Andrea Dovizioso came out at the top of the charts before rain showers interrupted the first free practice session for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans, after just 35 minutes of practice.
Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda – 1st“Well it was not a normal practice because we stopped at the midpoint of the session, but I’m happy because we have made a good start.
We didn’t do too many laps, but we have a little bit of information on where we need to improve the bike.
Although the lap times are not so fast and the practice was not too important it was still good to start in a positive position I love this track and I have had many podiums here, so my expectations here are always high, but it is too early to make predictions.
Especially with the weather being not so good, we have to wait and see what the conditions are like.
”Casey Stoner – Ducati Marlboro Team – 2nd “In the first part of the session it felt like we maybe had a problem with the rear tyre because the bike was pretty difficult to ride but we haven’t analyzed the data yet so we don’t know what really happened.
We were in and out of the garage a few times before deciding on a complete change, swapping onto my other bike with a completely new tyre.
I immediately had a better feeling but we still weren’t getting enough temperature into the tyre, which we think was because the rear setting was too stiff and we weren’t getting enough weight transfer to load the rear and make the tyre work.
We changed the set-up but we only had time to do half a lap and then the rain came, which was effectively ‘game over’.
It wasn’t much of a session for us because we only completed three proper laps so it would be useful if we could have a dry weekend to have more time to work on the setting.
Unfortunately with the way the weather forecast is, I don’t think we’re going to get that!”Randy De Puniet – LCR Honda – 3rd“The feeling with the bike was nearly the same as Jerez, which was close to ideal for me.
The rear tyre for me is perhaps a little too hard on the left side, but we’ve started well.
For me here the softer tyre is ok.
I wanted to try the hard tyre, but it was too dangerous in these conditions, so if the weather clears up then we will try it tomorrow.
”Chris Vermeulen – Rizla Suzuki – 4th“It has been a good start to the first day here at Le Mans.
Conditions were difficult as it was very cold and damp – not like what I’ve been used to back in Australia recently! I really enjoy it here, I’ve had success before and I’d love to repeat that this year.
For a first session we’ve done pretty well and the bike seemed to be good straight out of the box.
We’ve tried a few new things from the Factory on the electronics side and these seem to be working well.
We want to try to get the most out of the tyres in all conditions so we experimented a bit with chassis and suspension set-up, but unfortunately due to the weather we didn’t get the full hour to try everything.
We just hope that tomorrow is dry so we can continue where we left off today.
”Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda – 5th“We were lucky to get some dry track time today, even though there was rain towards the close of the session.
It’s a very different kind of circuit to the last race at Jerez – where I’ve tested a lot – and so really today was about getting dialed in to this track and beginning the set-up process.
My physical condition is getting better all the time and I can bend my knee a lot more now – I’ve almost got full movement.
Still, I haven’t been able to train physically at 100 per cent though, so my condition isn’t perfect yet, but it’s getting better all the time.
I didn’t ride much in the second half of the session today because it wasn’t fully wet and we have a limit on wet tyres, so I didn’t want to waste any.
Let’s see what the weather brings tomorrow.
”Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha – 6th“We always seem to have bad luck with the weather here! The conditions weren’t easy today, it was quite cold and the track wasn’t so good, and then it rained and so we couldn’t use all of the session.
It was still useful to get some laps done in the dry though, even if we couldn’t learn as much as we would have liked to today.
Every lap has it’s own small problems and during the first rain break we made some modifications to our setting and actually I was quite confident that we were on the right track.
We hoped to get a few more laps before the end of the session once the rain stopped but unfortunately it started again and so we had no real chance to check our work.
We know we’re fast in the rain but I prefer it dry…the problem is that you never know with Le Mans, the weather seems to change every five minutes!”Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha – 7th“It’s a pity about the rain because we needed the time today, but this is the situation so we have to deal with it.
I just hope it doesn’t continue.
At least we had some dry track time but the situation of the track wasn’t so good and I was quite slow.
We need time at each circuit to learn how our bike works with the Bridgestone tyres and we didn’t really have enough time today, but we will keep trying tomorrow and hopefully we can improve our pace.
”Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki – 9th“It has not been too bad today considering the conditions, but luckily I did get the opportunity to test two completely different settings on the bike.
The first one was not perfect but the second one was definitely a lot better.
I came in to make a couple more modifications that I’m sure would have helped, but the rain came and we couldn’t test everything that we wanted to.
I now hope it either stays dry tomorrow and race-day or it rains on both, because a mix of the two will be no good at all.
We will just have to wait and see what happens!”Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 10th “It was a really weird day to be honest and I’m a bit confused.
My record proves that I like this track and we know the Yamaha is a really strong package in Le Mans, but right from the start nothing really seemed to work.
It’s obvious we’ve got a couple of small issues to solve for tomorrow because Valentino (Rossi) and Jorge (Lorenzo) are not up near the top either.
So out of the box nothing really seems to be working and that is very strange.
From my side I just don’t feel comfortable.
Braking and corner entry I’m not that confident and I was running wide quite a lot.
It felt like we had a lot of weight on the rear but I need to get my thinking head on tonight, sit down with my guys and figure something out.
We’ll check over some data with Yamaha too because right now I’m a little bit confused.
But we’ve definitely got to do something to make it more comfortable.
I know this is a massively important weekend for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team.
It’s an awesome achievement for them to be involved in the world championship for 20 years.
I’ll be trying my best to give them something to celebrate on Sunday.
”James Toseland – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – 12th “I think I’m going to stop saying I need more time on the track, because when I do something makes sure it doesn’t happen.
>From the off we’re not too far away but we need time to try things on the bike.
I’m sure the guys behind me are saying the same thing, but we still need to find a comfortable setting and it is a frustrating scenario when you only have one session on a Friday.
We made the wheelbase longer to get a bit more stability from the bike and I did eight laps and we made some changes based on comments about the good and bad points.
But then it started raining so I couldn’t see if the changes were moving me in the right direction.
I’m looking to be more comfortable and not feeling so on the limit not doing the quickest times.
When the bike is not set-up right you always feel on the limit even though the lap times are not as fast as they should be.
We’ll find what I need but you need to be out on the track to find it.
I really want to get a good result this weekend given that this is the home race for Tech 3, and the team is celebrating its 20th anniversary.
It’s incredible to think they have been racing in Grand Prix since I was eight years old! I’d love nothing more though than getting a good result for the team in France.
”Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing – 13th “Here the weather conditions are always unpredictable, you can find over twenty degrees and sun, but after a few minutes it can start to rain ruining your work plan.
It’s a pity because we had found the right way to follow.
We started with the same set up as in Jerez and after a few modifications we found a good balance of the bike.
Nothing special for sure, but anyway a good start.
”Sete Gibernau – Grupo Francisco Hernando – 14th“Just for a change we’ve come up against some umpredictable weather! The team has done a good job though and last week we had a productive meeting with Ducati about how we can improve certain aspects of the bike.
Personally I was able to step up my training this week and I feel better for it.
I didn’t realize that the track changed so much, the reference and run-off areas are really different and it’s another thing to get used to.
They’d given us another hour for practice bute we lost time because of the rain.
We need more track time than anybody, especially here, so I hope that it stops raining so we can get some laps in tomorrow.
I’m quite satisfied and hopefully the work we did with Ducati last week can be useful.
”Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – 15th “We thought we were going to have an hour today but it seems like the weather decided we should stick to 45 minutes! It was a shame about the rain because we obviously have a lot of work to do and we’re in a new situation, where me and Juan need to learn about each other, but we only got two runs in the dry.
I constantly got a little faster, a little faster, and then I was really just getting going on my second run when it started to rain.
For a while it looked like it couldn’t decide whether it wanted to rain or whether the sun was coming back out but unfortunately the conditions were never back to what we needed.
I was planning to go out on the softer tyre and see how that felt but we didn’t get that chance.
It’s early days to comment on the relationship with Juan but he clearly knows his stuff and we’ll see how we go.
”Niccolò Canepa – Pramac Racing – 18th position“Really unlucky today.
This has been the first time for me in Le Mans and I need to make as many laps as possible to learn the best lines to follow.
Anyway I can be quite happy because I didn’t make any modifications to the bike, but I have only concentrated to learn the track.
We only hope to find better climatic conditions tomorrow.
”imbabwean Whyte to race Yamaha at KyalamiLe Mans French GP Friday Free Practice Results:1.
Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda), 1:36.
1362.
Casey STONER (Ducati), 1:36.
1943.
Randy DE PUNIET (Honda), 1:36.
2934.
Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), 1:36.
3015.
Dani PEDROSA (Honda), 1:36.
4766.
Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), 1:36.
7517.
Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha), 1:37.
0248.
Marco MELANDRI (Kawasaki), 1:37.
0249.
Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki), 1:37.
22410.
Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), 1:37.
26911.
Toni ELIAS (Honda), 1:37.
27012.
James TOSELAND (Yamaha), 1:37.
73813.
Mika KALLIO (Ducati), 1:37.
80014.
Sete GIBERNAU (Ducati), 1:37.
87515.
Nicky HAYDEN (Ducati), 1:38.
03216.
Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda), 1:38.
32317.
Yuki TAKAHASHI (Honda), 1:38.
63918.
Niccolo CANEPA (Ducati), 1:39.
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