MotoGP – The Yamaha M1s fly over the MotoGP tests of Aragon –

Posted on by admin

Yamaha M1s fly over Aragon MotoGP tests

MotoGP - The Yamaha M1s fly over the MotoGP tests of Aragon -

The official drivers Lorenzo and Spies posted the best times of the official Aragon tests, in front of their Tech3 team comrades. The absence of Honda Repsol also allows Barbera to take 5th time ahead of Hayden. Report.

Just two days after the day of testing on the Montmelo circuit the day after the Catalan GP (read), MotoGP riders had an appointment on another Spanish track: that of Aragon, which will host the 14th round of the 2012 world championship September 30.

Winner of the last Grand Prix and leader of the championship (with 20 points ahead of Casey Stoner and 30 over Dani Pedrosa) but only eighth in Monday’s tests, Jorge Lorenzo returns to first place on the occasion of this new day of testing intended to replace the one canceled at Estoril (read).

"As in Barcelona, ​​we worked on the engine", specified last night n ° 99 of the official Yamaha team:"there wasn’t much of a difference, engineers will now have to choose which way to go. To help them, they will be able to rely on the data collected today".

The Mallorcan took advantage of this day of driving to rough up the settings of his M1 on the demanding track of Motorland in Aragon. "This test was very important because it is not easy to find the best configuration for the 1000 cc: there are so many changes compared to the 800cc", he says.

However, Lorenzo is already not very far from last year’s best of the 800 record: Stoner’s RC213V – who else? – had broken pole in 1’48.451 and yesterday, Jorge was only half a second away. There is no doubt that he will be below in September!

Leading a good part of the day before his teammate got his good time, Ben Spies confirmed his return to business by finishing second, a quarter of a second off the benchmark. His disappointing start to the season for lack of confidence – especially in his M1 – seems to be behind him, and his little blunder – big in consequences! – during the last GP obviously did not resurface his doubts.

"I feel that I am regaining the full potential of my bike and mine, which is good"Texas Terror" warns. His work on electronics and "some other little things"carried out this Wednesday will allow him to be even faster in the future ?

Answer in less than two weeks at Silverstone, where Spies had obtained but had fallen during the disputed race in the rain … Note that Lorenzo was also surprised on the English track: the Blues will therefore have at heart erase this sad "doubled".

Message received 4 of 4

Behind the two official M1s are the two satellite M1s of the French team Tech3. The emulation between the two foals of Herve Poncharal is as productive as ever: Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso are only separated by two tenths and are in the same second as their leader Lorenzo !

Slowed down in his last Barcelona test by a crash at high speed, Crutchlow didn’t crash this time around and got ahead of his Italian teammate: "honestly, glad I was able to take this test and complete a lot of laps (67, Editor’s note) because since my big fall I’m not in my best physical condition", indicates n ° 35.

Mentally, however, the 2009 World Supersport world champion is at the top: "Yamaha is doing a great job and the bike runs well on all tracks so I’m sure when we get back to the race I’ll be racing for a solid result.".

Like Cal, Andrea is full of praise for Iwata’s firm: "the engine update improves my control of the bike on worn tires and also increases the endurance of the tire which will be a big advantage over the duration of a race", analyzes n ° 4 … but 3rd of the last GP !

"The strengths of the Yamaha are the braking and corner entry, but that’s what it takes on this track", he continues. So Andrea also plans to be"very competitive"September 30 … It promises !

At 8 thousandths from Hector Barbera and his private Ducati, Nicky Hayden and his official GP13 pocketed the 6th time of the day. Delighted by the radiant weather which gave them temperatures "high but not unsustainable", the Kentucky Kid is a little less by his motorcycle but still does not lose hope !

After an apparently fruitful morning, pilot n ° 69 tested in the afternoon "for Ducati more important parts but which did not allow us to go faster"…"Of course we would like to be closer to the outposts", continues the studious Nicky,"but we have collected some data and hope to come out with a good result soon"…

Much like Barbera, Bautista failed to stay in the Top 4 during these new trials. In the absence of the Repsol Honda (who are making "pudding" because of the new Bridgestones, read again), Alvaro remains the best representative of the winged brand and considers himself happy.

"We weren’t as fast as in Montmelo, but we are happy and confident about Silverstone", declared last night the n ° 19 of Team Gresini, apparently more impressed and tested than these little comrades by the strong heat: around 35 ° C in the air and more than 60 ° on the track !

At around 1.2 seconds behind Lorenzo, Rossi did not spare himself: according to his team, Valentino would have covered 70 laps (of 5.078 km) around Motorland, while according to the organizers the Ducati n ° 46 would have performed 78 laps … But whatever the exact number, the bottom line is that Rossi is working hard !

Valentino "Stakhanov" Rossi

If Vale could not cover the 400 km yesterday, it is only because of a small problem that occurred at the very end of the session, with its electronic box: "suddenly I got stuck in the pits for 15 minutes and I didn’t put on my second soft tire", regrets the Doctor.

Without that of course, "I think I could have done a little better", assures Rossi who is finally only 2 tenths from 5th place. For lack of time also, the Ducati team did not bring out the aluminum swingarm tested at Mugello and glimpsed at Montmelo.

"But since we found some interesting tips, we can say that this test was good", concludes the Ducati rider. Veni, Vedi, Rossi…

Two seconds slower than Yamaha’s n ° 99, the newcomer to the gang, Stephan Bradl, took advantage of this day of testing to relearn the Aragon track on his MotoGP: "I’m pretty sure it’s been a busy day for everyone, but as a rookie it’s essential for me to ride this bike as much as possible".

During his 72 laps (!), The young German therefore played with "suspensions, swingarm, fork and other things"… In search of improvements for the races to come, and not necessarily for the one which will be disputed precisely in Aragon in almost four months, the n ° 6 Honda has remained above the 1’51. But we can trust him: this fall, he will slip well below…

Injured in the hand last Monday, Karel Abraham completed only 19 laps by signing a 10th time not very representative of his level. It is just ahead of the CRT riders present during these tests: Pirro, Hernandez, Edwards and Silva who, after having damaged Inmotec’s carbon chassis, returned to the FTR chassis for the afternoon. You said hard to follow, this new category ?!

Aragon MotoGP official test results and standings

  1. Jorge LORENZO – Yamaha Factory Racing: 1 ‘49.187 (59 laps)

  2. Ben SPIES – Yamaha Factory Racing: 1 ‘49.442 +0.255 (57)

  3. Cal CRUTCHLOW – Monster Yamaha Tech 3: 1 ‘49.687 +0.500 (67)

  4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO – Monster Yamaha Tech 3: 1 ‘49.887 +0.700 (54)

  5. Hector BARBERA – Pramac Racing Team: 1 ‘50.196 +1.009 (64)

  6. Nicky HAYDEN – Ducati Team: 1 ‘50.204 +1.017 (66)

  7. Alvaro BAUTISTA – San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1 ‘50.204 +0.090 +1.107 (56)

  8. Valentino ROSSI – Ducati Team: 1 ‘50.369 +1.182 (78)

  9. Stefan BRADL – LCR Honda: 1 ‘51.146 +1.959 (72)

  10. Karel ABRAHAM – Cardion AB Motoracing: 1 ‘51.977 +2.790 (19)

  11. Michele PIRRO – San Carlo Honda Gresini: 1 ‘52.452 +3.265 (51)

  12. Yonny HERNANDEZ – Avintia Racing MotoGP: 1 ‘52.502 +3.315 (64)

  13. Colin EDWARDS – NGM Mobile Forward Racing: 1 ‘52.589 +3.402 (53)

  14. Ivan SILVA – Avintia Racing MotoGP: 1 ‘53.929 +4.742 (69)

Related articles

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *