The desert night was broken by the light of the floodlights that will make the night day at the Losail circuit in time for the first race of the 2008 season. For the first time in the World Championship’s history one race will be conducted at night and the next two nights of testing will help dispel any doubts and eliminate any problems before the first race here on 9th March. Testing starts at 7pm each night and finishes at midnight, local time. The team will use this time to adapt to the conditions and find the best setting for the bike for the first race of the championship that will take place in just over a week’s time at the 3.344-mile Doha circuit. The result of the first day for the JiR Team Scot squad is very positive, with Andrea Dovizioso posting the fourth fastest time.
Gianni Berti – Technical Coordinator, JiR Team Scot “The question mark over the time of the race was a big one! Not just the time of the race, but the temperature and especially the artificial light! Ultimately today, things were easier than we expected. Today the opening ceremony delayed the start and the finish for an hour or so, but when we got started we realised that the conditions and temperature was not very different from what we have found in other GPs and Andrea and his technicians were able to adapt very quickly and get into a good rhythm. Our overall aim here is to prepare for the race, so we will chase the best setting and then work on the tyre choice so we have the right ones for the conditions expected in the race. To do this, we will be doing a lot of full race-distance simulations in these conditions.”
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
Laps completed: 81
Best time: 4th - 1’56”121
“I’m very satisfied after my first time in the night here at Doha! I went fast from the start and for all the sessions I stayed in the high positions, which is great. My good results here are thanks to the hard work of the team and to our Michelin friends and other Technical Partners. I did a race simulation tonight and found that my times were consistent. We know that we can improve our performance over the next few days. The bike is competitive although we have to reduce the front-end chatter that we have experienced tonight, which has disturbed me a little. Only a little, though, as it’s not been a problem to go fast.”
Pietro Caprara – Crew chief, JiR Team Scot
“The conditions are strange! You know that you are working, but because it’s night-time you feel like you’re jet-lagged! Conditions have been good, even if the temperature never hit the minimum of 15 degrees. Despite this we had no problem with dampness on the track, which would have affected our grip. The wind was light all evening and didn’t bring up the fine sand that it can do during the day. The whole programme for today has been completed and this shows that the team can react well and fast to any problems. We are working very well with all our Technical Partners, which is also good. Tomorrow we hope to go on to do better than today and be ready for race, which is just now a few days away. ”
Test Qatar MotoGP – Day One:1) Casey Stoner - Ducati 1’55”330
2) Jorge Lorenzo - Yamaha 1’56”019
3) Randy De Puniet - Honda 1’56”062
4) Andrea Dovizioso - Honda 1’56”121
5) James Toseland - Yamaha 1’56”251
