MotoGP Brno: Saturday (updated regularly)

NEWEST AT TOP

Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup

Florian Marino won a sensational 10 man battle to the line to claim his first Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup victory. The 16 year old Frenchman fought off Briton Danny Kent and Italian Alejandro Pardo, both 15, with the first 10 all crossing the line within 2.3 seconds.

17 year old Norwegian Sturla Fagerhaug finished 5th and now has a 3 point advantage over arch rival Jakub Kornfeil, the 16 year old Czech who was 8th. With the final race tomorrow at the end of the Cardion AB Grand Prix of the Czech Republic at Brno, the Cup battle is still open to the top 4 in the points table as Hiura finished 6th and is now 19 points behind Fagerhaug and Kent has 22 to make up from his 4th position in the table.

Marino could even tie on points with Fagerhaug as there are 25 points for the race win but would loose the Cup on number of race wins. All he cares about now is his first win and was happy to talk about the way his plan worked so perfectly. “With about three laps to go I was sixth and I thought about where I could pass people and where they could pass me. So I was happy not to be leading and planned to pass everyone on the downhill half of the track. I did it; but breaking into that last right hander at the bottom I was so so late on the brakes, I thought, ‘I’m going to crash, ‘I’m going to crash.’ but I didn’t, I was in front, then on the gas and back up the hill to the finish.”

He gives full credit to Rider Coach Gustl Auinger for his first Rookies win after finishing 4th 3 times. “After Donington my head was not good and I said to Gustl, ‘what do I have to do to win?’ He told me that I have to think like a winner and concentrate on that and not the other riders behind. So I fixed on that this weekend.”

Kent also enjoyed his ride to second and just wished the finish-line was in a different place. “I was closing on him and if the line had been a bit further down the track I could have won it. Never mind, I’ll try again tomorrow. It was a great race though. Early on I had a look back and saw that we were about 10 guys. I thought then that if we had a big crash and the race got red flagged I needed to be in the front so any time someone passed me I just passed them straight back.”

Such a sensational race produced many great tales including the incredible ride to 3rd put in by Alejandro Pardo. He gave himself a lot of work to do. “I made a terrible start, the KTM is so different to my own bike and I just can’t seem to get used to it. After the first few laps I saw that the lead group was 2 or 3 seconds ahead but I soon realised that the gap wasn’t getting bigger and I just said to myself, ‘you can do it’. I just tried the maximum and caught them. I never thought that I would be able to get on the podium but when I caught the group I just passed everyone where I could and made it, incredible.”

His brilliant effort pushed Jake Gagne into 4th, a shame for the 15 year old Californian who had led the race for a good share of the distance even though he is new to the circuit. He looked like he might win it but in the end was unlucky. “I didn’t know it was the last lap. I looked at the lap counter and saw it was 6 laps to go, those 6 laps just went past quicker than I expected. On that last lap Marino came past then Danny surprised me as he went through and I got off line. That spoilt my drive up the hill a bit and that is how Pardo got by.”

Going onto that last lap it was Cup leader Fagerhaug who was in front of Marino, Gagne and Kent but it was never going to be a boring last lap as Fagerhaug explained. “Going into the first corner on the last lap Jake and Danny passed me and I tried to go back around Danny but couldn’t and lost their slipstream going away up the hill. The guys behind had my slipstream and another three of them went past. I knew that I was still ahead of Jakub on that last lap and though I wanted to win I was thinking a bit about the championship and didn’t want to make a mistake.”

Coming to the end of his third Cup season the Norwegian had put in a great performance even though he was not that quick off the line. “From the start I just concentrated on getting into a good rhythm and I was happy with the way that went. I was leading for a lot of the race but slipstreaming is so important here and the other guys just seemed to be able to come past on the straight and it wasn’t possible to break away.”

The impossibility of establishing any kind of lasting advantage was even more frustrating for his Cup rival Kornfeil. “The start was good but after that I wasn’t so happy with the race. We were in a big group and I just couldn’t break through to the front. In the first half of the race I had quite a lot of rear wheel slides so I couldn’t push but then it started to get better. Tomorrow I’ve just got to push harder, be stronger, it has got to come from me.”

The second race grid is the same as the first and you can see Sundays race, the final event of the season, live on the Rookies Cup website www.redbullrookiescup.com at 15.30 CET.

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Pramac Racing

Intense day of work for the Pramac Racing riders Niccolò Canepa and Michel Fabrizio. Niccolò has been really constant during qualifying session reaching the top ten half way through the session. For only a few tenths of a second he didn’t make it to remain until the end and he finished in twelfth position. Like him also Fabrizio made it to sensibly improve his best lap times today conquering the sixteenth position. The Roman rider obtained really interesting lap times even if this is for him the first time on the Pramac Racing Desmosedici GP9 Sat. Tomorrow morning twenty minutes of warm up to make the last modifications on the bike to result competitive during the Czech Republic GP that will start tomorrow at 2pm local time.

Marco Rigamonti – Niccolò Canepa Track engineer
“I would say a positive day for us. Niccolò conquered his best qualifying position of the season and this demonstrates he is getting better at every race. He is very concentrated and he is riding quite clean: we are trustful that tomorrow he will be able to have a good race. Also Michel in the other side of the garage has improved a lot and we are really happy for him.”

Niccolò Canepa – Pramac Racing rider – 12th in 1′58.208
“I am very happy on how things went today. In both sessions we have made it to be competitive maintaining good positions. I am only two tenth of a second from Mika and four from Nicky who is the fastest Ducati rider today. Apart the first five or six riders I believe we can compete with every other rider tomorrow in the race.”

Michel Fabrizio – Pramac Racing rider – 16th in 1′58.680
“We have sensibly improve our lap times today. For sure is not easy to get to know and adjust a bike in only three hours of work, but we have done our best and tomorrow in the race we will try to obtain a good result. We have made it to adjust a bit the bike and tomorrow morning in the twenty minutes warm up we will try to make the final modifications on the bike to result even more competitive in the race.”

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LCR Honda

Brno, 15 August: Qualifying for the Czech Repulic Grand Prix was run in hot conditions today with ambience temperature of 27°C and the LCR Honda MotoGP racer Randy De Puniet again dug deep into his reserves to overcome the pain he is suffering to record the 13th fastest time of the day (1’58.298).

The second day of practices at the 5.403 Km race track was very tough for De Puniet who was not able to ride at 100 per cent pace as he is still recovering from the left ankle surgery. The 28-year-old received a pain-killing injection prior to this afternoon’s session struggling to get the most out of his machine on qualifiers but remains determined to pursue the best possible result here in tomorrow’s 22-lap race.

De Puniet – 13th – 1’58.298
De Puniet – 13th: “Well… it’s extremely tough for me but I am satisfied about my performance. I am still walking on crutches but when I come out I absolutely want to do the best despite my conditions. The Team is doing an excellent job to adjust the bike as I can’t give them any specific set-up information. My foot is getting better but it aches so much! We are really pleased about our pace and everyday is a step closer to making a full recover. It won’t be easy to maintain the rhythm for 22 laps but we have the potential to score some points”.

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Repsol Honda

Dani Pedrosa today fired his Repsol Honda RC212V onto the front row of the grid for tomorrow’s Grand Prix of the Czech Republic while his team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, will start directly behind Pedrosa after the Italian finished in sixth position in this afternoon’s qualifying session at the beautiful Brno circuit.

With unbroken sunshine once again providing a welcome contrast to the erratic weather at the previous race in Britain, the Repsol Honda riders were able to take maximum advantage of two dry sessions today to hone their machine set-ups ahead of tomorrow’s 22-lap race.

Pedrosa looked menacingly quick in the morning practice and finished in a close second place, just 0.131s from the fastest time. He was quickest early in the afternoon session, setting a best lap of 1m56.528s which was well inside the circuit race lap record. Traffic in the final moments of qualifying when the riders traditionally set there quickest time prevented Pedrosa from challenging for pole position, but the Spaniard was satisfied to get on the front row and give himself an excellent chance of a clean getaway tomorrow.

Dovizioso’s sixth place this afternoon saw him move to within a second of the pole position time and translates into a second row start. After his maiden MotoGP victory at the last race, Dovizioso was hoping to be a little closer to pole today but riding with the new swing-arm in his RC212V he made significant progress this afternoon to bring his lap time down to 1m 57.108s, which was also inside the existing lap record of 1m57.199s. With more improvements in the
20-minute warm-up tomorrow, Dovizioso will be intent on getting away with the leaders when the lights go out.

Pole position today was taken by Valentino Rossi followed by Jorge Lorenzo, Pedrosa and then the Gresini Honda of Toni Elias in fourth. Tomorrow’s race, which again promises a close battle at the front, begins at 14.00 local time.

DANI PEDROSA
“I’m happy enough with today because we’re on the front row and that’s the most important thing to achieve in qualifying. I think I could have gone even quicker at the end of the session, but on my final run lap I had a lot of traffic and I had to do two slow laps until I found a clear track. Still, I think we had some more potential to go faster so this is positive. For tomorrow we still have to improve the set-up and achieve a little more consistency in our lap times so that I can run at the front. I like this circuit and I’ve had some good results here previously, so I hope I can make a quick start and fight for the win tomorrow.”

ANDREA DOVIZIOSO
“During the qualifying session we improved the race pace and reduced the gap to the leaders by about four tenths, so this is a positive move. We were further away than that yesterday and this morning so we’re going in the right direction. We are still need to go quicker if we want to fight for the lead in the race tomorrow so me and the engineers will be working on a few set-up areas that will, hopefully, give us an extra edge and allow us to compete at the front. In terms of the tyre choice we’ll be going for the hard compound Bridgestones. There’s only a small difference between the compounds but the hard tyre is the choice – no question. We’ll aim to get the most of the warm-up session and give it everything in the race.”

KAZUHIKO YAMANO – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER
“Our positions after qualifying – on the front and the second rows – are fine and both Dani and Andrea have the chance to get to the front at the beginning of tomorrow’s race. We have many options here with regard to set-up and the crews will be working this evening to make the final adjustments, which we will test further in the warm-up tomorrow morning. The Repsol Honda Team is working well and our only target is to win. I know both riders will be fighting for that result in the race.”

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Monster Yamaha Tech 3

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team rider Colin Edwards produced a gritty qualifying performance this afternoon to equal his best grid position of the season at a hot and sunny Brno.

Despite being less than 100 per cent fit after he needed treatment for a swollen neck gland, the Texan secured his eighth top six grid position of the season in preparation for round 11 of the 2009 MotoGP world championship tomorrow. Edwards clocked a best time of 1.56.964 on his last lap, the 35-year-old finishing less than 0.5s from claiming his first front row start of the season. Working closely with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 crew, front-end changes to improve turning on his YZR-M1 machine have bolstered Edwards’ hopes of claiming a maiden top six finish in the Czech Republic MotoGP.

British rider James Toseland is confident he can challenge for a top ten position in tomorrow’s 22-lap race. He will start from the fifth row of the grid having missed out on a top ten grid position by less than 0.4s. Toseland clocked a best time of 1.58.331 and the 28-year-old will focus on improving rear grip on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine as he looks for a fourth top ten finish in five races.

Colin Edwards 5th 1.56.954 – 23 laps
“I’m pretty happy considering how I felt today. The last couple of days, one of the glands in my neck was pretty badly swollen up, so I was given some medicine to help it. But the doctor told me to make sure I had a full stomach when I took it. But this morning I only had a bowl of cereal and then I took the medicine. And after that I felt awful. After practice this morning I was white as a sheet and not feeling great at all. My stomach and head were feeling pretty rough and I just felt way short of my best for the rest of the day. So considering that I’m happy to have qualified fifth. I’d say Dani Pedrosa’s time was reachable in third but it would have taken a great lap to do that, and I’m not sure I had it in me physically today. I’ve been going great all weekend and my team have done a phenomenal job. We put some more weight on the front that has really helped get the bike to turn and that’s crucial at this track. I’ve never had a top six at this track but hopefully I’ll change that tomorrow and hopefully I’ll be feeling better.”

James Toseland 14th 1.58.331- 22 laps
“Obviously I’m not happy to be down in 14th and being that far back is going to make it a tough race. I’m fru strated because we changed the bike for the last soft tyre and I didn’t have the rear grip I needed to push for a better time. I had a lot of wheelspin with the final soft tyre so I couldn’t really push and I’ve given myself a hard job for the race. We’ll try and make the bike more balanced for the race tomorrow because at the moment I don’t have enough rear grip. I’ve qualified outside of the top ten a couple of times before this season and been able to fight my back into the top ten during the race. So I’m hoping to be able to do the same tomorrow.”

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Bridgestone

Using the harder front and the softer rear Bridgestone slicks to set his fastest lap, Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi claimed his fifth pole position of the season and his third consecutively from the last three races.

This season there are no qualifying tyres, and so the field set their qualifying times on Bridgestone’s race tyres. Rossi’s pole time was quicker than the fastest pole time at the Brno circuit, set by the Italian in 2006 when the field were using super-sticky qualifying tyres designed to last just a few laps, indicating the improvements in Bridgestone’s tyre technology and the circuit’s resurfaced tarmac alike.

As the temperature was hotter than yesterday, the extra hard compound front Bridgestone slicks were the favoured choice  for  their  increased  durability  in  the  heat  and  on  Brno’s  abrasive  tarmac.  The  softer  rear  option  was  the favoured  choice  for  qualifying,  although  Fiat  Yamaha’s  Jorge  Lorenzo  demonstrated  that  the  hard  rear  tyre performed equally well and thus, with its improved durability, it is likely to be the favoured choice for the race.

Having topped the timesheets for most of the session, Lorenzo missed out on pole by just 0.05seconds and will start tomorrow’s race from second. The Spaniard has started every race this season, his first in MotoGP on Bridgestone tyres, from the front row.Also using the harder rear Bridgestone slick on his fastest lap, Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa  was third fastest to complete tomorrow’s front row and secure his fifth top-three start of the season.

Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development: “The  lap-time  difference  between  the  two  slick  tyre  compounds  was  not  so  significant  today  because  the  track temperature  was  at  a  point  at  which  both  options  performed  equally  well  –  not  too  hot  for  the  softer  tyres  and sufficiently warm for the harder spec. Valentino was fastest using a harder front and softer rear, whereas Jorge and Dani were second and third using a harder rear so this shows that the two compounds have a degree of crossover.

“Based on this, tomorrow we can expect that the harder compound option will be the best choice for the race for both front and rear as the  performance between softer and harder is  very similar but the harder  spec  will give  better durability over the race distance.”

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Rizla Suzuki

Loris Capirossi will start tomorrow’s Czech Republic Grand Prix from the third row of the grid after qualifying in ninth place following a difficult session at Brno today.

Capirossi (1′57.811, 21 laps) suffered a combination of difficulties during this afternoon’s session that hampered his quest for higher place start in tomorrow’s race. Capirossi will be working with his crew this evening as the team try to find a solution to enable the Italian to battle for a competitive result on Sunday.

Chris Vermeulen (P11, 1′58.087, 26 laps) will start on the row behind his team-mate in tomorrow’s 22-lap race. He was one of the busiest riders on track this afternoon as he completed 26 laps of the 5.403m Brno circuit. Vermeulen made big improvements throughout the hour-long session and was pleased with his work at the end, although he was also sure there is more to come.

Today’s qualifying was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 42C. World Championship leader Valentino Rossi set the fastest time and will start from pole position on his factory Yamaha. The race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT).

Loris Capirossi:
“Today has been a bit strange for us because this morning we tried to sort out a good engine delivery and setting, and we found a good combination. We started this afternoon with the same bike but we had an electronic problem on the first couple of times I went out. We tried to fix it and on the third run it seemed ok, but when I put in a softer tyre to try to get a better lap-time the bike just didn’t work right and I had a lot of vibration. I went into the pits to try and get a better time on the second bike, but it was too late and I missed out on a higher position. Our target was for a minimum second row start and we had the potential for that, but we lost something in the afternoon. We need to find out what happened because it is not easy to understand. The new engine is certainly better and I thank Suzuki for that. Our target for tomorrow is really high, if we can find out what caused the problems today!”

Chris Vermeulen:
“Today was a lot better – especially in qualifying. We have struggled with rear grip here this weekend and the engineers made some big changes this afternoon. One of the directions we took was very good and it got some weight on to the rear and gave me a lot more grip. It was the most comfortable I’ve been on the bike for the last three or four races, so that was a really good job by everyone to sort that out. Today we have gone the fastest we have ever done on race tyres at Brno, so that is also a good sign. The race will still be tough from the third row, but we’re going to try something else in warm-up tomorrow morning in the same direction and see if we can help the bike a bit more.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“I think Loris has done well to be as positive as possible about the qualifying session, because to be quite truthful it was a bit of a disaster and we had some problems. It was impossible for Loris to get near his – or the bike’s – potential. He did a 57.3 lap-time this morning on 20-lap tyres, so to only do 57.8 in qualifying mode shows we clearly had problems. He was capable of a second row start today and that’s where we should have been. The good news is that he is pumped for tomorrow and if he can get away well from the third row there is still the chance of a good result.

“Chris took a step in confidence during qualifying and was a lot happier with the GSV-R than he has been all weekend; he’s also starting to flow around the track a lot better. At the end though, it’s not where he wants to be on the grid, but I think Chris is now in a better frame of mind for the race and he will be going for it tomorrow.”

Cardion AB Grand Prix Ceske Republiky Qualifying Practice Classification:

1. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1′56.145: 2. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) +0.050: 3. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) +0.383: 4. Toni Elias (Honda) +0.672: 5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) +0.809: 9. LORIS CAPIROSSI (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.666: 11. CHRIS VERMEULEN (RIZLA SUZUKI MOTOGP) +1.942:

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Fiat Yamaha

Valentino Rossi became the first rider since the advent of the one-tyre rule to dip under an existing pole position record in the Czech Republic today, taking his third consecutive pole position despite sliding off into the gravel trap with just a few minutes remaining. His Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo qualified second, continuing his 100% front-row qualifying record for the season.

Lorenzo had ruled the standings in both previous sessions and it looked like being the same story again this afternoon, as the Mallorcan went straight to the top and then continued to improve his time around the undulating Brno circuit. Sitting just four thousandths of a second off Rossi’s 2006 pole position record, Lorenzo looked likely to be the one to smash it but it was the World Champion who did so with a brilliant lap with eight minutes left on the clock, shaving 0.046 seconds off the time he set on the way to second place three years ago, back in the days of 990ccc engines.

The drama wasn’t over however as Rossi, pushing hard with two minutes remaining, lost the front in the second sector and slid into the gravel, luckily emerging unscathed. Lorenzo made a last minute assault on the Italian’s time but was caught in traffic and the 22-year-old had to be content with second position. The pair are joined on the front row by Dani Pedrosa, with Tech 3 Yamaha rider Colin Edwards putting in another strong performance to qualify in sixth.

Today sees the launch of the Fiat Yamaha Team’s official new fan website, www.FiatYamahaTeam.it, where followers of the team can keep up to date with team news, view the latest photos, enter competitions, follow a live blog and learn more about the team and riders.

Valentino Rossi, Position: 1st   Time: 1′56.145   Laps: 23
“Pole position is great, but the most important thing is that I’m okay after the crash. I have a bit of pain in my right thumb but that’s all, so I think I’ve been quite lucky. I’ll get it checked out at the Clinica Mobile later but I don’t think it’s anything bad. This weekend only one of the front tyres is working well for us, which means we only have four for the weekend, so we’re putting quite a lot of stress on just a few tyres. I arrived to brake very deep and just lost the front, it was unlucky. Anyway, we did a great job in the session and being on pole again is important. We have a good race pace and I think it’s possible to be competitive tomorrow.”

Jorge Lorenzo, Position: 2nd   Time: 1′56.195   Laps: 26
“This morning we tried the softer Bridgestone tyre but I didn’t feel so good on it. This afternoon we gave it another chance but again it didn’t seem to work so well, so we decided to just concentrate on the harder tyre. I had a very strong pace and like yesterday I felt very comfortable on the bike, but I couldn’t quite get the pole position today. Being on the front row is always important though and we’ve reached this target; we know that we’re very fast. Everyone is excited and motivated as usual and we’re confident that we have the race set-up to allow us to challenge tomorrow.”

Davide Brivio, Team Manager
“We’re in pole but Valentino’s crash was unfortunate, on a lap that might have been even faster! The most important thing is that he is okay, which is a big relief for us all. By the end of the session we’d found a good setting and it looks like tomorrow could be another big battle, let’s hope we’re a part of it! Lorenzo and Pedrosa are very motivated and look very strong so let’s see what happens.”

Daniele Romagnoli,  Team Manager
“It’s very good to start from the front row again and we’re happy about this. Unfortunately today we didn’t improve our lap time on the soft tyres and so we decided to do the last minute ‘time-attack’ on race tyres, then Jorge also encountered some traffic on his final lap. Anyway we are positive for the race because our pace today was pretty fast, we’re just looking at one or two small areas which we think we can improve for the race.”