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Rossi forced to retire in Misano |
Edwards ninth and Rossi forced to
retire as bad luck strikes in Misano
Colin Edwards
Valentino Rossi's hopes of a glorious homecoming to Misano ended after
just five
laps today, when an engine problem forced the Fiat Yamaha Team rider to
retire
when running strongly in fourth position. Rossi's team-mate Colin
Edwards
meanwhile struggled with rear grip in the later stages and was only able
to bring
his YZR-M1 home in his starting position of ninth.
With thousands of passionate Italian fans looking on, Rossi started the
San Marino
Grand Prix from second on the grid with high hopes of an exciting podium
battle
with chief rival and pole-sitter Casey Stoner. He dropped one place at
the start
and another a few turns later as first John Hopkins and then Chris
Vermeulen came
through, but never got the chance to fight back as he lost power in his
engine on
lap five of 28 and was forced to coast home to the pits. Edwards got a
good start
and rose to sixth at one point, but a lack of grip on the left side of
his rear
tyre meant he was unable to make any further headway through the field,
eventually
slipping to ninth behind Anthony West.
With Stoner the eventual winner, today's result sees Rossi's dream of a
late-season championship revival slip further away as he now sits 85
points adrift
in second, with a possible 125 points left available from five races.
Edwards
remains seventh with 100 points. The Fiat Yamaha Team will have a
one-day test
here tomorrow, before heading to Portugal in ten days time for round
fourteen.
Colin Edwards - Position: 9thTime: +47.146
"I got a good start and managed to miss the big melee with Hayden and de
Puniet.
Then Checa almost took me out a couple of times and the second time I
had to run
wide and West and a couple of others came through. Once I'd got sorted
again I had
my work cut out getting back by West, but then I just got my head down
and got
going. Unfortunately however, the left-hand side of my tyre then started
to give
me trouble and I had no grip from then on. There are a lot of quick
changes of
direction here, turns one-two and four-five for example, and every time
I had to
flick it left it felt pretty scary. I had to adjust my pace accordingly
and from
there on in it was just survival and looking to salvage what points I
could. It
wasn't fun out there today to be honest!"
Valentino Rossi
Valentino Rossi - Position: DNFTime:
"At the start I felt I was lacking some temperature in my tyres and so I
slipped
back a little from my starting position. However apart from this I felt
quite
good, stable, with a good rhythm and confident that things would
continue to
improve as the temperature in my tyres increased. However on lap five,
when I was
braking hard, I suddenly felt something go and that was the end of my
race. The
engine was the same one that I used at the Brno test and also here in
practice and
it felt quite good; we don't yet know what the problem was today so we
will have
to wait until our engineers have had time to examine the situation.
"It would have been great, and very useful, to have a good result here in
Misano
today. I like the track a lot and I really wanted to do well in front of
all the
fans; it was a great emotion for me to see so many people in yellow.
Unfortunately
this wasn't the case today and now we know that the championship will be
very,
very difficult. Breaking down after just a few laps is frustrating and
unlucky,
especially because today we had good expectations and we had been fast
during
practice. But when bad things like this happen you have only two
choices; give up
or come straight back and start working again even harder than before.
This is
what we will do at Yamaha; me, my team, the engineers - everyone
involved. We
still have five races left and we will keep trying to get the result we
deserve.
Once again Stoner deserved to win today, so well done to him. We have a
lot of
work to do before Estoril."
Davide Brivio - Team Director
"We used the new engine today and unfortunately something went wrong. We
don't
know yet exactly what, we won't be able to tell until our engineers have
had a lot
more time to look at it. It might not have been anything to do with the
new
technology, we need to check but this can happen and this is racing.
It's just
very disappointing for everyone and especially all the thousands of fans
who came
today to cheer Valentino on. Colin had some rear grip issues and he
tried his best
but unfortunately he too was not able to get the result he deserved. We
have to
look forward to Estoril now and keep working; we know that all the
Yamaha
engineers are very busy trying to improve our situation and we have
confidence in
them. Thanks to everyone for their hard work; we know we are capable of
winning
and so we will just keep trying."
Misano disapointing for Dunlop Yamaha Tech3
After an absence of 14 years Grand Prix racing returned to the re-vamped
Misano
circuit where Dunlop was victorious in the last premier 500cc class race
to be
held at the circuit with Luca Cadalora on the Marlboro Yamaha. History
was not to
be repeated for the Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team as Sylvain Guintoli and
Makoto
Tamada finished in 12th and 14th positions respectively.
The weekend had a silver lining however as Sylvain repeated his
qualifying
performance of the previous race in Brno to start from 11th on the grid.
With the first day of practice a washout when the circuit was flooded by
devastating
rains that caused the abandonment of the day, this ensured that with
limited track
time, set-up and tyre selection would play an even more important role
than usual.
Due to a first corner incident that eliminated Dani Pedrosa, Nicky
Hayden and Randy
De Puniet and then the unfortunate retirement of Valentino Rossi the
race was not
the spectacle we have come to expect of the MotoGP class.
Sylvain Guintoli
Sylvain Guintoli (12th - Fastest lap 1'36.560)
This race was similar to Brno as I think we proved we have a good
qualifying
package but we expected to struggle during the race because we couldn't
find a
rear tyre with good enough grip and endurance.
The race was ok. The start was good and the first 12 laps I had a good
battle with
Nakano and we caught the group in front but after 12 laps the rear grip
level
started to drop away and I lost touch with the group. The second half of
the race
was not so much fun. I had a 12 second lead over the riders behind me
and I just
carried on with a fast enough rhythm so I could not be caught.
One thing I am happy with is how much I am learning every time I ride
the bike and
what is needed in qualifying to get a good lap.
I hope we can find something for Portugal so that we can fight for the
entire race.
Makoto Tamada
Makoto Tamada (14th - Fastest lap 1'36.645)
The race wasn't so good for me. I had a good feeling for the first 12
laps and was
able to keep a pretty good pace but then I had trouble with the rear.
The
performance stayed the same for a few laps but towards the end it
dropped off
again so all I could hope to do was ride the bike to make sure I
finished.
It's been a hard season so I hope we find something for the last races
so that I may
be able to battle with a few riders for the whole race and not just wait
for
something to happen.
Herve Poncharal - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 Team Manager
Firstly I would like to apologise to all the fans that turned up as after
the
incident on the first lap and with Valentino retiring so early in the
race it
wasn't much of a spectacle when so much was expected of this race on its
return to
Misano.
As for our weekend, this has been another race that has not gone the way
we wanted.
We have a good qualifying package but we are missing something in the
race. We
couldn't find a tyre that we were confident that would last us the
entire race so we
set everything up the best we could.
Hopefully we can find some improvement in the race package to compliment
the good
work we do in qualifying and all the hard work the team is putting in
trying to get
the results we desire.
Circuit Length: 4060
Weather: Dry
2007 MotoGP San Marino & Riviera di Rimini - Misano 02/09/2007
Race 1
Pos.
Rider
Manu.
Nat.
Total Time
1
Casey Stoner
Ducati
AUS
44'34.720
2
Chris Vermeulen
Suzuki
AUS
0'4.851
3
John Hopkins
Suzuki
USA
0'16.002
4
Marco Melandri
Honda
ITA
0'22.737
5
Loris Capirossi
Ducati
ITA
0'24.787
6
Carlos Checa
Honda
ESP
0'34.986
7
Toni Elias
Honda
ESP
0'40.896
8
Anthony West
Kawasaki
AUS
0'41.774
9
Colin Edwards
Yamaha
USA
0'47.146
10
Shinya Nakano
Honda
JPN
0'48.808
11
Alex Hofmann
Ducati
GER
0'49.299
12
Sylvain Guintoli
Yamaha
FRA
1'9.176
13
Nicky Hayden
Honda
USA
1'20.424
14
Makoto Tamada
Yamaha
JPN
1'34.223
15
Kurtis Roberts
KR212V
USA
-1 Laps
Best Lap
Rider
Manu.
Nat.
Total Time
Casey Stoner
Ducati
AUS
1'34.649
Rider Standings
02/09/2007
Pos.
Rider
Manu.
Nat.
Points
1.Casey StonerDucatiAUS2712.Valentino RossiYamahaITA1863.Daniel
PedrosaHondaESP1684.Chris VermeulenSuzukiAUS1445.John
HopkinsSuzukiUSA1406.Marco MelandriHondaITA1267.Colin
EdwardsYamahaUSA1008.Loris CapirossiDucatiITA989.Nicky
HaydenHondaUSA9210.Alex BarrosDucatiBRA8311.Alex
HofmannDucatiGER6512.Toni EliasHondaESP6313.Randy De
PunietKawasakiFRA5814.Carlos ChecaHondaESP4515.Anthony
WestKawasakiAUS4117.Makoto TamadaYamahaJPN33
Team Standings
02/09/2007
Pos.
Team
Points
1.Ducati Marlboro Team3692.FIAT Yamaha Team2863.Rizla
Suzuki2844.Repsol Honda Team2605.Honda
Gresini1956.Pramac D'Antin1487.Kawasaki Racing
Team1088.Tech3 Yamaha619.Honda LCR4510.Konica Minolta
Honda3711.Team Roberts1412.none6
Manufacturer Standings
02/09/2007
Pos.
Manufacturer
Points
1.Ducati2832.Honda2193.Yamaha2134.Suzuki1915.Kawasaki906.KR212V14
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