Valencia test finishes with Stoner fastest on day three

Posted in | at 9:16 PM

Wednesday, 11 November 2009

The final day of the post-season test at Valencia concluded with Casey Stoner the fastest rider at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit.



Casey Stoner led the lap times in the final day’s session of the Valencia test on Wednesday, as he finished the first phase of the fine-tuning of his Ducati Desmosedici machine with a best time of 1’31.900.
Testing new forks and a revised engine configuration on his factory prototype before the test was wrapped up at 1pm, Stoner put in 35 laps during the session, with his top time placing him 0.044s ahead of Dani Pedrosa.
Pedrosa, who has been testing Ohlins suspension on his 2010 RC212V prototype, was the only other rider to break the 1’32” barrier, with Stoner’s team-mate Nicky Hayden completing what has been a strong test for the Ducati factory bikes as he ranked third fastest, just under a second off his Australian colleague’s pace.
Andrea Dovizioso made a vast improvement on his previous two days’ work as he also came within a second of Stoner’s marker, completing a good final session for the factory Honda team.
Continuing his re-acquaintance with the Honda RC212V, Marco Melandri finished fifth quickest for the San Carlo Honda Gresini team. The new aluminium swing arm used by Mika Kallio helped the Finn continue well on his Pramac Ducati, with new team-mate Aleix Espargaró also enjoying the last day of the test as his best lap saw him rank seventh-fastest as he took in 55 laps.
Loris Capirossi completed 43 turns on his Suzuki, while Héctor Barberá led the 250cc graduates with a best time of 1’33.787 on his Aspar Ducati, lapping at just under 1.9s off Stoner. Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) and Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP) were also present on the final morning of testing at Valencia as well.

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Day two of test sees Lorenzo top timesheet

Posted in | at 9:12 PM

Day two of test sees Lorenzo top timesheet

Tuesday, 10 November 2009

Aboard his Yamaha M1 prototype, Jorge Lorenzo set the fastest lap on the second day at Valencia, in his final session of the three-day test.

Post-GP Valencia Test Highlights - Day 2
Post-GP Valencia Test Highlights - Day 2
Jorge Lorenzo was the only rider to break the 1’32” barrier on Tuesday at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit, as he set the quickest lap of the second day of the post-season test on his M1 prototype with a 1’31.939.
Taking his factory bike round for 62 laps as he and Fiat Yamaha team-mate Valentino Rossi tested a new chassis – a new engine is expected to be available to work with in the new year – the Spaniard was 0.256s faster than Monday’s quickest rider Casey Stoner.
On his Ducati Desmosedici meanwhile, Stoner was second fastest on the timesheet as he made 44 laps on the circuit, 12 more than he completed on Monday as the Australian continues to fine tune his 800cc race machinery.
World Champion Rossi emerged only in the afternoon, coming out onto the track just before 2pm to take his M1 out for the final time for this test, as he lapped at just over half a second slower than Lorenzo.
The focus of the Valencia test for Ben Spies remains acquainting himself with his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike as he tries various tyre and wheel options, but the experimental nature did not stop the Texan from posting the fourth-fastest time of the day at just under half a second behind Rossi. His team-mate Colin Edwards’ test appears to have come to a premature end however, as he failed to take part on Tuesday due to illness.
Nicky Hayden, who finished the season on a high with his fifth place in Sunday’s race, matched that placement on the timesheet as he recorded 84 laps on his factory Ducati. The 2006 World Champion was trying out the new rear spec Bridgestone tyres for 2010, along with several other riders.
Ohlins suspension was again tested by Dani Pedrosa, as both he and Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso took their 2010 RC212V prototypes out for the second day. Sunday’s race winner Pedrosa was sixth fastest on Tuesday, with Dovizioso 12th as he continued to adjust to the weight distribution caused by the realignment of his engine. The Italian crashed shortly after 1pm, but was back out on the track shortly afterwards.
Randy de Puniet took his RC212V out as the LCR Honda team tested suspension and electronics updates on the Frenchman’s 2009 machine, in a bid to improve the rear set-up of the bike.
Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing), testing a new aluminium swing arm and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) both came inside the top-ten lap times, as did Marco Melandri whose return to the San Carlo Honda Gresini team sees him riding the RC212V after a two-year absence. New Pramac arrival Aleix Espargaró’s familiarisation with the Ducati continued as he builds on his 13th-placed race finish from Sunday.
The four riders making the graduation from the 250cc class were also gaining more track time, as Héctor Barberá recorded the quickest time of the quartet. The Valencian rider was using the Desmosedici GP9 as he becomes accustomed to the power delivery offered by the 800cc machines. The Aspar rider has also been assigned three new crew members by Ducati Corse, and he completed 100 laps, the most of any rider on Tuesday.
Marco Simoncelli’s (79 laps) education on the Gresini Honda, Álvaro Bautista’s (74) on the Rizla Suzuki and Hiroshi Aoyama’s (88) on the Interwetten Honda all carried on as well.

 

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Stoner and Hayden make strong test starts

Posted in | at 6:44 AM

Stoner and Hayden make strong test starts

Monday, 09 November 2009

It was a productive first day of testing at Valencia for the Ducati Marlboro team, as Casey Stoner recorded the fastest lap and Nicky Hayden rode well in preparation for the 2010 season.


Casey Stoner set the fastest lap of the first day of the Valencia test, taking his Desmosedici round in a best time of 1’32.660, and the Australian was pleased with the response of his machine.
A crash on the warm-up lap of Sunday’s race – the last of the season – due to a cold tyre meant Stoner was unable to take his place on the grid, but a positive day’s work at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit on Monday left him at the top of the timesheet.
“We tried a new engine configuration designed at improving the rideability of the bike and for the moment it is going really well,” said Stoner. “The feedback is smoother and we improved traction with the same set-up we used over the weekend, so that is positive. We also tried some different forks and in general I am satisfied.”
Stoner set his hot lap on his 22nd of 32 turns, and added, “We didn't do many laps today – just tried to make sure we were working in the right direction. I think we are and I can't wait to get back on track tomorrow, when hopefully it won't be as windy.”
Riding the other Ducati factory machine, Nicky Hayden clocked the fifth-fastest lap of the day at 0.698s off his team-mate’s mark.
“I was really looking forward to getting back out on track today and starting work on next season,” said the American. “We have a direction to work in and loads of work to do but we made a lot of progress already today. We don't have a lot of tyres available and just worked with two sets – a hard one and a softer one – with very similar times on both that were not far off my qualifying time from Saturday.”
He added, “We tried some engine updates on one of the bikes, some forks and a couple of different settings but this is just the start and it is early to say which is best because the lap times have been very similar. Generally it's been a good first day and I'm happy.”

 

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Hayden assesses first season with Ducati

Posted in | at 6:41 AM

Hayden assesses first season with Ducati 

Monday, 09 November 2009

Two top five finishes in the final two rounds could not lift Nicky Hayden any higher than 13th in the final standings but he is ready to start the hard work for Ducati’s 2010 project this week in Valencia.


Nicky Hayden is no stranger to hard work and is a big fan of testing his MotoGP machinery whenever he gets the chance, so after a frustrating first season with the Ducati Marlboro team – which has seen him suffer bad luck on several occasions – the American rider will be an enthusiastic participant in this week’s three day Valencia test.
It would be no surprise to see Hayden total up more laps than any of his MotoGP rivals this week on the latest model of the Desmosedici, as the former World Champion completes a year since first testing with the Italian factory at the end of last season.
Reading through the final 2009 World Championship classification after the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana will be an uncomfortable experience for the Kentuckian competitor, but Hayden has undoubtedly been on an upwards trend throughout the year and Sunday brought him a second top five result in two races.
“It’s not spectacular, but we’ve ended the season with two top fives and we know we have a direction to work in over the winter,” stated Hayden after the Valencia race. “It hasn’t been a great season for me in terms of results but the improvements we have made since the start are huge and I’m excited about the future. We’re 13th overall, which looks awful on paper, but we are only eleven points off seventh and I had three first-lap incidents that weren’t my fault – just one of those could have made the difference. Next season starts on Monday and I can’t wait to get back to work.”
Reviewing the final race of the year in detail, Hayden also commented, “I thought it might be possible to do a little better but I didn’t get the best start. The clutch was slipping a little bit down the first couple of straights and I lost some positions. After that I managed to pull myself up again and from there it was a case of doing my best to try and bridge the gap to Colin (Edwards).”
“The bike was working quite well but every time I closed a tenth or two he had an answer and pulled it back out. Towards the end I had some issues in a couple of left-handers and my pace dropped too much. Anyway, I had an enjoyable race, going back and forth with a few guys at the beginning especially.”

 

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Stoner on top once more

Posted in | at 6:34 AM

Sunday, 08 November 2009

The cold conditions at the Ricardo Tormo circuit did little to halt Casey Stoner’s dominance of the weekend so far, as the pole holder lapped quickest in the warm up session.


It was a case of business as usual for Casey Stoner on Sunday morning as the Australian topped the timesheet in the warm up session, with a best lap of 1’32.856 making him well over half a second faster than second quickest Valentino Rossi.
In chilly conditions, the Australian pole holder timed ahead of the World Champion – who will start the race from the head of the second row on the grid – with Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro) going round third and fourth fastest respectively.
Wildcard rider Ben Spies (Sterilgarda Yamaha Racing) and Jorge Lorenzo were next up on the lap times, with Andrea Dovizioso, Mika Kallio, Alex de Angelis and Marco Melandri also registering top-ten times. Dani Pedrosa, who will start from second on the grid, was eleventh-fastest in the session.

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motogp.com team go for a Stoner win

Posted in | at 6:22 AM

Saturday, 07 November 2009

The motogp.com live commentary team has revealed their tips for how they see the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana unfolding on Sunday.

Expert Eye: motogp.com commentary team
Expert Eye: motogp.com commentary team

motogp.com’s live commentary team of Gav Emmett, Nick Harris and Ian Wheeler have all predicted a third consecutive Grand Prix victory for Casey Stoner at Valencia this weekend, after making their predictions in the final round of Fantasy MotoGP 2009.
After the Flag Presenter Emmett believes Stoner will be joined on the podium by Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi, whilst pit lane reporter Wheeler thinks it will be Dani Pedrosa and Rossi who will complete the top three. Harris, who has been following Motorcycle Grand Prix racing since the 1970s, went for Pedrosa and Lorenzo to place second and third.
This is your last chance to play Fantasy MotoGP this season and to boost your rankings, so if you are ready to submit your predictions now, visit the Fantasy MotoGP 2009 section of this website.

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