The 2009 pre-season has come to an end this weekend at the track in Cadiz, after the MotoGP riders completed the last of two official practice sessions. The next time they get on their bikes will be at the circuit of Losail for the first race in the 2009 calendar, the Qatar Grand Prix.
The final day of practice at the circuit of Jerez was held today, Sunday, and as has become usual in the last few years the aim was to find the fastest rider in the final winter test sessions so that they can be rewarded with a sports car made by the German firm BMW, sponsor of the World Championship. This timed session began at 14.00 and finished 45 minutes later.
In spite of the threat of rain from some dark clouds the session against the clock took place with no interruptions, and the first drops only fell when there were a five minutes left. A few minutes before that Toseland had a bad fall and the track maintenance crew had to work hard when the red flag was shown, in the end the session was suspended for about four minutes. After the timed session ended some MotoGP riders stayed on the track practising until about 18:00 on the wet track after the shower at 15:00.
The Australian rider Casey Stoner on his Ducati was the fastest in the timed session. With Dani Pedrosa unable to practise in Jerez, the Repsol Honda Team was represented on the final day by the Italian Andrea Dovizioso and the Japanese Honda test rider Kousuke Akiyoshi. The latter had a slight fall when his front tyre lost adherence just before the end of the session, fortunately he was unhurt, the bike suffered no damage either. When the rain began to fall the team decided that the tests with the Japanese rider, who has provided some very useful information over these two days, had been completed.
Andrea Dovizioso, seventh fastest in today`s timed session, is taking his adaptation to the Honda bike as well as the team step by step. After morning practice and the rain the Italian stayed behind to ride on the wet track, so as to get more experience in these type of conditions. As he had done in the previous test sessions Dovizioso continued working on the setup he will use for the bike, concentrating on the chassis, swingarm, tyres and suspension, as well as the engine electronics.
After these practice sessions the next date is the Qatar GP at the circuit of Losail on 12th April, when the 2009 World MotoGP Championship begins. This will be the first of the 17 rounds that will decide the next 2009 World MotoGP Champion.
Andrea Dovizioso: 1’40.168 sec, 77 laps, 341 Km.
“During these two days of testing the machine has improved quite a lot, especially the stability and power delivery which were two important areas we were working on. My lap times on paper look reasonably good on their own, but if you compare them with Casey’s, the gap we need to close is still quite big. After the 45-minute shoot-out it started raining and this spoiled our programme for the afternoon, so we still have some things to try in dry conditions which might move us further forward. As far as the wet set-up, my feeling with the bike and tyres is good and I’m happy about this. Now I’m looking forward to getting to Qatar for the first race.”
Kosuke Akiyoshi: 1’42.058 sec, 40 laps, 177 Km.
“This was another positive day where we worked on both the chassis balance to improve the handling and the engine balance for driveability. My pace on the first section of the lap was very good and actually nearly as fast as the quickest riders. We were losing some time however in the middle section of the lap. Towards the end of the timed session I had a fall at the hairpin which was a shame, but the overall results from this test, in spite of the rain today and yesterday, are quite good.”
