MotoGP Qatar 2008

[Wim_Impreza]

I am afraid we have a very dominating Stoner in the race. For the second place, it could be interesting... I except again 'a Stoner year'.

The Kawasaki's are slow until now, as WSBK and WSS showed too...

Only 18 riders, that is not good.

[Roby44]

07 Mar 2008
STATING THE OBVIOUS!
One of the problems encountered during the recent IRTA test in Qatar was identifying the bikes as they exited the final turn onto the main straight.
While it was possible to identify the distinctive exhaust note of Kawasaki's Ninja ZX-RR as it accelerated through the gears, the mechanics stood on the pit wall waiting to show the pit board weren't able to identify exactly which Kawasaki rider was approaching until they were less than 100 metres away.
The solution was to position a large fluorescent sticker on the front of the fairing - orange for John Hopkins and yellow for Anthony West - to aid identification. This temporary measure worked well during the test, so it was adapted slightly for this weekend's floodlit racing.
Instead of a plain identifying rectangle on the front of the fairing, the Kawasaki mechanics have prepared Japanese characters in the appropriate fluorescent colours, which can be seen as soon as the bikes exit the final turn.
But what do these strange Japanese characters say? Speculation as to the meaning has been rife in the paddock since the stickers were applied to the bikes on Thursday afternoon.
Most people seem to think it means 'Ninja', or even 'Lime Green'. Some are convinced it means something deep and meaningful in Japanese, while others are sure that it relates to the riders in some way.
One man who knows exactly what he characters represent is Kawasaki's communications manager, Ian Wheeler.
"They have a deep philosophical meaning," declared Wheeler. "Okay, I admit it, that's not exactly true. We did think about using something abstract, but we were in a bit of a rush to get the stickers produced in the short time available, so in the end we settled on something simple."
So what does it mean?
"It means 'front' in Japanese," explains Wheeler. "Like I said, not exactly deep and meaningful, but it's definitely relevant and, more importantly, it works."

[Roby44]

08 Mar 2008
SLIPPERY START FOR KAWASAKI IN QATAR
The first weekend of the 2008 MotoGP World Championship kicked off this evening, under lights. The Qatar round is taking place at night and the premier class field took to the track at 19:00 hours and then again at 22:55 hours, local time, for the first two practice sessions.
As during the IRTA test here last week, the track temperature plummeted as soon as the sun went down ahead of the first free practice session, despite the 5.4 million watts of lighting used to illuminate the track. By the time this evening's second free practice session started the track temperature had dropped to just 14˚C, and many riders were commenting that rear grip had become difficult to predict.
This was certainly true for Kawasaki's John Hopkins, as he worked his way through a number of rear tyre options in a bid to identify a tyre that could cope with the cold conditions should they remain for Sunday's 22-lap race. The 24-year-old Anglo-American rejected a number of rear slick options, before finding a combination of tyre and suspension settings that appeared to improve both the level and the consistency of the grip.
Although disappointed not to finish higher up the timesheet on the opening day of the first round of 2008, Hopkins remains confident that tomorrow will see him move closer to tonight's leader, reigning world champion, Casey Stoner.
Anthony West, meanwhile, managed to improve his times over the course of the evening's practices and put in his best time on his final lap of the second session. It was possible for the 26-year-old Australian to have finished higher up the leaderboard but for a crash on what would have been his fastest lap of the day.
Heading into the left hand turn two, West touched the throttle to help turn the bike into the corner, at which point the rear came round on him and he went over the high side. He banged his head in the crash but is otherwise uninjured.
Both Kawasaki riders, like many of their rivals, are hoping for higher night time temperatures for tomorrow's qualifying practice and, ultimately, Sunday's race.



John Hopkins: #21: 14th – 34 laps – 1'57.085
"Tonight we went out on track with the aim of finding the best tyre solution and unfortunately we ran into some minor technical issues in the later session. This meant we weren't able to put together a solid run to improve our lap time. I'm disappointed with tonight's overall result, as I know that we are capable of so much more. We have to find a tyre combination with good grip to suit these chilly conditions and although we've got our work cut out, I'm confident that we'll be much higher in the standings tomorrow."

Anthony West: #13: 17th – 33 laps – 1'57.934
"The track is quite dusty tonight and we've found it quite difficult to make the tyres work in the cold conditions. In the first session the feeling from the machine wasn't great but we made some big improvements in the second practice and I started to feel quite confident. Rear grip is the main issue, particularly on the left side of the tyre as the track is predominantly right-handed. I was trying to make one of the tyres work harder and although I had a few warnings about loss of traction, I still got caught out and managed to suffer my first high side aboard the Kawasaki. I was chasing a better lap time and crashed at turn two, which was really frustrating. I'm ok though and I am sure we can resolve some of the issues we've had during tomorrow's sessions."

Naoya Kaneko: Kawasaki Technical Manager
"We lost a lot of time during the second session as we had a mechanical problem with John's machine. This meant we didn't get as much time out on track as we would've liked. We have had a few obstacles to overcome whilst trying to find a suitable rear tyre and our main goal has been to bring everything together to find a good package to race with. Anthony was making big improvements on his pace throughout the second session but unfortunately he crashed. The main issue is to provide the riders with better grip, which is a combination of the machine and the tyres, along with solving the shifter problem that John encountered. We will now analyse the data from tonight and make the necessary changes so we can be further up the field tomorrow."

Practice Times:
1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'55.442; 2. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha +0.011; 3. James Toseland (GBR) Yamaha Tech 3 +0.370; 4. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha Tech 3 +0.500; 5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JIR Team Scott +0.521; 6. Alex De Angelis (RSM) Honda Gresini +0.678; 7. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Honda LCR +0.792; 8. Valentino Rossi (46) Fiat Yamaha +0.827; 9. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +0.837; 10. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +1.036; 14. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.643; 17. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +2.492

[Roby44]

[img]http://www.kawasaki-motogp.com/image...08AHOPP008.jpg[/img]

[maxu05]

Thanks for the update Roby Looks like the Kwaka's will struggle this time out. Perhaps they will get it together in warmer weather.

[fatman]

Excellent qualifying. All Yamaha front row and no Rossi in site. Should make for an interesting start to the year. Really impressive to see Tosland hold the lead for so long. I think we'll see Stoner blast through from the second row.

Stoner must be pissed at whoever it was on the Alice bike for trashing his fast lap attempt. I think it was Elias. Retarded because you see him look behind him and Stoner is clearly coming up fast yet he does nothing to get out of the way and looks surprised when Stoner gives him a dirty look.

[osg]

Astonishing stuff from Lorenzo in particular and very smart strategy by Toseland to set an early time on quali rubber whilst the track still had temp in it........... not real happy with Vale back there, but lets wait until the race.

Times:

[Ranger]

Great effort by Jorge and James... who'da though Tech 3 would have had both bikes on the front row at this point last year? Stunning. Looks like Valentino made a very bad decision with the Bridgestones. He'll have to reassess what he really wants in MotoGP after seeing the consequences of that choice! sheesh...

Oh, and Marco and Ant better be thinking about their next contracts at this rate! Appalling effort.

Bring on the race!

[tha_jackal]

Uh, i don't have any excuses to offer for Westy :S
It's very dissapointing that Ant hasn't progressed after showing a fair amount of promise in his half a season last year.. Im sure you don't have to tell him that either..

If Westy's results don't improve drastically (at least to a comparable level to Hopkins) during/after Qatar, then I have to say that him getting the boot by before mid-year is likely, as much as that sucks..

P.S Goo JT and Bradley Smith, The Brits are coming on strong ey..

Can't wait for the race!!

Peace!

[patnicholls]

Well, that was the best set of quali sessions from a Brit point of view in...many years. Certainly since I've been watching (year 2000).

In fact, Bradley's pole is the first 125 Brit pole in 36 years. Danny Webb in fifth - excellent. Scott Redding - on his debut - in fourth, the youngest ever rider to get on the front row of a race. Absolutely brilliant. Especially when he's on my fantasy league team!

And JT in second (although I've not picked him this time). Can't believe I ever doubted he'd do well!

Wow!