SourceNicky Hayden topped the first night of MotoGP testing in Qatar, but a surprise rainstorm led to many of the main contenders choosing not to run at all.
Strong winds in recent days meant the Losail track was already extremely dusty when the floodlit evening test began, and then a downpour struck an hour into the session.
The track took a long time to dry in the cool conditions, although by the final hour the surface had improved enough to allow several riders to set quicker times.
Hayden, who has so far struggled to get to grips with the Ducati, jumped to the head of the field with a lap of 2:00.717, putting him 0.150 seconds clear of Marco Melandri, as the Hayate Racing-run 2009 Kawasaki made an encouraging debut, just two days after the team's future was secured.
Pramac Ducati duo Mika Kallio and Niccolo Canepa were third and fifth, sandwiching Gresini Honda's Alex de Angelis, while Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) eventually fell to sixth having been fastest of all prior to the rain.
But the results could not be taken as representative given that all the 2009 title favourites decided there was no point running in the conditions.
Both works Yamahas, Ducati's Casey Stoner and Honda's Dani Pedrosa - the quartet generally tipped to fight for this year's championship - opted out of the evening, as did Suzuki's Loris Capirossi, who had been a consistent top three contender in the previous test at Sepang.
SourceThe sole Kawasaki in the 2009 MotoGP championship will run under the Hayate Racing banner.
Although Kawasaki announced its withdrawal from the series in early January, agreement has been reached for one of the ex-works Ninja ZX-RRs to stay in the field with a new team run largely by former factory personnel.
Marco Melandri, who had signed for Kawasaki before the company pulled out, was announced as the revived squad's sole rider on Thursday, but has since indicated that he will not make any firm commitments until he knows the bike is competitive, amid rumours that the first test of the 2009 Kawasaki in Australia last month was disappointing.
The Hayate team will be led by engineer Ichiro Yoda, with Andrea Dosoli as team manager. They have begun testing with Melandri at Losail this evening, although the floodlit session has been interrupted by a rainstorm.
"This is an important test for us in order to assess our potential," Dosoli told the official MotoGP website.
"The chassis is completely new and so is the engine.
"The rain is not helping us early on, because we need to see exactly where we are as a team in normal conditions.
"It is important for us to have Marco on the bike as he is a talented rider who has great experience."
SourceCasey Stoner moved to the top of the timesheets on the second night of testing in Qatar, but stuck to short runs again as he continued to recover from wrist surgery.
After most of Sunday night's session was lost to a surprise rainstorm, the penultimate winter test got underway in earnest this evening in cool and dry conditions.
Reigning champion Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) led the way for the first half of the night before Stoner produced a 1:57.139 on his Ducati to beat the Italian by 0.6 seconds. But as had been the case in Malaysia last month, Stoner limited himself to around six laps at a time while building up strength in his wrist following last year's recurrent injury and subsequent operation.
The main incident of the night was the accident that ended Dani Pedrosa's participation in the test. The Honda rider hurt his left knee and hand - both of which had required surgery after crashes in 2008 - when he went off at Turn 10 four hours into the session.
Colin Edwards completed the top three in an impressive performance on the Tech 3 Yamaha, ahead of Pedrosa's teammate Andrea Dovizioso.
The two Suzukis were fifth and sixth, with Chris Vermeulen slightly quicker than Loris Capirossi despite a minor accident early on.
Pramac Ducati's Mika Kallio was the other rider to have a fall and was back in 16th, only beating Tech 3's James Toseland, who had himself crashed heavily in the previous test at Sepang.
Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) continued to struggle slightly with the transition to Bridgestone tyres in seventh place, while Sunday pace-setter Nicky Hayden fell to ninth for Ducati, behind Gresini Honda's Alex de Angelis.
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SourcePoor weather hindered Formula One testing once again this year, as rain hit the second day of work at the Jerez circuit.
The rain began to fall very early on and the asphalt was never dry enough to use slick tyres so teams were forced to make the best of the situation.
Timo Glock emerged as the quickest driver in the conditions, posting a best time of 1:30.979 after 89 laps of the Spanish track.
Glock took over from teammate Kamui Kobayashi at the wheel of the Toyota TF109, the German happy with his day's work despite the poor weather.
"It tends to be difficult to carry out meaningful testing when there is so much rain," said Glock. "The conditions made things tricky again today but at least it stayed consistently wet so we were able to go through some work on set-up and tyres.
"It also gave me a chance to get used to pushing the TF109 in these conditions and we put more mileage on the car. It felt good again, just like in Portugal last month, so I'm happy with the day."
BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica was second quickest as he worked on set-up options for the F1.09, his day being interrupted by a false electrical alarm that forced him to stop the car on track.
Williams's Nico Rosberg posted the third fastest time in the FW31, with Giancarlo Fisichella showing promising pace in the new Force India-Mercedes car, the Italian setting the fourth quickest time of the day despite covering just 54 laps.
Yesterday's pace-setter Sebastian Vettel had a more low-key session today in the Red Bull, finishing as fifth fastest ahead of Heikki Kovalainen in the McLaren.
Nelson Piquet was again slowest in the Renault, the Brazilian finishing over two seconds of Glock's pace.
"The wet weather today meant we had to change our programme and
simply worked on getting miles on the car and using the wet weather tyres," said Piquet.
"Because it continued raining throughout the day, the track conditions remained pretty consistent and so we were still able to learn some interesting things about the car."
The Ferrari team were also present at the track but decided not to run.
SourceRubens Barrichello will extend his record as the most experienced Formula One driver in history this year, autosport.com has learned, after agreeing a deal to race for the soon-to-be-renamed Honda Racing outfit.
Although it is understood that a final contract has not yet been signed, high level sources close to the Brackley-based team have confirmed that the veteran Brazilian has been given the nod to line up alongside Jenson Button in 2009.
The team are awaiting the final green light from the Honda Motor Company for the imminent management buyout led by Ross Brawn and Nick Fry, and only when that happens will the 2009 deals be finalised.
It is suggested that the situation could be fully resolved by the end of this week, with the team expected to conduct a shakedown of their 2009 challenger in Britain on Friday before joining next week's final group test session at Barcelona in Spain.
"We expect to be able to make an announcement from the company and the team in the near future," the Yomiuri daily quoted a source at the company's Japan headquarters as saying.
"Honda has been making all possible efforts to avoid the worst option of having to disband the team."
Barrichello has started 267 Grands Prix in a career that stretches back to the start of the 1993 season.
Speaking to autosport.com at the end of last year, Barrichello said he was fired up to remain at the Honda Racing despite the uncertainty that had surrounded the team since December.
"I have unfinished business in F1," he said during a visit to England before Christmas to let the team know how keen he was to remain with them. "I am sure I can finish higher up, if not winning the championship. I really believe that is what I deserve.
"It would be a shame not to use the services of someone so eager to do it, plus with all the experience and the speed. It is the right time - and it comes with the willingness to do well.
"If you sign someone with the speed but whose time is over, they will set up the car differently and badly. You are 80 percent of the time going through corners, and you set up the car different compared to someone who comes and wants to go flat out.
"For me, I am still taking it flat - and sometimes this year in qualifying you have that little pimple on your skin saying 'just remember you are not a boy any more' after the corner. So it is still there very much."
SourceBruno Senna says he is upset following the decision of the soon-to-be-renamed Honda team to choose to stick with Rubens Barrichello over him.
Senna, the nephew of three-time champion Ayrton, was the main favourite to land the second seat alongside Jenson Button if the team were saved.
However, the bosses of the former Honda team have decided to keep Barrichello for another season, leaving Senna with no F1 racing seat for 2009.
Senna said he will have to look elsewhere now, but he admits it will mean a step backwards for him if it's outside of Formula One.
The Brazilian admitted he was annoyed the talks with Honda had taken so long.
"I'm kind of resigned to trying something else. I had a meeting today (Monday) with Ross Brawn and he cancelled," Senna was quoted as saying by Brazil's Agencia Estadao.
"I'm just a little upset because this situation has dragged on for so long, making me lose better professional possibilities.
"Now I'm going to get together with my family, with my advisors, and decide what way to take.
"Anything that I may do will be step backwards. The important thing is to keep Formula One as the top priority. I will bounce back."
Barrichello, meanwhile, insisted nothing had been signed yet, but the veteran racer is hopeful that he will be in action at Barcelona next week.
"My faith says that next week I'll be driving a competitive car in the tests in Barcelona - although I have no document in my hands that assures me of that," he said.
"I've lived four months of waiting and I'm not going to celebrate before crossing the finish line."
SourceSebastian Vettel is remaining cautious about Red Bull Racing's chances for this year, despite continued impressive performances from his team in pre-season testing.
The German was comfortably clear of the opposition on the first day of this week's test at Jerez in Spain which, on the back of some quick performances in earlier running, has left some rivals convinced Red Bull Racing could be poised to spring a major surprise.
But Vettel insists he is keeping his feet on the ground - and has laughed off talk that Red Bull are on the verge of taking the fight to McLaren and Ferrari for title glory.
When asked if he felt ready to launch a championship challenge this year, Vettel said: "Ha! If you are speaking about that, then everything needs to be in perfect shape and running smoothly.
"We are not the favourites the favourites are red and silver they are Ferrari and McLaren-Mercedes. It is a long way to get to that position, but we are working hard. We have great potential, the car seems to be alright so let's see. If we have a package that is strong enough to win, then we have to win otherwise we are doing a bad job."
Vettel believes that it is dangerous to read too much into pre-season testing times and says the experience of Williams last year is evidence about how a good build-up to the year does not guarantee performance in-season.
"Williams were looking very, very strong (in pre-season testing) and in Australia they finished on the podium, and a couple of weeks later no one was speaking about them any more.
"So winter testing, you always have to keep your feet on the ground. There are a lot of things coming for everybody. There are new bits for Australia, so we have to wait until then."
Vettel did say, however, that Red Bull Racing were working hard on making further improvements to their car to lift their performance in readiness for the start of the season.
"The team is pushing very hard," he said. "The whole design crew is working hard and our car from the outside looks quite nice, but still we have to prove that it is fast as well.
"The feeling is alright, the performance seems to be alright, but we will see in Australia. We will get some new bits hopefully for Barcelona, if not for Australia, but how much of a step in the right direction that will mean we will wait and see. You always have some numbers but you have to prove it on the circuit."
SourceTimo Glock kept Toyota at the top of the times in testing at Jerez, showing that the Japanese squad's car is also fast in the dry.
Glock had been quickest in yesterday's rain-hit session, and the German showed impressive pace once again by topping the times with a best lap of 1:19.814.
He was the only driver to lap the Spanish circuit in less than 80 seconds.
"That was a productive day," said Glock. "This morning we were again a bit unlucky with the conditions, which made the race simulation quite tough. But it was useful to find out when to change to slick tyres and our pace wasn't bad.
"Then we got some dry running for the rest of the day. We did a lot of set-up work and late on we did some shorter runs to make it through the programme. We've made it through a lot of miles over these two days and we're making useful progress."
Felipe Massa returned to work after skipping yesterday's test, the Ferrari driver covering a massive 134 laps on his way to the second fastest time of the day, over four tenths of a second behind Glock.
Massa was joined by seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, who observed the session from the pit wall.
Renault's Fernando Alonso was the busiest man on track today, completing 152 laps onboard the R29, which moved away from the bottom of the times to finish in third position on the timesheets.
"Today was a very productive day as I managed to complete 152 laps which gave us lots of useful data," said the Spaniard. "At this stage of the season it's important to have as much time in the car as possible to get used to the new rules such as the moveable wings and the KERS system and so I'm happy to have done so much today.
"Everyday we keep learning new things and I'm feeling more and more comfortable in the car. Hopefully tomorrow we can have another dry day to build on the work we did today."
Heikki Kovalainen was again the man in charge of testing duties for McLaren, the Finn posting the fourth quickest time ahead of Adrian Sutil, who replaced Force India teammate Giancarlo Fisichella at the wheel of the new VJM02.
Sutil, who had completed the shakedown of the car last week, managed 63 laps and wound up less than a tenth of a second behind Kovalainen.
"I think today was a good day," said Sutil. "It was important to get into the car again and to get confident. The car was OK; there is definitely potential, and we were able to do more mileage and find some reliability in the afternoon.
"In the morning we had a little problem but we could fix it over lunch and start to do our programme. The tyres dominate a lot and the different compounds react differently: you have to find a good set up and get them to work and that is where we are concentrated now.
"We had some instability on the rear and oversteer, but we will see tomorrow. We are at least more reliable and can try and get some real mileage on the car now."
Australian Mark Webber was back in action with Red Bull as he continued working on getting fully fit for the start of the season. Webber finished in front of BMW Sauber's Robert Kubica, seventh fastest today.
"Overall it was a good day," Kubica said. "We were able to make up some of the time we lost yesterday when rain meant we had to change our schedule. I started on extreme wet tyres, changed to wet tyres and finally drove slick tyres.
"Together with the various different set-up solutions I tried that helped me get an even better feeling for the car."
Nico Rosberg was slowest for Williams, 1.5 seconds off the pace.
SourceCasey Stoner ended the Qatar test at the top of the timesheets, having dominated the final night at the Losail track.
The Ducati rider, who had also been quickest at Sepang last month, was 0.989 seconds clear of second-placed Jorge Lorenzo, whose Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi completed the top three.
Once again Stoner limited his mileage, focusing on short runs and only completing 31 laps as he continues to recover from his winter wrist surgery. He had a minor fall at Turn 2, but escaped without injury or significant bike damage.
Lorenzo's second place was an encouraging result after the Spaniard had previously struggled to get to grips with the now mandatory Bridgestone tyres. He was 0.239 seconds quicker than Rossi.
Chris Vermeulen and Loris Capirossi continued Suzuki's strong winter form in fourth and sixth places, despite a crash for Capirossi during the evening.
They were split by Nicky Hayden, who took a promising fifth place - albeit 1.5 seconds adrift of his Ducati teammate Stoner.
Pramac Ducati's Niccolo Canepa and Scot Honda's Yuki Takahashi were the other riders to fall during tonight's session, but both rookies were unharmed.
Only 16 riders took part in the final day, with Honda's Dani Pedrosa having flown back to Barcelona for further medical checks after aggravating knee and wrist injuries in a crash yesterday. Sete Gibernau (Onde Ducati) sat out the entire test due to a shoulder problem.
There is now a three-and-a-half week break before the final pre-season test at Jerez on 28-29 March, with the MotoGP season commencing back in Qatar on 12 April.
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SourceThe Monster Energy drinks company has signed a deal to sponsor the Tech3 Yamaha team of Herve Poncharal for the next two seasons.
The former Kawasaki backer was left in the lurch after the withdrawl of the green team in December, but will continue its involvement in MotoGP with the satelite Yamaha team.
For Poncheral's privateer team it is a welcome boost following recent years of limited budget, but podiums for Colin Edwards last season and a strong test so far for him in Qatar stand the paddock's most experienced team in good stead.
SourceFernando Alonso moved to the head of the times for Renault on day four of this week's Jerez test.
After a low-key start, the Renault R29 has shown increasing pace in recent tests, and Alonso underlined that improvement today by lapping in 1:19.945, 0.3 seconds quicker than his nearest rival, Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen.
"I'm very happy with the result from this test as we had two trouble-free days, a very consistent car and the work we have done has been very useful," said Alonso.
The weather again interrupted the test, with strong winds hampering teams' efforts to put mileage on their 2009 cars.
"The main problem throughout the day was the wind," said Jarno Trulli, who was fourth fastest for Toyota. "It was gusting and making it hard to make the comparisons we were looking for."
Nick Heidfeld completed the top three for BMW, followed by Trulli and Red Bull's Mark Webber.
World champion Lewis Hamilton took over the McLaren from teammate Heikki Kovalainen but was only seventh quickest, between Kazuki Nakajima (Williams) and Adrian Sutil (Force India). Hamilton also lost time during the morning when he had to stop while the team worked on his car's rear suspension.
Sutil was content with the new Force India, but had difficulty with the Bridgestone slicks.
"We tried the soft, supersoft and medium compounds," he said. "On the long runs they behaved quite differently and the biggest problem was with the graining. It happens very quickly, then gets worse and the grip never comes back.
"We are talking big differences in lap times - I have never had such a big graining issue, but I can see nearly everyone is struggling with a similar problem."
Force India and Renault are now heading back to their factories prior to next week's Barcelona test, but the other six teams are staying on at Jerez for a final day of running tomorrow.
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SourceDefending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson is not concerned about the slow start to his season, which has him ranked 19th in the points after three races.
Johnson was a front-runner last weekend at Las Vegas but some bad luck and a few mistakes on the track and pitroad led to his twenty-fourth place finish. He actually spun and hit the wall in the closing stages of the race after recovering from being a lap down earlier on.
"We didn't get the result that we wanted but we had a lot of speed in the car so I feel like (when) we have a mistake-free race, we're going to be in victory lane," Johnson said. "At California we had a lot of speed and a decent finish and then this last weekend we had such a good car, so I'm very optimistic.
"I hate that we're 19th in the points right now, but fortunately it's early in the year and we can move up the list pretty quick if we can just link together a couple of good races. I think Atlanta is a good track to get that started for us."
Last year Johnson didn't have the best start to his season either but he doesn't believe he is in the same situation this year. He reckons he has already shown the speed to win races but either mistakes or bad luck have prevented him from taking victory so far.
"Yes, last year we got off to a slow start but it was more of a panic situation than what we have right now because we didn't have the speed in the cars," Johnson said.
"This year it's different. We've got fast cars but just haven't linked together a solid four or 500 miles and taken advantage of the great cars that we've had.
"I feel like we're in a great position and there is so much racing between now and even when the Chase starts that anything can happen. It's only three races in. Guys are going to have bad luck and hopefully ours is behind us and we can climb up the points ladder here.
"I'm not worried. I'm not stressed. I'm really optimistic and excited about the next few races."
Despite his lack of results, Johnson has run at the front more than any other driver this season. The Californian has led 166 laps thus far, which equates to nearly a quarter of the race distance completed during the first three races of 2009.
SourceValentino Rossi has played down Casey Stoner's superiority in the Qatar night tests and believes he will be much closer to his main rival when they return to Losail for the season-opener in April.
Stoner topped both Monday and Tuesday night's floodlit tests, with world champion Rossi 1.2 seconds slower in third place yesterday evening.
But Rossi reckons he lost more pace than Stoner in the cool temperatures late in the session, which ran until midnight local time, and is confident that Yamaha can match Ducati in the race.
"In the early part of the evening we were fast enough but later on, when it became much colder and the grip went down, we suffered quite a bit," Rossi said.
"I started a long run but in fact I was getting slower and slower, so we didn't finish and concentrated on trying some different things with the setting instead.
"Our position is not so bad; we're third, close to (Jorge) Lorenzo. Stoner is very fast but I am not too worried because we have a good idea about our path for the race and I think that in one month, when it is hopefully a few degrees warmer, we will be okay."
But he admitted that he had relatively low expectations for Qatar, having struggled in last year's race - only qualifying seventh and finishing fifth.
"This is not a great track for me or for the bike and the target for the race will be to be to be better than last year," Rossi said.
"Next we go to Jerez for the final test and I am expecting to be strong there."
SourceJorge Lorenzo declared himself delighted with a performance breakthrough on the final night of testing in Qatar.
The Yamaha rider had been off the pace throughout winter testing having struggled to adapt his style to this year's Bridgestone control tyres.
But yesterday evening Lorenzo made large gains and ended the session in second place, ahead of his teammate Valentino Rossi.
"I am so happy tonight because this session has been much, much better for us," said Lorenzo.
"The long run was especially good but in fact the whole evening has been an improvement, so I am very pleased about the job we have done."
The Spaniard said his turnaround was mainly due to a change in style.
"We've tried some different settings, which have helped, but mainly I have adapted and found a way to be comfortable, which means I can ride faster," Lorenzo explained.
"I have a much better feeling with the Bridgestone tyres and I was able to be very consistent throughout the long run and keep a good rhythm. Everyone has worked really hard to make this step and I am happy to finish this test on a good note."
His team manager Daniele Romagnoli added: "We found a good setting that enabled Jorge to find the confidence to be faster into the corners and at the same time day by day he has improved his riding style on the Bridgestone tyres."
Lorenzo's teammate Rossi already has a year's experience on Bridgestones, having switched from Michelin at the end of 2007, while Lorenzo remained on the French tyres for what turned out to be Michelin's final season in MotoGP.
SourceDani Pedrosa is to undergo surgery in Barcelona this evening following his crash at Losail on Monday night.
The Honda rider had to abandon the second winter test after a violent high-side. Pedrosa's bike landed on him during the accident at Turn 10, causing further damage to the wrist he had broken in Germany last year, and the knee that had required winter surgery following a fall at Phillip Island.
Although medical checks at the circuit suggested that Pedrosa had not sustained any new broken bones, after flying back to Spain a further examination uncovered a fracture in his left radius bone.
A titanium screw will be inserted into this area during today's surgery, and he will also receive a small skin graft on his knee, where the previous surgery wound had reopened due to the Qatar incident.
After the accident Pedrosa and Honda were confident that he would be fit for the final test at Jerez on 28-29 March. Having pulled out of the final day at Sepang last month due to knee pain and sat out the weather-affected first night in Qatar, Pedrosa has only completed two and a half days of 2009 testing so far.
They should have a Chase to the Cup system, too. :lolDarkJediKnight said:
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Goldrusher said:
Uh...no ?DarkJediKnight said:
Nobody knows what is happening at Mclaren right now. They either have some serious issues with rear end or they are just screwing around with other teams and spectators. (Engine at 75% / sandbags). There is even some unconfirmed info, that most of their aero testing is done in simulators and we will see full car on last test.Goldrusher said:
h3ro said:
DrM said:
DrM said:
Leonsito said:
PEACE.
