Marco Simoncelli carried his preseason form into the first official session of the MotoGP World Championship this afternoon in the surreal surroundings of the Losail circuit. The Team San Carlo Honda Gresini rider was fast and consistent and worked intensely throughout a satisfactory 45 minutes to find an improved set-up for his machine. It was a positive evening for Hiroshi Aoyama even though he was further down the time sheets, the Japanese rider clearly working on the right lines with his team and set-up, which will hopefully lead them to a better position tomorrow.
Marco Simoncelli (4th 1’ 56” 441 ) “I am really happy because it is always difficult during testing to know exactly where you are but that changes when things get serious and we are able to make more a concrete analysis. I am satisfied because we struggled to get the hard tyre working during the tests but we found something tonight. It may be that the conditions are slightly different but it is an important step towards making our choice for the race. We managed to make two changes to the set-up that improved things further and now it is just a case of confirming what we already know and getting ready for Sunday. In general I am feeling confident.”
Click Here to Read More
MotoGP: Casey Stoner Fastest in First Practice at Qatar
Hiroshi Aoyama (12th 1’’ 56” 987) ”This was the first session of the season so I was keen to do well. We started work on finding the best set-up for Sunday and the best feeling with the bike, working from what we learned in testing. We also tried to get closer to a decision on what tyre to use for the race. The conditions are better than they were in testing and tomorrow we will try to improve on today’s position, which is actually not that important because our focus for the day was not specifically on the lap time.”
Fausto Gresini “Overall it has been a positive first session with Marco Simoncelli running really well, so I am happy. The lap times are good and apart from Stoner everybody is separated by just a few tenths. He tried two different settings and was strong on both but he has a preference so with a few more little modifications we will be ready for the race. Hiroshi Aoyama didn’t have a bad session either – definitely better than his position suggests – so I am sure he can also have a good start to the season. We are confident and over the next two days we will be working to improve further but for now we are happy and that is very important.”
| 
|