After the rain upset on Sunday evening and with cool temperatures and a dirty track surface after high winds earlier last night, lap times were well off record pace and most riders were not taking any extra chances after seeing Chris Vermeulen, Dani Pedrosa and Mikka Kallio all crash out and the track red flagged twice.
Riders Quotes:Colin Edwards (Yamaha Tech 3) Position: 3rd 1’57.
817 Laps: 41“I’d been running wide but once we got it sorted I felt good, though the conditions were pretty crappy.
I’m not sure if the track got any better or whether it was us lot just getting braver.
But it was cold and if anything too cold to be riding and I didn’t want to start taking any risks.
There’s no point because it is going to be warmer when we come back here and race in April.
It has been good so far but I’m working hard, getting the bike working on race tyres like we can do now with the new tyre rules instead of turning my brain off to do a fast lap and look good near the top of the times.
”James Toseland (Yamaha Tech 3) Position: 17th 2’0.
234 Laps: 51“It has been tough.
I’m just lacking that bit of confidence after what happened in Malaysia, and the track being a bit dirty from the wind and it then getting a bit moist later on and that’s not helping me at all.
I just need to build that confidence.
I think it looks worse than it actually is but clearly I’ve got a lot of work to do.
It is obviously going to be a slow process getting back up to speed again.
The problem is I haven’t got that much time to play with now with only one more test remaining.
The big issue I’ve found on the new bike here is a vague feeling with the front and that’s hurting my corner speed on the long apex corners.
I’m just struggling to feel the front.
”Casey Stoner (Ducati Marlboro Team) Position: 1st 1′57.
139 Laps: 37“We have worked well and we’ve made progress with the set-up of the GP9 so it has been a positive day despite the difficult track conditions.
Pretty much the same goes for the wrist – it’s obviously still not 100% yet but it is better than Malaysia and better than I was expecting for this test, so it’s looking hopeful from that point of view too.
In general I am satisfied.
”Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro Team) Position: 9th 1′58.
577 Laps: 54“The way the day started out I didn’t even expect to be riding tonight.
The wind was so strong but luckily it turned and we were able to start working seriously on the set-up, adapting the bike to this circuit because the conditions were so strange yesterday that we didn’t gather any useful data.
Things are going better than Malaysia, my feeling is improved but there is obviously still a lot of work to do.
” Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) Position: 2nd 1′57.
747 Laps: 51“Today was good because first of all we were able to test! I am quite happy because I was fast from the start and the bike is a lot better than this time last year.
The setting is completely different after a year with Bridgestone and we seem to be in good shape.
The lap times are quite slow compared to the race because it is cold and also the track conditions aren’t perfect, but hopefully in a month’s time it will be quite a bit warmer.
We worked well today, testing some things for the engine and some electronics, and everything is helping us to improve our setting and to be faster.
Now I hope that we have good weather between now and tomorrow night and no more wind so that the track is cleaner tomorrow and we can improve the times a bit more.
”Jorge Lorenzo (Fiat Yamaha) Position: 7th 1′58.
400 Laps: 63 “Today’s practice was quite hard, harder than I expected in fact! It was windy and the surface of the track was quite dusty and quite cold, so this has made our job of building confidence with the new Bridgestone tyres harder.
To start with I was finding it quite hard to go fast in these conditions, and especially to brake later.
I am still braking too early at the moment, which makes it difficult to be fast.
We tried some new electronic systems tonight in order to reduce the wheelie, and this seems to be positive.
Later on this evening we tried a new setting and I was able to improve my pace in the cold conditions.
Hopefully we can continue to improve from the start tomorrow.
”Niccolò Canepa ( Pramac Racing ) Position: 15th 1’59.
266 Laps: 36“Today’s position in the standing doesn’t worry me.
I remain serene because I basically didn’t step on track in the last two hours, when most of the riders made it to improve.
After having seen Dani and Mika fell, together with my Team we preferred to end the day early to don’t take any risk so that we would be able to use in the best way possible the last day of work here.
I am working well, I understood where to improve and tomorrow I will give my best again.
” Mika Kallio (Pramac Racing) Position: 16th 1’59.
764 Laps: 48“In the first hours we were working well, but then in the last part of the day things weren’t going too well and I made a mistake in a left turn and I felt.
I barely touched the front brake and I found my self on the ground.
I suffered a hard hit but tomorrow I should be able to step on the circuit without any problem.
I will try to make it up tomorrow.
” Andrea Dovizioso ( Repsol Honda) Position: 4th 1’ 57.
879 Laps: 61“This was an interesting day and I’m happy with how it went.
We tried many settings with the electronic systems on the machine to enhance the power delivery.
The results were pretty positive and now we’ll have a meeting to decide how to move things forward tomorrow.
The track conditions were not so bad – not as good as the race here last year, but considering how windy it was today, it was OK.
The lap times were not as fast as the race lap times, but it was a good test today and we’re moving forward.
” Dani Pedrosa ( Repsol Honda) Position: 10th.
1’ 58.
619 Laps: 28“The early part of the session went quite well and I was happy with the progress we were making.
The conditions weren’t ideal with the sand blowing on the track, but this was an unexpected crash.
I was entering Turn 10 and I had a high-side and then the bike came down on top of me.
It’s a shame because we also lost testing time yesterday, but now I will go home for some more scans and hopefully they won’t show anything more serious.
Alex De Angelis ( San Carlo Honda Gresini) Position: 8th 1’ 58.
441 Laps: 53.
“My feeling has improved and I’m confident.
We tested various set up options and the behaviour of tyres over a race distance and I ‘m satisfied with the performance.
We did around 20 laps with the second set of tyres and I’m happy with the results we got.
Tomorrow it will be another important test session.
” Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda Gresini) Position : 12th.
1’ 59.
036 Laps: 56“Considering that the first race of the season will be held here in a month we focused on the setting of the bike, in particular we worked on machine geometry and suspension to improve the traction.
We struggled a bit in Sepang, but here today, with these difficult track conditions we suffered more than Malaysia.
We have a lot of work to do but we have another day here to test the new bike and I hope the track conditions improve for tomorrow.
” Randy De Puniet (LCR Honda) Position : 11th.
1’ 58.
936 Laps:55“Compared to the last test session in Sepang today we made a big step forward.
I changed my riding style and the feeling with the front improved a lot.
I’m satisfied, we are working on the correct direction.
Today in fact we only used two tyres as we worked on suspensions and the tyres were also working well with the machine base set up.
Tomorrow we will use some new tyres to reduce the gap in terms of lap times.
” Yuki Takahashi (Scot Racing Team) Position : 13th.
1’ 59.
153 Laps: 65“I’m still adapting to the RC212V that is a complete new bike for me.
It’s normal that I need to do kilometres and get the feeling with the bike.
At the beginning of the test session there was a lot of san on track, then the conditions improved.
I tried to do as many laps as possible to understand the bike, It was important to follow some more experienced riders to study the best line and I have to thank Andrea Dovizioso for this.
Tomorrow we will continue working in this direction.
”QATAR WINTER TEST DAY 2 RESULTS1.
Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1:57.
139 37 laps2.
Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:57.
747 51 laps3.
Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1:57.
817 41 laps4.
Andrea Dovizioso(Repsol Honda) 1:57.
879 60 laps5.
Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) 1:58.
018 24 laps6.
Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 1:58.
264 42 laps7.
Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:58.
400 63 laps8.
Alex De Angelis (San Carlo Honda) 1:58.
441 53 laps9.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1:58.
577 54 laps10.
Dani Pedrosa(Repsol Honda) 1:58.
619 28 laps11.
Randy De Puniet (LCR Honda) 1:58.
936 55 laps12.
Toni Elias (San Carlo Honda) 1:59.
036 56 laps13.
Yuki Takahashi (Scot Honda) 1:59.
153 65 laps14.
Marco Melandri (Kawasaki) 1:59.
195 63 laps15.
Niccolo Canepa (Ducati ) 1:59.
266 36 laps16.
Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1:59.
764 48 laps17.
James Toseland (Yamaha) 2:00.
234 51 laps
