Grand Prix of France: Andrea Dovizioso Ready For A ‘Full Attack’
May 17, 2008
Today on the circuit of Le Mans everyone was waiting for the bad weather to arrive but thankfully conditions were stable for the MotoGP qualifying session. JiR Team Scot after yesterday’s first day practice worked very hard moving towards tomorrow’s race and worked to find the proper solution of tyres to be used in the race. Technical upgrades this weekend have been helpful to improve the performance of the bike overall, but the fact remains that in qualifying configuration it is still necessary to make a big step forward. At the start of Sunday’s race Andrea will need to battle through from 10th position on the grid to be up with the leading group. However, this is something he has shown he can do in previous races.
Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager JiR Team Scot
“Between today and yesterday the team has done a very good job trying different configurations for the race, trying to find a pace that should help Andrea stay with the leaders and a pace that is even been better than on qualifying tyres. The good thing is that Andrea knows very well this racetrack and he likes it. I think to be honest Andrea is more of a ‘racing animal’ than a qualifying on, but obviously we realise the need to make a step forward on lap times for qualifying. ”
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA RC212V 10th: 1’33”. 689
“Obviously we were looking for a better qualifying result. First of all I particularly like this racetrack and in race configuration we have found some good options of tyres for both front and rear and tomorrow after the warm-up we will be in the condition to make the right choice according to the weather forecast and therefore the strategy that we will adopt. The choice will be in between looking for good handling and very good stability – two characteristics that normally don’t go very well together! We have gratefully received from Honda some new parts and this helps us to go forward. We are not yet getting the performance we want in qualifying and the result of this is that on race day I have to be very aggressive to join the leaders of the race. I hope tomorrow I will be competitive and up near the front of the race. ”
Gianni Berti – Technical Co-ordinator JiR Team Scot
“On evaluation of all both days in Le Mans, I do think that we can make a good fight and we will be up there with a number of riders who will be fighting for the lead of the race. We have good general balance of the bike, but of crucial importance will be the choice of the tyre combination, which we will decide after warm-up tomorrow morning. It will be a race in which it will be important to be determined and I’m sure Andrea will use at the maximum the technical package that he has. ”
