Hayden leads Jerez test

2006 MotoGP champ Nicky Hayden finished off the recent MotoGP Jerez test on a high note, leading the lap scoring. The young American (pictured at Estoril in 2007) was sounding upbeat during the three-day test, which was plagued with poor weather.

As is usual with testing, it would be risky to read too much into the results when it comes to predicting what will happen over the coming season. Yamaha and Honda both look as though they’ve picked up some speed, while Stoner and his Ducati look particularly dangerous, despite the relatively poor showing in the latest session.

While dropping in final times, Stoner still had plenty to grin about as he won a 40-minute testing session in the rain and scored a brand new BMW Z4 roadster for his troubles. “This is fantastic. Last year we did an amazing job in all the qualifying sessions during the season and I was able to take a car at the end of it, so to start out 2008 in the same way is great," said Stoner.

Hayden reckoned the whole thing was a bit of a hoot. “It was fun because it's a bit of competition, and not just because there was a car on the line. We could've been racing for a piece of bubblegum and everybody would've tried just as hard,” he said.

Someone well worth watching is new recruit to the class, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo, who has been putting in some impressive times.

The circus moves on to Qatar in just over a week for the championship’s first-ever night testing under lights, in preparation for an evening race at the venue.

Nicky Hayden (Honda): “It was fun, because it’s a bit of competition, and not just because there was a car on the line, we could’ve been racing for a piece of bubblegum and everybody would’ve tried just as hard! We’re all competitors and it was pretty fun but conditions were not ideal. I wish they had been a little more stable, but right at the end when the clock was about to hit zero the conditions were almost at their worst, they were about to go dry. We did our best time a little earlier in the session. We ran full rains throughout, I seen that 49 and knew that was going to be tough, Casey (Stoner) really put one down. Nonetheless the bike was working pretty good in the rain. I’m not happy about third but for me those intermediate conditions – a little patchy with a dry line starting to form – are about the worst. That’s something I’ve definitely been working on and thinking a lot about, so in some ways I’m happy we did okay in those conditions. Full rain’s normally not too bad for me and the dry’s not bad but that in between bit is quite tricky, so we’ve worked a lot on that. It’s been a positive day, even this morning in the rain we didn’t have to make any big changes to get the bike reasonable. We were really good in the full wet, the Michelins were working good and there was one front in particular that I liked. We just need to improve some more in those in between conditions.”

Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha): “We’ve finished the three days second after a very fast lap this afternoon with the Michelin qualifying tyre, so I’m really happy about this. With the race tyre however we’re not in such good shape and we have quite a lot of work to do. We need to be faster but to do this I need to have more grip and more confidence. We need to speak a lot with Michelin in order to try to solve this, but I am confident that my team, the engineers and Michelin together will find the solution. Now the first race is very close and we don’t have a lot of time, but we are working very hard. Overall though it’s been an important three days and I am very happy that we’re so good with the qualifying tyre. I am looking forward to something new in Qatar now; riding at night!”

Valentino Rossi (Yamaha): “At the end of today it was quite cold which made things difficult, and generally the conditions have made our job harder for the whole three days. Despite this I think we’ve done some good work; I have a good rhythm and I am having a lot of fun riding the bike. I’m quite excited now about the start of the season! We have things to work on, especially our speed in the exit of the corner, which was worse today because we had less grip on the damp track. Overall though it’s been good, and I think we’ve learnt a lot both about the bike and the Bridgestones, plus I have been quite fast both with the qualifier and the race tyres. I didn’t use the qualifier I like best here, so I am confident that when we use it in Qatar we can be faster. Now there’s just one test left, which will be in the dark and therefore something quite strange! We will focus on our final days of preparation and be ready for the first race.”

Casey Stoner (Ducati): "The conditions haven't been perfect here this weekend but this afternoon the sun came back out and we were finally able to get some good laps in and work on finding some more grip on the rear. We had another chassis setting prepared on my second bike but the crash meant that we weren't able to switch the tyres over and make a direct comparison so that was a shame. The wind was making it quite difficult in some corners and it didn't help with the crash but it was just a small front end slide and I was fine. We were able to continue the test and I tried out a completely new qualifying tyre. We actually tried it at the wrong time of the day because the wind was up and I could have gone much faster a little later on but the point of the test wasn't to set the fastest time but to see if the new qualifier was better than the previous one, which it was so that was positive. Generally speaking it has been a very positive test although we have been careful not to make the setting too specific to this circuit because it is very unique and you often find that the same setting doesn't work as well anywhere else. Now I'm really looking forward to going to Qatar, seeing how the bike goes there and making the final preparations for the start of the season."

Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki): “It was a difficult morning as we didn't get any track-time, but the wind got up and dried the track out and we had reasonable conditions this afternoon - apart from the wind! We made some progress with the bike to solve some of the problems we have had here this weekend and we now have a direction to go in. We tested some tyres for Bridgestone and I finally got the chance to test some qualifiers. They seemed to work quite well and suit our bike and although I only used two qualifying tyres I am happy with the lap-time that I did. There is still more to come out of both me and the bike, bit this was the most positive day we have had at this test.”

Test Results:
1. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'38.848
2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'39.252
3. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'39.313
4. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'39.351
5. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'39.568
6. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'39.727
7. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'39.845
8. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'39.932
9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'40.333
10. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'40.442
11. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'40.576
12. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'41.026
13. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'41.177
14. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'41.292
15. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'41.311
16. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'41.699
17. Niccolò Canepa (ITA) Ducati Test 1'42.160
18. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1'42.970
19. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing 1'43.496
20. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'45.597

Jerez: Lap Record
V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2005, 1'40.596