Tonight the first nighttime training sessions ever held in motorcycling history were disputed on the Losail Circuit in Qatar. The expectation surrounding this historical moment finally had its setting, with the 18 riders who shall compete this season in the World MotoGP Motorcycling Championship. The sessions held under the floodlights installed over the Qatari track took place without incident, and the first to go onto the track under these special conditions was Italian rider Loris Capirossi.
The Losail track was illuminated with a total of 1.000 floodlight towers, and the light the provided was the equivalent of 70 football stadiums or 1.300 basketball courts. There was an estimated total of 5’5 million Watts illuminating the Losail Circuit, enough to provide light for a fictitious road between Doha and Moscow- The MotoGP Night Test kicked off at 18:00 – local time – and finished seven hours later, at 1 O’Clock Friday morning. The sole incident which occurred was the fall of Kawasaki rider Anthony West, first rider to fall in this night test. The Repsol Honda Team riders faced this first night test with caution.
Dani Pedrosa completed a total of 72 laps on the Qatar track, running his best time – eighth position – during the last. Teammate Nicky Hayden, twelvth best time, completed 91 laps and his fastest lap was 89. Tomorrow Friday, the MotoGP riders will end the 2008 pre-season training sessions, with another nocturnal training session on the Losail Circuit.
Dani Pedrosa
‘Today was a tough day for us, we didn’t manage to run good times and neither did we fix a good setup for the bike. We’ll try to do better tomorrow, but it’s obvious that we did not fare too well today. Tomorrow will be tough, but we’ll try to improve, because the first race here is just around the corner. The track looks good, but there are a lot of shady areas which are very deceiving, because your own shadow tricks you into thinking there’s another rider behind you. I’ve also noticed that my eyes are tired, because you have to keep straining them.’
Nicky Hayden
‘I had a good time, it’s a bit different, but I thought it was fun. We need to ride faster, but the current sensations are quite good and it has been a great experience. I haven’t run with anybody else yet to see how they’re doing, but I think the lines taken on the curves didn’t change that much from during the day. I didn’t have any problems with the shadows, only that the floodlights give off a strange light. But the track, the grip and the rubbers seem to work well and I think they are correct. Last year we had to fight hard here, so basically we’ve started with the same adjustments we used in Jerez, checking a few things and trying to fine-tune them,’
