Although it was a challenging one hour qualifying session for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team there are plenty of encouraging signs to demonstrate to riders, Carlos Checa and James Ellison that the Japanese Grand Prix at the Motegi Twin Ring tomorrow could provide satisfactory results for the team in a session headed by Loris Capirossi on a Ducati.
With a multitude of Dunlop tyres to test it was never going to be an easy two days of practice and qualifying as Carlos and James will start from finished in 17th and 19th positions respectively. It was a confidence building exercise as well, as both riders lowered their lap times considerably and set their fastest times in the closing moments of the qualifying session.
Carlos Checa (17th, 1'47.905, 24 laps)"We knew we would have a lot of tyres to test here this weekend but to be in this position is not what we imagined after the success of last weekends efforts. We tried many different tyres that Dunlop has brought along for the weekend. We have cured the chattering problems from yesterday so now we will continue to work hard at improving the situation. We have proven to ourselves and everyone else this year we will try everything to reflect the hard work that the entire team has put in to find a little secret to work some magic. With the times I did on race tyres I am looking forward to the race as if I can get a good start I know I can stick with many of the riders that qualified in front of me and now we have good durability in the tyres I hope to be passing quite a few of them."
James Ellison (19th1'48.716, 23 laps)"We were struggling here yesterday but we have found something that has allowed us to improve our lap times. Even though we had so many tyres to test that may have put us behind a bit, we have found something in the setup to give us a good direction to work on overnight. We still haven't decided on a race tyre for tomorrow as with the way the weather has been we don't want to make a final decision until after warm-up in the morning. The competition in MotoGP is so tight these days that if you are having a little problem you seem to be so far off the pace and that is what is happening here but nonetheless we will continue to work hard and hope for a competitive race tomorrow." .
Herve Poncharal - Tech 3 Yamaha Team Director"Fortunately today was better than yesterday so both riders are moving in the right direction and as usual Carlos and James have been working hard to find the best tyres to suit the conditions. It wasn't the best start for the Tech 3 Yamaha Team yesterday but that has been the case for most of the year as we continue to develop the Dunlop tyres during a race weekend. Sure, this is not the perfect situation but we came into this year knowing that we would have good days and bad days. Dunlop have been working extremely hard to supply us with as many tyres as possible to give us many options so it does take time to narrow the selections down but we have lowered our times considerably and this gives us confidence for a good result tomorrow."
Circuit Length: 4801
Temp: 22
Weather: Dry
Qualifying 1 Motegi 23/09/2006: 1 Loris Capirossi Ducati ITA 1'45.724
2 Valentino Rossi Yamaha ITA 1'45.991
3 Marco Melandri Honda ITA 1'46.250
4 Shinya Nakano Kawasaki JPN 1'46.291
5 Sete Gibernau Ducati ESP 1'46.316
6 Toni Elias Honda ESP 1'46.326
7 Nicky Hayden Honda USA 1'46.489
8 Randy De Puniet Kawasaki FRA 1'46.512
9 Daniel Pedrosa Honda ESP 1'46.576
10 Colin Edwards Yamaha USA 1'46.726
11 Casey Stoner Honda AUS 1'46.847
12 Kousuke Akiyoshi Suzuki JPN 1'46.958
13 John Hopkins Suzuki USA 1'47.071
14 Kenny Roberts Team Robert KR USA 1'47.310
15 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki AUS 1'47.451
17 Carlos Checa Yamaha ESP 1'47.905
19 James Ellison Yamaha GBR 1'48.716
Related Linkswww.yamaha-racing.com
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