Sachsenring MotoGP Friday Quote Machine

Tag : Shower Head & Shower Set
Sachsenring MotoGP Friday Quote Machine
Friday, July 11, 2008
Various and obviously very well-written PR from today's MotoGPevent in Germany:
STONER FASTEST ON DAY ONE AS MELANDRI MAKES PROGRESS
Casey Stoner was at his brilliant best again at the Sachsenringtoday, starting the German GP at a blistering pace as he lappedinside the circuit record in morning free practice before dippinginside pole record time during the afternoon, all on race tyres.The Australian's total domination was blighted only by a crash atthe start of his final run, although his work at that point wasvirtually done, after a day spent adapting front-end set-up tooptimise performance of his Bridgestone tyres.
Marco Melandri took a small step forward this afternoon, whichallowed him to increase his pace in certain sections of the track.He is hoping for similarly good weather tomorrow as he looks tocontinue in the same vein.
Continued collaboration between Ducati Marlboro Team and itstechnical partners has been particularly fruitful today in findingthe optimum set-up for the bike and tyres, with the team'sengineers working closely alongside Bridgestone's own techniciansand representatives from Shell.
For the first time in MotoGP, the Ducati Marlboro Team has beenjoined in the paddock by the Shell truck lab, a mobile facility inwhich samples of Shell V-Power race fuel and Shell Advance race oilcan be tested during the race weekend. In fact, Shell technicianswill test the Ducati riders' race oil and fuel right after thefinal free practice on Saturday, carrying out research that isusually conducted between races back at their main laboratories,enabling the fuels and the lubricants to be optimized for the racebikes first, and consequently for the road bikes.
CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1st: 1'21.585
"We got reasonably lucky today with the crash - my right ankle is alittle sore but it's nothing major. I hadn't had any warnings fromthe front end that it was going to try and flick me off down thereso I really wasn't ready for it. At that point of the circuit thebike isn't at maximum lean and you don't normally expect to losethe front, so I certainly didn't see it coming and I didn't evenhave chance to dig my knee in and try to save it. It was a bitstrange but anyway sometimes it goes like that and there are plentyof positives to take from today. This morning we were strugglingwith front tyre life but we completely changed the bike around forthe afternoon, fixed that particular problem before then focusingon making the bike faster and more comfortable to ride. We managedto do that and the bike was working really well."
MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati Marlboro Team) 16th: 1'23.698
"From this morning we managed to improve the bike in the fastsections of the track although in the slow parts we're still notcompetitive. We have to work mainly in T1 and T2 because I'mstruggling to get the bike to turn in there. Hopefully the weatherstays stable over the next two days, be it wet or dry, so that wecan get lots of work in on corner entry."

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Rossi looking to improve pace in Germany

The MotoGP paddock returned to action today at the Sachsenring ineastern Germany and Valentino Rossi and his crew were quick to getback to work, with the aim of recouping the points they lost lasttime out in Assen. The hot and sunny weather today was a welcomerespite from the rain that has been following the paddock aroundEurope, and a full day of dry set-up time left the Fiat Yamaharider 4th in the combined standings.
Rossi, who currently lies second in the championship, made a goodstart this morning and finished the first session in third, just0.299 off Casey Stoner. He was confident of making more improvementthis afternoon but a small set-up change failed to reap theexpected rewards and he was unable to improve on his time from thismorning. He still finished the practice in fourth place but asecond's gap to the lead rider means that Rossi and his crew face ahard day's work tomorrow to make up for the time they lost thisafternoon. His team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile made animprovement of almost half a second this afternoon and finished theday in sixth.
Valentino Rossi - Position: 4thTime: 1'22.617Laps: 63
"For sure I'm not happy after today's practice! This afternoon wetried some modifications to the setting and we decided to try asofter set-up, but things didn't work how we hoped and we couldn'timprove our time. In the fast corners I wasn't fast enough, and Iwas always a little bit wide. This afternoon I couldn't ride how Iwanted to. Obviously this afternoon's choice is not the right wayfor us at this circuit and therefore tomorrow morning we willreturn to this morning's set-up and try to close the gap to Casey.I didn't try the new electronics today and actually at the momentit's more likely that we won't this weekend, but I did try somedifferent Bridgestone tyres and we found one which we think will beokay for the race. I am confident that our potential is more thantoday so we will do our best to improve tomorrow."
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
"We started well this morning but unfortunately we weren't able toimprove our lap times this afternoon. We tried something differentfor the second session and it didn't have the right result so nowwe have to analyse all of today's information to make sure that wemake up for this tomorrow. We had a chance to test some tyres andthey're not so bad here but of course we need more time to improvethe package as a whole at this tricky track."
Lorenzo makes improvesments as sun shines at Sachsenring
Fiat Yamaha Team rider Jorge Lorenzo made the most of the sunshineat the Sachsenring today to make some good progress on the set-upof his YZR-M1, finishing the first day of practice for the GermanGrand Prix sixth in the combined standings. The 21-year-old hasfinally been able to return to his full training schedule followinghis recent spate of injuries and proved he's feeling fitter andmore confident by improving his lap times steadily throughouttoday.

Jorge Lorenzo
Lorenzo, who has never won at this track, struggled a little in thecooler morning practice, lacking some rear grip and finishingtenth. This afternoon however it was a different story and, withtemperatures touching 30 degrees, the Michelin-shod rider improvedhis time by nearly half a second to finish fifth in the session andsixth in the combined standings. His team-mate Valentino Rossi wasjust 0.098 seconds ahead of him this afternoon but with a gap ofover a second to the lead rider, both Lorenzo and Rossi will belooking to make more significant progress tomorrow.
Jorge Lorenzo - Position: 6thTime: 1'22.894Laps: 65
"I feel like I have a lot of confidence here compared to the lastfew races, and this is a nice feeling because it's enabling me toride much more aggressively. We had some problems with the reargrip this morning and I was happy about the improvements that wemade this afternoon, but the bike setting is still not perfect andI feel like we should be going faster. The problem is that,although I was in fifth place this afternoon, the gap to Stoner infront is very big and it's hard for us to understand how he isgoing so much faster than us! From this it is clear, even though Ihave a good feeling, that the bike is not performing exactly as itshould and therefore we need to try to improve our package more. Ofcourse I also need to keep building my confidence and improving myriding as I get more used to a MotoGP bike at this track. I hopethat tomorrow we can close the gap to the front."
Daniele Romagnoli - Team Manager
"To start with in the morning session we had some problems;specifically we didn't have enough rear grip. This afternoonhowever things were much better and we were able to improve ourpace by about half a second, which made everyone much happier. Westill have some work to do because we still need to improve therear grip; it's not a problem that can be attributed to either thebike or the tyres, it's just to do with our package as a whole. Nowwe hope that the weather continues like this tomorrow and this willenable the team to prepare some other solutions to try in order tofine-tune things further."
Mixed start for Tech 3 Yamaha in Germany
The second half of the 2008 MotoGP world championship got off to amixed start for the Tech 3 Yamaha team in Germany today.
Colin Edwards once again impressed with the third fastest time ashe looks to continue his own superb run of form. Working onimproving front tyre grip, Edwards' best lap of 1.22.463 saw himfinish top Michelin rider as he goes in search of sixth successivetop five finish in Sunday's 30-lap race. The Texan's confidencewasn't dented by a crash at the final corner when he was lyingsecond, and he believes further improvements to front tyre gripwill help him mount a serious challenge for a third podium finishof the season.
Today's opening free practice sessions though proved a much tougheraffair for rookie James Toseland. After finding himself on familiarterritory at Donington and Assen, Toseland again faced thechallenging prospect of learning the technical Sachsenring trackfrom scratch.

Colin Edwards
The 27-year-old, who walked away from an early crash this morning,is confident he can significantly lower his lap times tomorrowhaving made big strides in improving the set-up of his YZR-M1machine.
Colin Edwards 3rd 1.22.463 - 51 laps
"This morning I went out and I didn't have a lot of feeling fromthe front. I thought it was a small issue with grip so we playedaround with the bike and it didn't really get any better. Thefeeling I'm always looking for just wasn't there and I'm afront-end guy. I just couldn't get the front to gel with me. Itried a different front tyre this afternoon - a harder one - andthat felt better but it is something that we never use. This placeis so hard on front tyres and what we normally use race after racewouldn't have the durability, so Michelin have had to improvise alittle bit and it was just a feeling that I'm not used to. I wentout there and got going and did a couple of good laps and the nextthing I crashed. I braked for the last corner and that was it. Youknow when you do something wrong because when you get in they'retoo hot and your eyes bulge out, you know you are not going to makeit. But I didn't even do that. I just cruised into the corner likenormal and I was down. I had zero warning. Michelin and the teamcame up with some ideas to try and create some more front feel andI went out on the spare bike and at the end I wasn't even reallypushing and I did a 22 and it seemed easy because I had some feel.So a big thanks to Michelin and my guys for the improvements wefound. Honestly though this is the best package I've ever rolledout of the truck on a Friday at this circuit. I normally come hereand it is a nightmare for me to get the bike working. But today itworked like a charm and Michelin have done a great job with therear tyres. They are awesome, so with more feel now from the frontI'm really confident."

James Toseland 17th 1.23.864 - 55 laps
"It is quite a difficult track to learn and really technical. It isone of those tracks where it is blind in a lot of places and youneed to keep on the throttle. So you really need to know whereyou're going. We have tried a lot of things today, which has beeninteresting and right at the end I finally found a bit of rhythm inthe 23s but then the chequered flag came out. We've been workingbetween two settings to see which one is more comfortable and nowat least we know the direction to go in to make the bike morerideable. It looks a lot worse on paper than it is and I'm stillupbeat. I'm bottom of the list but at the end I saw a bit of alight at the end of the tunnel, so fingers crossed it will be drytomorrow. The problem is we are struggling to find the set-up forthe shorter bike. It is much easier to find with the longer bikebut that one has a few issues. With the shorter bike it is the sameproblem as before, there is too much weight transition on that bikeunder braking and I've not got much feel from the rear tyre on theentry. The crash on the third lap this morning put me off a bit.That was my mistake. I just touched the white line going into thatlefthander and it just lost traction as I got back onto the tarmacand down I went. Both of my arms are black and blue because thestones are quite big in the gravel. I went in backwards and dug myarms in a bit and it has really battered them."
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Sachsenring - Germany - July 11, 2008
Andrea Dovizioso in the top ten of the first day of tests atSachsenring
The first day of practice for the German Grand Prix ended with apositive result for Andrea Dovizioso who is comfortably in the topten. Despite a fast, but innocuous crash early in the secondsession at the penultimate corner - a scene of many crashes today -JiR Team Scot has collected important data, which will be used tofurther improve the situation tomorrow. After completing the fifthbest time of the morning, the increase in temperature from themorning to the afternoon from 30 to 40 degrees meant that it wasnot possible to improve, but Andrea Dovizioso and the team areconfident of moving forward tomorrow.
Cirano Mularoni - Team Manager JiR Team Scot
"With regard to practice today the result is positive but we haveto improve. We are in a very positive position to do better and Iexpect an improvement in practice tomorrow.
We did slip down the order in the afternoon, but looking at thestandings there's a large group of riders separated by only alittle bit of time, so even a small difference will vary yourposition in the group. It will also be important that the weatherconditions remain stable for tomorrow in order to build on what hasbeen done today."
Andrea Dovizioso - Pilot JiR Team Scot MotoGP
HONDA RC212V
9th best time: 1'23 "093
"The first day of tests at Sachsenring ended positively, becausethis morning we went well, and I was fifth, while in the afternoonwe have been slowed by the crash and the weather conditions. Thefall was unexpected, because I just lost the front with no realwarning, but thankfully the crash had no physical consequences forme. As regards the time, however, the track temperature had risenby about ten degrees making it difficult to improve the provisionallap time. Despite the crash, I was still satisfied thanks to thework we had done in the morning. After the crash, inevitably welost precious minutes and it took time to return to the feelingwith the bike we had in the morning, but there were no problems andwe were able to make comparisons and suspension settings that havegiven us some clear indications of the right direction to head in.My feelings are the same on the track though, it's too narrow andslow!"
Gianni Berti - Technical Coordinator JiR Team Scot
"Today was a day of intense work that we used to perform all theroutine work we generally complete on the first day, but also tomake some comparisons on the circuit. This is important as at theSachsenring there are constant changes of elevation. Overall wecompleted almost the entire day's programme that we had setourselves and the crash has only partly slowed this work. Tomorrowwe will have to finalise the choice of tyres for the race."

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Red Bull MotoGP Rookies Cup - Sachsenring Practice - July 11th
Salom pressured by Hoyle
Just 3 races to go in the 10 race season and the Red Bull MotoGPRookies Cup round at the Sachsenring could be anyone's race as abrief rain shower in the second qualifying session left the gridline up with more questions than answers. All the times coming fromthe first session.
On pole is Luis Salom, the 16 year old Spaniard who has led the Cupsince dominating the double header that started the season at Jerezback in March. "I'm happy with practice, my bike is just aboutperfect and I think I am riding not so bad. Even though we couldn'tgo quicker in the second session because of the rain we have lappedfaster than pole time and the lap record from last year so that'sgood."
"Last year I didn't like the track and I crashed in the race, Iwasn't happy. Now it all feels so different and I'm really enjoyingit. For the race tomorrow, who knows but a podium should bepossible," concluded Salom.
Sitting alongside him for the race start is 17 year old BritonMathew Hoyle who said he had answered all his questions. "We've gotthe bike set up now, that was the problem early in the year, thesuspension was so far off. Now it's right and I'm enjoying ridingit. I really want to go to America to race at Indianapolis in theRiders Cup. I'm 14th at the moment, I need some more podiums likeAssen so I can get in the top ten in the Cup table and make theteam."
Grabbing 3rd on the grid just in the last lap of the earlyafternoon session was 14 year old Jakub Kornfeil. A 1st year Rookiefrom the Czech Republic he was making use of the fact that he hadat least seen the track before. "I came here for the SelectionEvent and I like the track. It has a good series of fast corners aswell as the slow ones and is a lot of fun."
German hero Daniel Kartheininger completes the front row but the 15year old from Memmingen felt it could have been better. "The frontsuspension was all wrong for the first session and then it rainedfor the second so I couldn't go faster. The front is working betternow and I changed my line through the last really fast left handerwhere there are all the bumps so I think I can go quicker in therace. I've just got to get a good start," concluded the teenagerwho led so much of the race in Assen two weeks ago.
JD Beach, with 5 second places, has hounded Salom all the way thisyear and sits just 10 points behind in the standings. The 16 yearold American had a troubled 1st qualifying and missed 10 of the 30minutes with an early electrical problem but in typical cool stylehe still set the 8th fastest time to secure a second row start.
He got to within 2 tenths of his earlier session time second timeout and said he had learnt. "I felt better and I know some stuff Ineed to work on for the race. For example, getting into some of theslower turns, like turn one, I can't get in there hard enoughbecause it drops off. And then the fast left at the top of the hillis blind and I don't know my turning point but when I get behindpeople in the race I'll work it out. I always usually go faster inthe race."
Man on form coming into the event Sturla Fagerhaug was a bitfrustrated after the first qualifying session with only the 7thfastest time. "It doesn't look as though I am going to go quickernow that the weather has changed but I hope the race will be OK. Ijust need a good start and race with the guys. I was having a bitof trouble with the fast left hander going up the hill then overand down the other side, also finding a good line for the lastcorner but I was getting better and it should be OK for the race.It should be possible to get on the podium," concluded the 16 yearold Norwegian.
Though back on the 4th row of the grid both Austrian Nico Th