team suffered vibration problems that couldn't be eliminated over the course of the test, all the team concerned for the season opener.
"The vibration has remained and at the moment we don't know how to solve it, " Valentino Rossi commented. "I hope Jeremy (Burgess), together with the Japanese engineers and the Michelin technicians, can use all the data they have now to understand the problem and see how to solve it."
