MotoGP: Yamaha duo make significant progress at Sachsenring - July 30th 2005

2. Round: 10 - German MotoGP
3. Circuit: Sachsenring
4. Weather: Dry
5. Circuit: Sachsenring
6. Circuit Length: 3671
7. Lap Record: 1' 24.056 (Alex Barros, 2004)
8. Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 22.756 (Max Biaggi, 2004)
9. Temp: 24ºC

Gauloises Yamaha riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards recovered from a difficult first day at the Sachsenring to improve their positions today, qualifying on the second and third row respectively for tomorrow's German Grand Prix. Rossi in particular made impressive progress after struggling to the thirteenth fastest time yesterday, mounting a strong challenge this afternoon in an entertaining battle for pole position that was eventually won by Nicky Hayden (Honda).

Whilst Sete Gibernau and Alex Barros (both Honda) join Hayden on the front row, Rossi ended the session only 0.188 seconds off the day's best time and the Italian was satisfied both with the steps taken with the set-up of his YZR-M1 machine and with a fourth-place start on the grid. Edwards also made encouraging progress, although he was unable to find the perfect compromise setting for the track, which places drastically diverse demands on the machine throughout the contrasting fast and slow sections. The American eventually qualified seventh fastest and will head the third row of the grid tomorrow.

Valentino Rossi (Gauloises Yamaha Team), 4th - 1'22.973;

"I'm much happier today - the team have done a great job to get the bike working well here because it is such a peculiar circuit. Yesterday we lost our direction a little bit but today we made a lot of progress. In the morning we were able to sort out the problems we had on the front end and in the afternoon we made a big step forward on the rear, even with the race tyre. I made a mistake in the final corner on my fast lap that probably cost me a tenth but I am still only 0.188 seconds from the pole. Considering where we were yesterday, I am happy with that. Tomorrow will be a very hard race because there are four or five riders who have the pace to run at the front, but we've done a good job today and I think we can be there with them."

Colin Edwards (Gauloises Yamaha Team), 7th - 1'23.139;

"We made some progress today but it is still a struggle! This morning I put on a qualifier in the free practice just to test it out and only then was I able to set a fast lap. I'm losing three tenths of a second in the third section, which we just can't seem to work out. Three tenths is a lot over a whole lap, especially here, but to lose it in one split is hard to swallow. To be honest though, things were so bad yesterday that if you'd have told me I'd be seventh fastest today and starting from the front of the third row, I wouldn't have been too upset. We know exactly where the problem is and the team are doing everything they can to fix it. We've just got to work extremely hard in the warm-up tomorrow to try to come up with a solution."

Nicky Hayden, 1st;

"That's not a bad way to celebrate your birthday but tomorrow's when it all counts. If we can put it all together in the race we'll really earn some cake! It feels really good to get pole here. Laguna was cool as it was my first pole and of course it was at home but I'm sure there were people around who said that I only got pole because I knew the place so well. It's good to come here and go fastest against a whole bunch of guys who know this place a whole lot better than I do. The bike feels pretty good for the race. My boys have done a real good job. I'm definitely going to try and stay up front all day. We'll just go for it and see what happens."

Session 1:

10. 1. N. Hayden, Honda - 1' 22.785
11. 2. S. Gibernau, Honda - 1' 22.889
12. 3. A. Barros, Honda - 1' 22.932
13. 4. V. Rossi, Yamaha - 1' 22.973
14. 5. M. Melandri, Honda - 1' 23.051
15. 6. M. Biaggi, Honda - 1' 23.054
16. 7. C. Edwards, Yamaha - 1' 23.139
17. 8. L. Capirossi, Ducati - 1' 23.174
18. 9. K. Roberts, Suzuki - 1' 23.212
19. 10. J. Hopkins, Suzuki - 1' 23.296
20. 11. C. Checa, Ducati - 1' 23.341
21. 12. S. Nakano, Kawasaki - 1' 23.382
22. 13. A. Hofman, Kawasaki - 1' 23.405
23. 14. O. Jacque, Kawasaki - 1' 23.715
24. 15. M. Tamada, Honda - 1' 23.860
25. 16. T. Bayliss, Honda - 1' 23.916
26. 17. T. Elias, Yamaha - 1' 24.421
27. 18. R. Xaus, Yamaha - 1' 24.605