Portimao World Superbike Test: Tuesday

NEWEST AT TOP

Yamaha

2010 Yamaha World Superbike riders James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow wasted no time today, getting straight down to business with their first ride on the championship winning R1. Both riders were working with their new teams for the first time, but gelled quickly and had got down to under the race pace of Sunday’s championship final before the end of the first sessions.
Today’s session was the first step in adapting the bikes to their new riders, both Toseland and Crutchlow will start again tomorrow morning to make further changes and close in on the perfect set up for their 2010 race season. Despite a high speed high side in the morning session, Cal Crutchlow showed no signs of slowing down and continued to make significant time improvements over the afternoon’s practice time. New team mate and fellow British rider James Toseland also showed solid improvement over the day, despite being new to the bike and track he quickly got down to business and continued to shave time off his laps over the course of the sessions.
Having achieved an incredible victory on Sunday and lifted the World Superbike title for the first time, the Yamaha team were straight to business today, working hard to develop championship winning riders for the next season.

Cal Crutchlow, Yamaha World Superbike Team (1′42.7)
“it was a good enough day apart from a stupid crash this morning after about 30 laps, there seemed to be something wrong with my rear tyre which caused me to high side. I hit my head and have had a few headaches today but ok apart from that. The testing has gone well, we’ve done quite reasonable times, all credit to the guys who’ve worked really hard. We haven’t changed much on the bike today, just tried to make it my bike a bit, tomorrow we’ll do some more and see how we go.”

James Toseland, Yamaha World Superbike Team(1′43.7)
“I’m feeling really positive, it’s obviously my first time on the bike, it felt a bit alien after two years on a GP bike but the balance of the bike felt good and I’m really impressed with how the team’s working, I’ve got an old friend of mine as a chief engineer. I’ve been really impressed to work with him today and Silvano Galbusera (Yamaha World Superbike Team Technical Co-ordinator) looking over him with his experience has been great. What’s been nice is the changes we’ve been making have always been in a positive direction, so to say we’ve got down to more or less race pace on a brand new track and a brand new bike is good, I’m pretty pleased with it.”
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team
“Cal’s first day went pretty well, it was easier for him compared to James as he already knew the track, but it was still a really good first test session for him. For James everything was new today, the bike, the track, tyres, many things! I think tomorrow he will make another step. For the first day we are very satisfied with both riders.”

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Ducati Xerox

Portimao (Portugal) Tuesday 27th October 2009: Just two days after the final round of the World Superbike Championship 2009 and the Ducati Xerox Team begins testing in preparation for the new season. Noriyuki and Michel, second and third at the end of this year’s campaign, and both already confirmed with the Ducati Xerox Team for 2010, were back on track this morning with most of the other Superbike team for the first of two days of testing.

At ease on the Portuguese track after several days riding, both Ducati men were immediately fast and got a lot of work done throughout the day. Between 9am and 5pm, and with the continuation of the race weekend’s warm, sunny conditions (with a track temperature hovering around 30°C) the factory riders were able to test various new parts, including a new exhaust and modified clutch. The Öhlins technicians also brought a new fork for the riders to use and Michel tested it this afternoon, with very positive results.

Italian rider Michel, as is often the case during winter testing, was the most consistently fast rider on track today, making numerous laps in under 1m43, with an (unofficial) best time of 1m42.3s while Nitro-Nori recorded a fastest lap time of 1m43.0s

Noriyuki Haga
“Today I’ve tried a harder rear suspension setting and I had a really good feeling with that, then we modified the front setting too but I’m not 100% happy with that yet so we’ll continue to work on it tomorrow. Tomorrow we’ll also try the new front fork and see how we go. For now I’m fairly happy; times have improved from those recorded over the weekend and I’m confident we can make further improvement tomorrow.”

Michel Fabrizio
“We’re all very tired after the weekend but it’s been a positive day. There are several new things to try, and me and Nori are dividing the work up; there’s quite a lot to do. Today I tried the new fork with the new clutch and both seem a lot better, we’ve seen big improvement. For the tyres, we’ve continued with the only one that worked for us over the weekend. I’m very satisfied, tired but happy.”

TIMES (UNOFFICIAL): Michel Fabrizio (Ducati Xerox) 1m42.3s; Noriyuki Haga (Ducati Xerox) 1m43.0s