Valencia test – day one:
 

Valencia test – day one:

1. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team 1min 34.4 secs
2. Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna Honda 1min 34.8 secs
3. John Hopkins USA Team Suzuki MotoGP 1min 35.03 secs
4. Casey Stoner AUS Honda Pons 1min 35.04 secs
5. Carlos Checa ITA Honda Pons 1min 35.12 secs
6. Sete Gibernau SPA Ducati Marlboro Team 1min 35.2 secs
7. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 1min 35.5 secs
8. Toni Elias SPA Fortuna Honda 1min 35.7 secs
9. James Ellison GBR D'Antin Ducati Pramac 1min 35.7 secs
10. Nobuatsu Aoki JPN Team Suzuki MotoGP 1min 35.71 secs
11. Roberto Rolfo ITA D'Antin Ducati Pramac 1min 35.73 secs
12. Olivier Jacque FRA Kawasaki Racing Team 1min 35.86 secs
13. Chris Vermulen AUS Team Suzuki MotoGP 1min 36.28 secs
14. Randy de Puniet FRA Kawasaki Racing Team 1min 36.6 secs
15. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 1min 36.8 secs
16. Max Neukirchner GER Honda 1min 37.49 secs*
17. Andrea Dovizioso ITA Honda 1min 39.5 secs
18. Thomas Luthi SWI Honda 1min 44.29 secs

Wow - good to see you young guns high up the board :o

Shame Vermuelen is so low down though...

Stoner ahead of new Honda golden boy Pedrosa! Casey is just over half a second off Melandri! That's bloody good going that!

Great to see Ellison in the top ten. It does put Vermeulen's times in perspective, though.

And, Gibernau is right up there as well. Let's hope his luck improves for next season. I am not particularly fond of the guy either, but I don't really see the point of all this Gibernau bashing.

Casey......Excellent
Sete........As quick as ever, just needs to be able to do it every race throughout a season
Dani.........Very impressive on what to him is a very big motorcycle
James......Fantastic, onwards and upwards
Loris........Take a Holiday and come back fighting fit

looks like James will be showing his true talent next year if he keeps going like that :)

James is going great guns, but Stoner is the one for me very impressive for his first GP experience

when did checa become Italian ?
:lol:

What impresses me is, that if you look at the spread of times, there are all the new boys on bikes that are totally new to them mixing it up within a second or so of of Hayden...who's been riding his bike for a while now and was enjoying a run of form towards the end of the season

What will be more interesting, will be who can stay on the pace when it really hots up - Sete's pole lap for the GP was 1:31.8 and they were doing 1:33 race laps.

On the ducati web site, sete is quoted as saying "I will have to change my style a bit!"

Hes not kidding!:lol::lol:

The times are really just "for indication only" - next year will be the real test!!!

Yep, great to see some of the new boys up there, but let's not forget, it's a testing session.

Most, if not all the teams will be testing new parts and new set ups etc which in no way resembles the final outcome, therefore the times don't mean much, unless you're on your race set up or someone is beating lap records, then you can take notice.

In a business where a difference of one tenth a lap will mean you are not on the same bit of track by the end of a race, some of the differences above would result in people being lapped quite easily, so I'm not sure what you can read into these test session times. It's all about what you do on Sunday, witness Sete, how many poles and fastest laps does he do and what does he do in the race. He actually went up in my estimation at the weekend - he said he knows he's fast, faster than most, (nice confidence and belief), but he also said he'd made mistakes and had more than his share of bad luck. Ok he winges a bit, but at least he has a ride this year, unlike Baggers.

I really hope someone can take it to Rossi next year, but I have to say, he's looking like a pretty safe bet for the championship and the rest of them are about who's going to come second.

WeeJohnyB

1. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team 1min 34.4 secs
18. Thomas Luthi SWI Honda 1min 44.29 secs

The interesting thing about the above is Thomas is riding a 125! he's 10 seconds a lap slower than Nicky, but with 200bhp less power.................been saying he's one to watch for over 3 years, now he's 125 champion watch him go! ;)

John

John, that's what I thought at first, but everyone on that list was riding RCV's. Honda granted all its top rider some seat time on the RCV, including Luthi, Davizioso, and Neukirchner.

Felix is right, Luthi was on the RCV.

WJB/Steve M make soem excellent points as well. The times are below what they were running in the race etc so it just shows that it was a testing session. Having said that I'm quite impressed by Casey Stoner but I've always rated him (of course ;) )

We won't really have a good indication until the proper IRTA tests next year, and even then there will be some sandbagging. I mean just look at fil2 in MotoDD - sandbagging everywhere ;) The dog!

:lol:

I think you'll find that they had showers and damp patches thats why the times are slower.

The track didn't fully dry out.

I'm sure everyone was trying their hardest ;)