- Round: 3 - 2006 MotoGP Turkey
- Circuit: Istanbul
- Weather: Wet
- Circuit Length: 5378
- Lap Record: 1' 53.111 (Marco Melandri, 2005)
- Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 52.334 (Sete Gibernau, 2005)
- Temp: 12ºC
Local weather forecasts predicting heavy rain for today's qualifying session at the Grand Prix of Turkey were borne out today as an early downfall and intermittent afternoon showers thwarted the Camel Yamaha Team's hopes of improving their YZR-M1 machines ahead of tomorrow's 22-lap race. After struggling to find an ideal setting for the demanding Istanbul Park circuit in yesterday's free practices, both Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi had hoped to complete some dry laps before this afternoon's crucial grid decider but they were forced to splash their way through the puddles and battle hard for ninth and eleventh place respectively.
Edwards' cause wasn't helped by a heavy fall in the morning session, which left him nursing several bruised joints, whilst Rossi has yet to get comfortable with his bike in either wet or dry conditions. For the second successive race, pole position went to an Australian rookie as Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) showed impressive wet pace with a fastest lap of 2'04.617, holding off the challenge of yesterday's pacesetter Nicky Hayden (Honda) and Sete Gibernau (Ducati), who complete the front row.
Colin Edwards (9th - 2'07.334, 21 laps);
"I had a big highside this morning and came down heavily on my head, shoulders and knee. It was pretty painful but after two laps back on the bike you soon forget about that. To be honest I felt quite comfortable in the wet but if we want to be competitive in this race we have to find another two seconds from somewhere and I'm not quite sure where at the moment. Our tyre rivals seem to have an advantage but I also have to say 'hats off' to Nicky Hayden - I'm not sure how close he was to ending one of those laps on the floor but he showed that Michelin have a good wet tyre so we clearly need to find the performance from our own bike. Wet or dry we have to pull a result out from somewhere tomorrow, but after this afternoon's session I'm definitely keeping my fingers crossed for sunshine in the morning."
Valentino Rossi (11th - 2'07.552, 20 laps);
"We're having a lot of difficulty, not just at this track but during this period. Unfortunately the problem with the bike came late in the pre-season and we have not had time yet to fully understand it. It means we are off the pace here in the wet and the dry, but we don't completely understand why. It seems that our tyre competitor is strong here but we can't blame this. Nicky Hayden was very fast all day and after him the next Michelin rider is Casey Stoner; with the amount of MotoGP experience he has in these conditions we should be in front of him. I'm surprised, because last year our bike was really good in the wet and after the new bike worked so well at Catalunya during the rainy pre-season tests I was confident it would be good today as well, but it has been the opposite. I don't have enough confidence in the front to lean the bike over as much as I would like on the entry to the corners and not enough grip on the rear to make it up on the exit. If it's dry tomorrow then we have some things to try in the morning, but if the conditions are the same as today then it's going to be very hard for us."
Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director;
"We are clearly in a very difficult situation at the moment and we need to first understand our problems before we can work to improve them. The engineers are looking at the data as we speak and seeing if we can come up with something for tomorrow. Our team have shown in the past that they are capable of producing quick solutions and I have full confidence in them; somehow we have to find a better performance in the wet and in the dry conditions."
Rain causews frusrtation in qualifying for Tech 3 Yamaha Team;
The overcast skies and showers that greeted the Tech 3 Yamaha Team at the Istanbul Park circuit today caused many headaches as they searched for a suitable set-up in the miserable conditions at the undulating track. Rainwater pooled at various places on the track during today's sessions, making riding treacherous, but Carlos Checa and team mate James Ellison were determined to work through a variety of options in order to find the best race set-up.
Despite their hard work, the contrasting elements over the two days of practice and qualifying conspired to hamper their attempts for a satisfactory solution, and the pair could only manage 15th and 19th positions respectively for tomorrow's 22-lap race.
Carlos Checa (15th 2'10.322, 20 laps);
"The rain caused many problems for me and I can't say I'm very happy with my qualifying position. We had some settings for the dry to try today but the bad weather changed all of it. If the rain is still here tomorrow it will be important to get a good start to improve my position early. If we can do that and with the direction we are heading in, with our choice of tyres and set-up, we have a chance of a good result. This morning we seemed to have found a good direction in the very wet conditions and this afternoon wasn't so wet but we also made some more good progress, but as I said I am not really happy with the final result. We should remember that Dunlop haven't got very much experience with wet weather tyres on MotoGP bikes, but I think that no matter what the conditions are we have made positive improvements ahead of the race."
James Ellison (19th 2:12.298 19 laps);
"I would be lying if I said I was happy. With the amount of water on the track and the slower times it was impossible for the tyres to hold their heat on the straight so that made it very difficult when I wanted to start pushing hard into the corners. Dunlop is learning all the time and that is part of being with one of those teams that are developing tyres at the same time. With the feedback we are giving them, I'm confident that it will work well for us in the future considering the experience the other tyre manufacturers have in all conditions."
Herve Poncharal - Tech 3 Yamaha Team Director;
"It was a good chance to have a proper wet tyre test with many tyres to choose from and we proved to be quite competitive. We now have some useful information for Dunlop in our wet weather tyre development. I am confident that we will have a better result in the race than we have had in the dry and wet sessions of the last two days, because we know now which direction to go, even though we did not have enough time to test everything that we wished to."
Sete Gibernau, 3rd fastest, 2m 05.003;
"We're happy. I've not ridden the bike so much in the wet, so for now
we're doing better than we thought we would in these conditions. Ducati
and Bridgestone are doing an outstanding job and I'm very happy with
that. I was pushing hard today because it's important to know you can be
fast whether it's dry or wet. If you want to race for the championship
you have to be competitive no matter what. I think we proved today that
we can be up there in the rain as well as the dry."
Loris Capirossi, 4th fastest, 2m 05.540s;
"Fourth isn't bad at all. I found some traffic, so I wasn't as fast as
I'm sure I could have been, but the fact that I know I could've been
faster makes me feel good. The conditions were strange, this track isn't
too grippy in the dry but it's got good grip in the wet, though you have
to be careful not to touch the white lines. I hope it will rain for the
race because I've not had much time on a dry track and we still need to
work on our dry settings. A dry race would be more difficult for me.
Yesterday I was only four tenths from 'pole' but I feel comfortable in
the wet. We are competitive in all conditions which is good for the
championship. Today's qualifying session was nice and if it's the same
for the race I think there will be a few of us up front."
Toni Elias (2'07"763, 12th best time, 19 laps);
"They were two very
difficult sessions. In the morning I did not feel comfortable on the
bike, although things did get better in the afternoon, but not enough to
get me up into the top five. Despite my position, I think we improved a
lot in the afternoon which means I will go into the race in confident
mood."
Marco Melandri (2'08"393, 14th best time, 21 laps);
"I am a little
disappointed after my performance yesterday as I expected more.
The bike was working quite well but I could not find the rhythm I wanted
and tomorrow I will start from the fifth row.
In preparation of the race I spent a lot of the session trying different
rear tyre compounds and tomorrow we will decide according to the weather
conditions. The start tomorrow will be very important, but the truth is
the straight here is very short which makes overtaking difficult. It
will be an interesting race."
Randy de Puniet: 6th - 2'06.102;
"Today in the wet conditions I felt really comfortable on the bike. I didn't have so much confidence when we started this morning, but then we switched to a different wet tyre and the bike was transformed. I was able to get on the gas earlier out of the turns without having to worry about losing the rear, and that gives you a lot of confidence. Once I'd worked out how much grip was available this afternoon I just tried to push that little bit harder on every lap, but at no time did I feel like I was overriding the bike. I'm happy to qualify so far up the grid and whatever the conditions tomorrow, if I can put in a good warm-up session, then I'm confident of a good result in the race."
Shinya Nakano: 8th - 2'07.294;
"This morning was a nightmare to start off with; I just didn't feel comfortable on the bike in these conditions. But, after discussing the problem with my crew, I went back out and just tried to ride as smoothly as possible, and that solved the problem. This afternoon I actually enjoyed for the first time pushing as hard as I could in the wet, and I'm satisfied with my starting position. I think we have a good wet and dry set-up for this circuit, so it doesn't matter what the weather does tomorrow. Having said that, like most riders, I would prefer the race to be a dry one."
Makoto Tamada - KOonica Minolta, Honda Rider;
"My feeling with the bike on wet track conditions has improved during the official qualifying session.
We could try different solutions for the rear tyre but, with a completely wet track, the best solution has remained the one we closed this morning session with. Tomorrow, during the warm up, we would have to try to ameliorate the feeling with the rear tyre which is not sufficiently good in the long left corner at the beginning of the third sector."
Alex Hofmann #66 (2'11''241);
"At the beginning of the session, I had a fairly good feeling on the wet track with the first set of tyres, and I was quite optimistic. Then, at the end, I improved my best time with tyres that I didn't like, and that means that with the first ones I could have gone much faster. Unfortunately the practice was ending and we had no more time to change them, a real pity! These tyres also had a better constancy and this could be positive in case the race would be under the rain as well. For tomorrow, we will see, on wet or dry I will obviously do the maximum to obtain the best result as possible and get points for the third consecutive time".
Jose Luis Cardoso #30 (2'11''456);
"I Feel good under the rain but today the things didn't go very well. I had some difficulties in the exit of the corners, where you need to open the throttle, I didn't have enough adherence and that's why I didn't managed to get a good position on the grid. That's a pity. Tomorrow I will do my best, my Team is working very good and I would really like to obtain my first point of the season".
Qualifying Practice - Final Times;
- 1. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Team Suzuki MotoGP, 2'04.617
- 2. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team, +0.206
- 3. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team, +0.386
- 4. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team, +0.923
- 5. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP, +1.083
- 6. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team, +1.485
- 7. Casey Stoner (AUS) LCR Honda, +2.660
- 8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team, +2.677
- 9. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team, +2.727
- 10. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts, +2.728
- 11. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team, +2.935
- 12. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda, +3.146
- 13. Makoto Tamada (JPN) JIR Konica Minolta Honda, +3.526
