planetearth
There Can Be Only One
Number of posts : 3271
Registration date : 2007-02-03
 |  Subject: 'Yamaha dominate day one of 800cc era.'  Fri Mar 09, 2007 1:52 am | |
| - Quote :
- The first day of the first ever 800cc MotoGP has ended with Fiat Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards at the top of the timesheets in Qatar - and Ducati's Casey Stoner best of the rest.
Thursday morning's season-opening session at the Losail circuit saw on-form Edwards fastest by just 0.08secs from 2006 Qatar pole sitter Stoner, but neither improved in this afternoon's second session allowing Rossi - a close third this morning - to demote them both.
The Italian set the day's fastest lap 17 minutes into the afternoon hour, at which point he enjoyed a one-second advantage over Honda's LCR's Carlos Checa. But his rivals clawed steadily closer, with Edwards finishing 0.315secs adrift of his fellow factory M1 rider despite not beating his own morning time.
Stoner was again fraction slower than the American to give a top three covered by 0.281secs on combined times from the two sessions, with a two-tenths gap then following to Rizla Suzuki's John Hopkins. Hopper produced an admirable ride considering his injuries sustained while testing at this very track and improved from sixth in the morning to fourth in the afternoon (and overall) by finding almost 0.4secs between the sessions.
An excellent performance from Carlos Checa made the Spaniard the top Honda rider in both sessions as he finished the day in fifth position and 0.517secs from Rossi. Factory star Dani Pedrosa was a whisker slower in sixth - an improvement from ninth this morning - but Repsol Honda team-mate Nicky Hayden endured a horrid start to his reign as world champion; the American was 16th both this morning and overall and needs to find 1.5secs to get on terms with Rossi.
Gresini Honda rider Marco Melandri produced a promising performance for seventh behind Pedrosa, while Stoner's experienced team-mate Loris Capirossi collected eighth in front of Melandri's team-mate Toni Elias and Konica Minolta Honda's Shinya Nakano.
Pramac d'Antin's Alex Barros was eleventh and just over one-second from Rossi on his MotoGP return, while the lead Kawasaki was Randy de Puniet in 13th. Slowest on day one was Makoto Tamada, who was beaten not only by rookie team-mate Sylvain Guintoli but also Ilmor riders Andrew Pitt and Jeremy McWilliams.
Thursday practice:
1. Rossi
2. Edwards
3. Stoner
4. Hopkins
5. Checa
6. Pedrosa
7. Melandri
8. Capirossi
9. Elias
10. Nakano
11. Barros
12. Vermeulen
13. de Puniet
14. Roberts
15. Hayden
16. Hofmann
17. Jacque
18. Guintoli
19. Pitt
20. McWilliams
21. Tamada Crash.net | |
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