Temperatures of 26ºC and low winds at Phillip Island today gave the Camel Honda team riders the opportunity to complete a major part of their preseason testing programme. Troy Bayliss was in calm, concentrated and determined mood as he continued to improve his relationship with the RC211V step by step. At Phillip Island, a track which he likes and which today welcomed a large section of his fans, Troy is working on a base setting which will allow him to approach the season in the best possible way. Alex Barros today did a lot of work on the front fork settings and, although his rhythm on used tyres is improving, he is still not completely satisfied with the front end performance of his bike. The team are already preparing a different fork for him to try tomorrow. Alex also reacted to the breaking news that the Brazilian GP, his home race, has been cancelled.
Ramon Forcada - Camel Honda - (Alex Barros' Chief Engineer)
"Today we tried every setting possible with the front fork but given that we haven't taken many steps forward with it we are already preparing a new one for Alex to try tomorrow. This track is different to Sepang, there are no heavy braking areas, so we have to prepare a special fork which adapts to Phillip Island and other circuits with flowing corners like this. It's good that we have the chance to work like this now because we will be ready when we come up against a similar situation at a Grand Prix, when you don't have much time".
Alex Barros - Camel Honda - 1'30.68 (93 laps) 8th fastest
"This morning we worked on the electronics and we were able to improve the odd thing. Since then we've been working on improving grip on the front end but we're not succeeding at the moment, even after trying a lot of things with the forks and the geometry of the bike. The rear of the bike is fine but at the moment the front is preventing me from being as efficient as I could be. I'm having to lean too far over to take the corner and that means I'm not getting the most out of the tyre. Obviously we'll keep working on that tomorrow. As far as the cancellation of the Rio GP is concerned, obviously I'm disappointed. It is the second time this has happened (the first was in 1998) but this is even more disappointing because it was probably going to be the last Grand Prix at this track. The city prefecture is actually planning to demolish part of the track and reduce the overall length to 3,100 metres. That means it would only have been used for national races".
Santiago Mulero - Camel Honda (Troy Bayliss' Chief Engineer)
"Troy is getting the measure of the RC211V. We've still got work to do, there's no doubt about that, but we are all much more satisfied at the end of today. We have worked well with the tyres and we have found a setting for the cycle part of the bike that he likes quite a lot. Tomorrow we'll keep working on it and we'll also try some new settings in the electronics."
Troy Bayliss - Camel Honda - 1'30.96 (75 laps) 10th fastest
"Better... things are starting to get better. I'm still not perfectly comfortable on the bike but we're getting there. The whole team, myself included, are working really hard and even though we're not satisfied with the lap times we can see that we're making progress and that gives me confidence for tomorrow and the next tests. We're working hard with the guys from Michelin, the tyres are perfect and together with the set-up of the bike, which we are defining bit by bit, we're able to make progress in the right direction. We have to keep going like this.
Unofficial lap times;
- 1. Gibernau (Honda) - 1'29.85;
- 2. Checa (Ducati) - 1'29.94;
- 3. Biaggi (Honda) - 1'29.97;
- 4. Rossi (Yamaha) - 1'30.23;
- 5. Hayden (Honda) - 1'30.44;
- 6. Capirossi (Ducati) - 1'30.51;
- 7. Edwards (Yamaha) - 1'30.57;
- 8. Barros (Camel Honda) - 1'30.68;
- 9. Melandri (Honda) - 1'30.95;
- 10. Bayliss (Honda) - 1'30.96;
- 11. Roberts (Suzuki) - 1'30.98;
- 12. Xaus (Ducati) - 1'31.49;
- 13. Hopkins (Suzuki) - 1'31.65;
- 14. Elias (Ducati) - 1'32.87
