PREVIEW GRAND PRIX OF TURKEY THE MAGIC OF ISTANBUL Team Fortuna Honda heads to the third round of the season this weekend and a circuit that holds special memories for both its riders. Last year both Marco Melandri and Toni Elias played starring roles in the inaugural Grand Prix of Turkey, with Marco taking the first victory of his MotoGP career with Fausto Gresini’s team whilst Toni clinched his best result of the season in Fortuna colours. Now they are hoping to fight for the top positions once again at Istanbul, where they arrive in optimistic mood after a positive day of tests following the Grand Prix of Qatar. ALL EYES ON ISTANBUL MARCO MELANDRI: “The positive results we obtained in the Qatar test have made me look forward really positively to Istanbul – it is a track I like and it suits my riding style. These are two factors that are in my favour but I will still have to concentrate hard on the bike. We’ll be starting with a decidedly different base setting to the one we had at the last GP and I believe it has a lot of potential. I would have liked to have been heading into this event with a better performance behind me but I’m sure that the feeling we found in the test, the desire to have fun and the good memories I hold of this circuit will give me plenty of strength. The 2005 Grand Prix of Turkey was a truly memorable event – how could I ever forget the moment I crossed the line?! The chequered flag being waved and the celebrations on the podium were two of the most exciting moments in my life.” TONI ELIAS: “I’m heading to Istanbul feeling very motivated. My feeling with the bike improves from race to race and the test at Qatar confirmed that we’re working in the right direction. Now I have to follow it up in the race with a performance that I believe justifies my potential. I have to try and take another step forward because we have not yet managed to achieve the results I am hoping for and know we are capable of. Istanbul is a track I like a lot because there are so many drops and rises, fast corners and slow corners. I can’t wait to get back to a track where I had good results in practice and in the race last year.” THE TRACK. Designed by Hermann Tilke, the man behind Sepang, Bahrain and Shanghai, Istanbul Park lies on the Asian side of Turkey, around 60km from Istanbul city centre. With plenty of open space to work with, the German architect was able to create a magnificent facility: a technical circuit with an exciting layout, a huge and modern box and paddock complex and a main grandstand with the capacity for 80,000 spectators. Istanbul is different to other Tilke designs in that there are no extremely long straights – here the longest one measures only 720 metres. This track is characterised by the drastic changes in level and a series of varied corners linked together – fast, technical or extremely slow, such as turns 13 and 14. Tilke’s intention was to base the design of certain corners on some of the most famous bends from other legendary circuits, such as turns one and two, which are a copy of the ‘Senna Esses’ at Sao Paolo, whilst turn 11 is based on the ‘Eau Rouge’ at Spa and turn nine 9 is similar to the Spoon Curve at Suzuka. The track is spectacular for the fans and challenging for the riders in equal measures, with the changes in level in particular creating several blind spots. GUIDE Opened: 2005 Lenght:5.340 m Width: 14-21m Pole Position: right Direction: Anti-clockwise Right turns: 6 Left turns: 8 Straight: 720 m Max.gradient: 8.1% Record: 2005 Melandri (Honda) 1’53″111 Pole Position: 2005 Gibernau (Honda) 1’52″334 2005 race:1° M. Melandri (Honda), 2° V.Rossi (Yamaha), 3° N.Hayden (Honda)