Valentino Rossi rode his Fiat Yamaha Team M1 to sixth place on the opening day of the Grand Prix of France in Le Mans today. Although some bad weather is expected over the weekend, today was mostly dry save a few spots of rain which fell over the 4.180km Bugatti Circuit during the afternoon session.
Rossi was quick during the morning practice, setting the third fastest time, but this afternoon work with different tyres and settings were not as effective as hoped and he failed to improve on his time from this morning. It was nonetheless a fruitful day for Rossi and his team as they were able to gather valuable data for Bridgestone at what is another new circuit for this year’s package of bike and tyres. Despite the mixed weather forecasts for tomorrow, the 29-year-old is hopeful of two more dry sessions as he looks to refine the setting of his YZR-M1 in race trim before attempting to become the first rider to win two races this season on Sunday.
Rossi’s team-mate Jorge Lorenzo meanwhile battled through the pain of the two fractured ankles he sustained in China and the inconvenience of a small crash this afternoon to end the day fourth fastest in the combined standings.
Valentino Rossi
Position: 6th
Time: 1'34.886
Laps: 49
“This morning we started quite well, I had a good rhythm and I was able to be third fastest with a good time. This afternoon to begin with it was also okay but then we tried some different things and it wasn’t so good; we tried a tyre I didn’t like so much and also a setting that didn’t feel so good so overall the result was not great! We weren’t able to improve our time from the morning but we actually learned quite a lot, which I hope will help us, so now we just need to work hard to decide what is the best way for tomorrow. I am confident we can improve. The weather isn’t so good, with some spots of rain, but actually we expected worse for Le Mans, so if this is as bad as it gets I will be happy! It may rain properly tomorrow in which case we will have different things to work on; I would prefer it to be dry of course but we will have to wait and see. It wasn’t a perfect day but we know why we didn’t improve so we’re not too worried.”
Davide Brivio - Team Manager “Today we mostly focused on checking the different tyres that we have available to us here and finding the best one, together with refining our base setting. We’ve been able to eliminate some options and found some that are better, so now the next step will be to put the best of everything together and try to perfect the package. This morning we were quite fast and then this afternoon things weren’t quite so good and we weren’t able to improve, but we now have a lot of information available to us so we will study it together with the engineers and with Bridgestone and decide the best path to follow. If tomorrow is wet then we will have to rely on today’s information in the event of a dry race, so we would prefer it to be like this again tomorrow."
Ambient temperature: 19 degrees
Track temperature: 27 degrees
Humidity: 33%
Combined Free Practice Times: 1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'34.227
2. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'34.276
3. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'34.287
4. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'34.487
5. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'34.630
6. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'34.8867. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'35.047
8. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'35.073
9. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1'35.133
10. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'35.239
11. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'35.256
12. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'35.378
13. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'35.450
14. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'35.678
15. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'35.848
16. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'35.877
17. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'36.039
18. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'36.414
Le Mans:
Record Lap: V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2006, 1'35.087
Best Lap: C. Edwards (Yamaha) 2007, 1'33.616
