Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Final MotoGP Qualifying Results:
1. Daijiro Kato, Honda RC211V, 1:49.052
2. Max Biaggi, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:49.162
3. Loris Capirossi, Honda NSR500, 1:49.169
4. Carlos Checa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:49.224
5. Alex Barros, Honda RC211V, 1:49.492
6. Valentino Rossi, Honda RC211V, 1:49.530
7. Tohru Ukawa, Honda RC211V, 1:49.755
8. Kenny Roberts, Suzuki GSV-R, 1:49.859
9. Olivier Jacque, Yamaha YZR500, 1:50.160
10. Jeremy McWilliams, Proton KR3, 1:50.171
11. Sete Gibernau, Suzuki GSV-R, 1:50.208
12. Regis Laconi, Aprilia RS3, 1:50.306
13. Nobuatsu Aoki, Proton KR3, 1:50.342
14. Norick Abe, Yamaha YZR500, 1:50.533
15. Garry McCoy, Yamaha YZR500, 1:50.702
16. John Hopkins, Yamaha YZR500, 1:50.849
17. Shinya Nakano, Yamaha YZR500, 1:50.954
18. Akira Yanagawa, Kawasaki ZX-RR, 1:51.234
19. Wataru Yoshikawa, Yamaha YZR-M1, 1:51.278
20. Jurgen vd Goorbergh, Honda NSR500, 1:51.863
21. Tetsuya Harada, Honda NSR500, 1:51.908
22. Pere Riba, Yamaha YZR500, 1:53.131
From a press release issued by Honda:
MotoGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2002
PACIFIC GRAND PRIX, MOTEGI, JAPAN
Final Qualifying, Saturday October 5th, 2002
KATO TAKES HIS FIRST MotoGP POLE POSITION
An excellent first day qualifying performance from MotoGP rookie Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini RC211V) was enough to give him his first MotoGP pole position, on home tarmac at Motegi.
A crash in the second timed session effectively ended Kato’s attempt to set an even faster lap and despite a flurry of intense activity on the track in the final few moments of qualifying, none could best Kato’s new circuit lap record of 1:49.052, set on Friday.
Motegi marks Kato’s fourth race on the four-stroke, already having scored two second fastest laps in qualifying in that short period. Although tantalisingly close to the 1:48 barrier today, Kato was nonetheless content to sit out the final minutes of the session in pit lane, saving his best efforts for the race.
“It was a pity to crash in the second session, so we had to come in to change to the number two bike,” said Kato. “We could not improve on my Friday time but I thought that it may be good enough take pole anyway. I am very happy to have my first MotoGP pole position in my home country and I hope to get a good start tomorrow.”
A series of high-speed laps from Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) made him top two-stroke rider, in third, and the fastest man on the circuit in the second session overall. Despite his quite exceptional ride today Capirossi acknowledges that it may be a different story come the race.
“I rode well over 100% today to set that time but I think it will be impossible to maintain that speed in the race,” admitted Capirossi. “I would like to thank my team for all the hard work this weekend so far but I think it will be too difficult again to compete against the four-strokes over the full race distance.”
For Alex Barros (West Honda Pons NSR500) his first taste of RC211V power was an uplifting experience, despite being outqualified by his team-mate Capirossi. Barros is the fourth rider to be equipped with the all-conquering five-cylinder machine, although he has had no chance to test it before the Motegi race.
“My impressions of the four-stroke are very good, right from the start. Good power, great acceleration coming out of corners, good handling – but it feels heavier. The engine braking is different compared to the NSR but the main thing we have to work on is the braking itself. The bike feels very heavy under braking, so we will try to improve that.”
Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) had a tough qualifying session by his own near immaculate standards, with the Italian superstar taking the sixth spot on the grid for his first race as the new MotoGP champion.
“For tomorrow we need to pull a rabbit from a hat!” exclaimed Rossi. “The bike does not feel too good at the moment. Basically I have no grip at the rear. When I brake straight away I have no control, and the rear tyre seems to be spinning a lot slower than the front. I followed Biaggi for a while and I saw that he is using the whole track from edge to edge. I cannot ride like this at the moment because it is not possible to change direction quite as well. The answer may lie in the front forks. Tomorrow morning we will be busy!”
Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RC211V) joined the second row club on home ground, seventh overall after a somewhat changeable run in qualifying over two days.
Said Ukawa: “Yesterday we were struggling with the whole set-up. The package just didn’t feel right. We looked at the data and went back to many standard settings and this morning the bike was better. Not much better, but now we are going in the right direction. It will be so important to get a good start tomorrow because of the nature of this track.”
Front wheel chatter was the main concern of Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500), as he proved frustrated in his attempts to overcome problems peculiar to the Motegi circuit. His 20th place contrasts sharply with his second row qualifying from the previous race at Rio.
“We have some lack of grip and severe chatter problems,” explained a doleful van den Goorbergh. “I think it is due to the track surface. We have spent all weekend trying to get rid of the problem but nothing works. We have tried a wide variety of suspension settings and so on, but there is no real improvement. I think for the race it’s not going to work either.”
Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) finished one place behind van den Goorbergh in 21st, only marginally improving his Friday time.
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki News Service:
SUZUKI RIDERS SLASH TIMES FOR SECOND AND THIRD ROW STARTS
MotoGP, Round 13, Final Qualifying, Motegi, Japan – Saturday, October 5, 2002:
TEAM Telefónica MoviStar Suzuki riders Kenny Roberts and Sete Gibernau both slashed huge chunks of time from their previous best laps to qualify on the second and third rows of the starting grid for tomorrow’s Pacific GP.
Roberts took almost seven tenths of a second off his Friday time to preserve his position on the second row, from where he will be able to exploit his lightning starting technique to best effect.
Gibernau was a full 1.7 seconds faster to move up to 11th position, after a day of technical changes that helped him re-establish a relationship with the machine that had run into trouble yesterday.
Kenny’s improvement came with steady progress, as the 2000 world champion adapts to the latest improved version of Suzuki’s slipper clutch, along with other detail changes for the Japanese machine’s second home GP of the season. The American rider, who last week agreed terms for a further two years with the Suzuki factory team, was happy with the progress, confident of a strong race tomorrow, and even more so about long-term progress as the all-new V4 four-stroke GSV-R nears the end of its first season of on-track race development.
Paradoxically, Gibernau actually went back to earlier settings and an earlier version of the clutch to make his improvement. His race engineer Stuart Shenton explained the conundrum. “The difficulties that each rider is working on solving are the same – but the solutions are very different, because they have different riding styles, and put very different inputs into their machines.”
Tomorrow’s race at the 4.801km Twin Ring Motegi circuit is the 13th of 16 World Championship rounds in the first season of the MotoGP class, which allows 990cc four-strokes like Suzuki’s new GSV-R into the championship to compete against the traditional 500cc two-strokes.
KENNY ROBERTS – Eighth Position, 1:49.859
“We’re close to pole, as far as qualifying goes. The things we need to work on are still the same, but we’re learning a lot, especially over the last nine to 12 practice sessions, from the last three GPs. We’ve tried a lot of things we thought would benefit us. Some have, and some haven’t. For tomorrow’s race, it’s another where we have to do the best we can with what we have right now. But the outlook for the future is bright. Suzuki and myself can work together to build an even better bike, and we’re looking at the long-term. The only other thing I can hope for tomorrow is if it rains!”
SETE GIBERNAU – 11th Position, 1:50.208
“Today we went back to the settings and equipment we had at Brno, to take the whole system back to what we know. It’s more predictable for me, and we made a big lap-time improvement. The team did a good job to put the whole thing together, but we made a technical mistake, and we could have gone a little better still, which gives me hope for tomorrow. All the people from the Suzuki factory are here, it shows they are serious, and I want to thank them for that.”
GARRY TAYLOR – Team Manager
“Kenny did a lot of consistent laps today that I expect to be more representative of race time than single fast laps. Sete made a huge improvement. A large number of factory people are here from the relevant technical departments, and it’s been a great opportunity for both riders to pass on a huge amount of information that will surely pay big dividends for the future.”
More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Yamaha:
PACIFIC GRAND PRIX, MOTEGI
Final Qualifying, Saturday October 5 2002
MARLBORO YAMAHA MEN STAY ON FRONT ROW AT MOTEGI
Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1 riders Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa will both start tomorrow’s Pacific Grand Prix from the front row of the grid after consistently strong performances in this afternoon’s final qualifying session.
Biaggi retained his second place on the grid from yesterday, unable to attack pole sitter Daijiro Kato (Honda) after his number-one bike suffered a minor glitch in the final stages of the session. Meanwhile Checa had to fight hard to hold onto fourth place, with just 0.172 seconds covering the entire front row.
“The pace is very close up front, so I think we have a big chance tomorrow,” said YZR-M1 project leader Ichiro Yoda. “It’s good to have both bikes on the front row. We think that Max’s machine had something like an electrical problem, so he couldn’t attack pole. We’re now checking to see what happened. But other than that it seems like we are ready for the race. Both Max and Carlos are happy with their chassis set-ups and we did good tyre endurance tests with Michelin this morning. We expect Carlos to use the new engine spec but Max still prefers the previous spec because it’s less aggressive, though he will race the new chassis for the first time.”
BIAGGI SECOND AND CONFIDENT
A close second fastest yesterday, Max Biaggi had been planning to go for pole position in the final stages of today’s second qualifying session. But while the Marlboro Yamaha Team man was denied that chance, he is still very confident of battling up front in tomorrow’s race.
“I’m a bit sad that I couldn’t improve on my Friday best, but we’ve done a good job so far and I know tomorrow can be a good day for us,” said Biaggi, winner of August’s Czech GP. “I thought I could go faster than yesterday, then with 15 minutes to go my number-one bike started to misfire. I rode back to the pits and jumped on my second bike but that machine uses a different chassis, so it didn’t feel the same, so I couldn’t push. On the positive side, at least it happened today and not tomorrow. Anyway, we’re on the front row and if we have a good warm-up session we have a good chance in the race.”
CHECA CLOSES IN ON POLE
Carlos Checa stayed fourth quickest today despite improving on his Friday best by 0.661 seconds. That lap brought the Marlboro Yamaha Team rider to within 0.172 seconds of pole, putting him in confident mood for tomorrow’s race.
“I’m pretty satisfied because we’ve worked well here and the bike has improved, so I ended up quite close to pole,” said Checa who was the star performer at Rio two weeks ago, getting away last after failing to engage first gear at the start, then coming through to lead the race before falling. “This time I plan to get a good start by using first gear! I don’t think I could go from last to first again! Today we focused on chassis and suspension set-up, trying to further improve front-end feeling. We’re on the front row, we’ve done a good tyre-endurance run with Michelin and if the pace is low 50s and high 49s, I know I can run up front.”
KATO SCORES FIRST MotoGP POLE
Daijiro Kato scored his first MotoGP pole position today, despite tumbling during this afternoon’s final qualifier. “The crash was unfortunate,” said the Japanese star, whose Friday best was good enough to keep him on top. “I went out on my second bike but couldn’t improve. Anyway, I’m happy to be on pole at home and I’m looking forward to the race.” Impressive 500 rider Loris Capirossi (Honda) was third quickest while World Champion Valentino Rossi (Honda) could only manage sixth quickest.
More, from a press release issued by Red Bull Yamaha WCM:
RED BULL Yamaha duo Garry McCoy and John Hopkins will start alongside each other on the fourth row of the grid for tomorrow’s Pacific GP at the Twin Ring Motegi. McCoy and Hopkins finished 15th and 16th fastest respectively after both encountered late drama in this afternoon¹s final qualifying session.
Australian McCoy was once again caught up in some heavy traffic that disrupted his efforts to bump himself further up the grid. His best lap time of 1.50.702 was a massive 2.1 seconds under his previous best ever lap time at the Twin Ring Motegi, and saw him slice 1.4 seconds off his best time from yesterday. Unfortunately it only improved on his provisional grid position by three places.
It was an equally eventful finale for American Hopkins, who pulled off a miraculous recovery having almost crashed his YZR500 in the closing moments. Trying to utilise the extra traction of Dunlop’s qualifying tyre, Hopkins had all but tumbled off his bike when he somehow managed to save himself from hitting the gravel trap. The evidence of the “Hopper’s” brilliant save was clear afterwards as his leathers were badly scuffed on the right side.
GARRY McCOY, 15th, 1:50.702
“On my second last run I was behind Tohru Ukawa when he drifted wide in the hairpin out on the back section of the track. It was on my hot lap and I had to chuck it under him but because I had to take a tighter line, I messed up my exit. On my final run I came across a lot of traffic. There were bikes everywhere and at one stage it seemed like a wall in front of me. I’m feeling pretty good with the race package we’ve got, but there’s a race between the two-strokes and the four-strokes even more than ever now. I’m 2.1 seconds faster than I’ve ever been at this track and I’m only 15th. It just looks so easy on a four-stroke. Earlier today I was talking to Loris Capirossi, and he said Alex Barros had told him the four-stroke is now a real 500 and the two-strokes that the rest of us are on is just like a 250.”
JOHN HOPKINS, 16th, 1:50.849
“I’m a little disappointed to be starting from where I am on the grid. I wanted to start a lot further up. But on my last flying lap I¹d crashed but somehow managed to save it. I was in T2 going into a right-hander and I was pushing really hard when I lost the front end. I just dug everything in and it was a case of defying the laws of gravity. I really wanted to keep the bike upright because I thought I’d have time for another flying lap. But by the time I¹d managed to stop the front sliding, only my heel was hanging on the tail section. I feel really confident for the race tomorrow. I was only 0.2s slower on race tyres than I was on qualifiers which is a big surprise, but that shows we’ve worked on finding a really good race set-up.”
PETER CLIFFFORD TEAM DIRECTOR
“Obviously the grid positions are not what we wanted. Unfortunately both final runs didn¹t work for John or Garry. John did a brilliant job to keep it on the wheels and I¹m sure both guys will be able improve their positions in tomorrow’s race. Both guys seem very confident with their race set-ups.”
More, from a press release issued by MS Aprilia:
Régis Laconi twelfth in final qualifying
After yesterday’s tenth quickest time, Régis Laconi again improved his lap time and twice simulated race conditions, reducing the gap separating him from pole: in today’s sessions, Régis took the Cube to within 1.2 seconds of the fastest time set by Kato. Half an hour into the qualifying session, Régis had equalled the time he posted yesterday, but on race tyres, and then gradually worked his way up until he got up to 1’50.306 which, until just three minutes from the end, would have put him in tenth place on the grid. Then in the final rush, others went even faster and Régis dropped two places. Régis is feeling confident about tomorrow’s race, with the new settings at the front end giving the bike better efficiency on the corners.
# 55 Regis Laconi – (MS APRILIA RACING) – 12th – 1’50.306
“A special setting for the fork lets me take the corners much more efficiently and the bike’s now that much easier to handle when changing direction. We also got some good references during the two race simulations and tried out a couple of solutions for the back tyre. Yesterday, grip at the rear was already improving and I certainly performed better in the last sorties. On race tyres today, I equalled the time I got yesterday on qualifying tyres and, unfortunately, I could have gone even faster as the session was coming to a close. We’re just over a second away from the pole, a smaller gap than yesterday, which means we’ve worked well and now aren’t all that far away. I’m confident about tomorrow and I want to put up a good fight.”
More, from a press release issued by Proton Team KR:
Proton Team KR riders Jeremy McWilliams and Nobuatsu Aoki will start tomorrow’s Pacific GP from the third and fourth rows of the grid, after both cut their previous best times at the 4.801km Motegi circuit in today’s final qualifying session.
In both cases, they exceeded expectations, at a stop-and-go circuit that punishes the lightweight Proton KR3. The 500cc two-stroke, up against much more powerful 990cc four-strokes, sacrifices acceleration and ultimate horsepower for agile handling. This pays dividends at more technical circuits, but is a drawback at tracks like Motegi. McWilliams’s time was just three tenths off last year’s pole time, when the class was open only to 500cc two-strokes.
McWilliams’s performance was particularly impressive, since the rider from Northern Ireland is still recovering from a collar-bone fracture sustained two weekends ago at the Rio GP. Aoki found a massive improvement of more than 1.5 seconds, mainly through improved front-fork settings that allowed him to make best use of the lightweight machine’s good braking performance.
One factor that might work in favour of the Proton is the heavy fuel consumption at the Motegi circuit, which will take the machines to the limits of their tank capacity. The three-cylinder machine is slightly more economical than its rivals, and that might make a bid difference in the closing stages.
Pole position was taken for the first time in the class by 250 champion Daijiro Kato on a four-stroke Honda. He crashed today, but the time he set yesterday was not bettered in another hot, dry day in the hills some 100km from Tokyo.
The Pacific GP is the 13th of 16 rounds of the 2002 World Championship.
Jeremy McWilliams
My shoulder was a wee bit of a problem, but not so bad in the afternoon. It’s more awkward and uncomfortable than painful, and after three of four laps the adrenalin takes over. Today’s time would have been good for a front-row start last year, but that’s the nature of this season, with the new four-strokes. We haven’t had any problems today, and I got my spare bike at least as good as the other, and took eight tenths off my best time of yesterday. The main thing think we have a good race set-up, but I can’t ride around the fact that we’re going to get swallowed up on the straight parts.
Nobuatsu Aoki
All weekend we’ve been working on the front end, to make the bike better under braking. Today we fitted stiffer front springs again, and that helped. My only other problem is choosing the right rear tyre. The harder tyre has good endurance, but not enough grip. The next softer one grips well, but in this temperature it won’t last the distance. We’ll see what the weather is like tomorrow, and make the decision after morning warm-up.
Kenny Roberts – Team Owner
We’re doing okay … it’s like Le Mans, which is a similar stop-and-go track. We expected it to be a lot worse, and it’s a lot better, and we’re only just over a second from pole. It’s going to be a very difficult race for our guys, but you never know what will happen, and if we carry on the same way we could get some good results.