From a Honda press release:

2002 MotoGP 500 World Championship, round 6
Catalan Grand Prix, Catalunya
June 14/15/16 2002

RELENTLESS RCV RIDERS ROSSI & UKAWA AIM TO MAINTAIN 100% RECORD

Motorcycling superstar Valentino Rossi (Repsol Honda Team RCV211V) comes to one of his two most successful circuits this weekend, aiming to continue his relentless progress in the new MotoGP World Championship. The Italian hero has already won four GPs from his last five appearances at Catalunya, and another win at the Spanish track on Sunday would extend his already impressive lead in this year’s series.

Rossi won last year’s 500 GP at Catalunya after a superb ride through the pack from a slow start, and also scored 250 success at the circuit in 1999
and 1998 and a 125 victory in 1997. He’s particularly looking forward to this year’s Catalan event following last week’s crucial private tests at Brno, venue for August’s Czech GP. With a clean sweep of race victory, pole position and lap record at all five races so far this season, it might seem that the last thing that Rossi and team-mate Tohru Ukawa (Repsol Honda Team RCV211V) needed was more research and development with the amazing RCV V5. But the RCV is still in its early stages of development and there is still much to be learned about the 220 horsepower machine which recently became the fastest GP bike in history, Ukawa clocking 324.5kmh/201.5mph at Mugello two weeks ago, and the taller, heavier Rossi hitting 321.1kmh/199.5mph.

“Although the results have been good this year we must keep developing the bike,” affirms Noriaki Nakata, Repsol Honda team manager. “The other factories are working hard and we are determined to keep ahead. The aim of the tests was to improve rear traction, feel and edge grip and we think we’ve made progress in all those areas.”

Rossi was also happy with progress during the session, which gives him extra confidence for the next few GPs, including this weekend’s race, the second of the season’s three MotoGP rounds in Spain. “I’m really looking forward to Catalunya,” says the 23-year old, who goes for his 44th GP success at the circuit constructed outside Barcelona in the early nineties. “We got some vital set-up data from our Catalunya tests in March and we arrive in Spain straight from Brno where we were working hard to find extra traction and grip. Michelin and Showa have been helping a lot and we are making improvements in the right direction. Although we’ve made a great start to the season we have to keep focused as the competition is getting closer”.

Ukawa may not have recorded any victories at Catalunya, but Japan’s number-one GP rider of the moment scored three podium finishes at the track during his 250 days, taking second in 2000 and 1999 and third in 1997. Last year he finished seventh in the Catalan 500 GP, less than five seconds down on winner Rossi, and this weekend he is determined to defeat his team-mate, repeating his Welkom victory in April.

“Catalunya needs to be good for me,” says Ukawa, who slid off without drama during the Brno tests. “Although I’m lying second in the championship I want to close the gap between Valentino and myself. I was third fastest in pre-season testing at Catalunya in March, when I knocked 1.5 seconds off my 2001 qualifying time. Certainly the Brno tests have helped and I now feel that I have more grip mid-corner which I always had a little problem with.”

The new breed of MotoGP four-strokes, like Honda’s RCV, are expected to rule once again at Catalunya, where they should excel through the circuit’s sweeping turns and along the 1.4km/0.87 mile start-finish straight. But as always the ‘old school’ 500 two-strokes will be doing everything in their power to end the four-strokes’ monopoly of 2002. Leading the two-stroke charge will be Sito Pons’ local-based West Honda Pons team, with riders Loris Capirossi (West Honda Pons NSR500) and Alex Barros (West Honda Pons NSR500). The Barcelona crew knows the track better than most and went testing there before the recent Italian GP. Capirossi finished third in 2001, after Barros slid off while holding second place.

“This will be another tough race for us, but maybe we’ll be a bit closer to the four-strokes than we were at Mugello,” says Capirossi, who was just two tenths slower than fastest-man Rossi in preseason tests at the track and is currently best-placed two-stroke in third overall. “I was close to Rossi in the tests but I think it will be more difficult in a race situation. Although we do know this track well, this is one of the circuits that the four-strokes have visited previously, so they’ll be in a better situation than they were at the last two races.”

“Catalunya is always an important race for us, it’s the team’s home, so I want to give them a good result,” says Barros, who finished top 500 in Italy. “I had a good race at Mugello and I think we can still improve from there. We should have a good set-up this weekend, so I aim to make the most of that in the fight with the four-strokes.”

The team’s technical director Antonio Cobas adds: “This track is completely different to Mugello, with not so much grip and plenty of ripples, which makes suspension set-up very difficult. Also, the surfaces causes a lot of tyre wear, and sometimes the front gets used more than the rear, which isn’t normal.”

Daijiro Kato (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR500) aims to get back on track this weekend after a couple of fraught GPs on his NSR500. The 250 World Champion had made a brilliant start to his debut campaign in the premier class, taking fourth place in round two and a close-run second at Jerez in May. But even Kato’s inspired talent is taking a while to properly cope with a doubling in horsepower, and he crashed out of both the French and Italian GPs.

“Luckily I was unhurt, now we just need to stay focused for the next few GPs,” observes Kato, who won last year’s 250 race at Catalunya. “I fell at Mugello after getting a bad start because the bike wheelied away from the grid, but I’m feeling good about this weekend’s race because since Italy we’ve been working on the set-up of the machine. “

This will be an interesting GP for Jurgen van den Goorbergh (Kanemoto Racing Honda NSR500), who will be able to judge his progress and that of his new Bridgestone tyres, comparing his pace to the preseason IRTA tests in March. “We’ve been doing a lot of racing and testing since then, gathering data all the time,” says van den Goorbergh, who has scored points in the last four Grands Prix. “I believe we still need a second a lap to be fully competitive with the other two-strokes, and we think that gap is coming down all the time. We hope to continue making forward steps at Catalunya.”

Tetsuya Harada (Pramac Honda NSR500) continues to grow in stature on his NSR. After a steady start to his first season on the V4, following a broken collarbone sustained in February, Harada is on the pace. The former 250 champ qualified on the second row at the last two GPs and is looking forward to getting even quicker. “I had quite a good race in Italy two weeks ago, and I think we can do as well or better this weekend,” says the Japanese. “Me and my team are beginning to understand the NSR, every race we make some more improvements on set-up, so I’m feeling quite optimistic about the next few GPs.”

Former 125 World Champion Emilio Alzamora (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) goes into the biggest weekend of his year at Catalunya. And the local rider, who finished third at Jerez in May, hopes home-track fortune will be on his side once again.

“We’ve been testing since Mugello, so I think we can hope for a better result this weekend,” says Alzamora, who had a difficult race at Mugello a fortnight back, finishing 11th. “We’ve been trying to improve our base set-up, which should allow us to make better progress during qualifying. Obviously, Catalunya is a big race for me. I’ll be trying as hard as ever to give the fans something to cheer about.”

Team-mate Robby Rolfo (Fortuna Honda Gresini NSR250) also had a tough time at Mugello, a month after finishing a brilliant second at Jerez, but he is optimistic of his future chances following the team’s tests. “Our biggest problem has been qualifying,” says the Italian youngster who joined Honda this year. “If we can improve the overall set-up, then we know we can qualify better and that will help us to get closer to the front in the race.”

This is also a home race for teen Spanish 125 hero Daniel Pedrosa (Telefonica Movistar Jr Team Honda RS125R), who hails from Sabedell, just a few kilometres from the Catalunya track. The 16-year old currently lies fourth in the 125 World Championship, just 20 points behind leader Manuel Poggiali (Gilera).

“This is my home race, so I’ve been dreaming about a good result!” smiles Pedrosa. “We battled hard at Mugello and ended the race just five tenths off the podium. We will keep working in the same way this weekend, but I hope to do better. All the different bikes are very close on performance at the moment, so I expect another tight race, just like Mugello.”

Following this weekend’s racing, the GP action shifts north for the Dutch GP at Assen, the most historic venue on the World Championship calendar. The June 29th event is one of two GPs that take place on a Saturday, and race times have been slightly adjusted to avoid clashes with the football World Cup.



More, from Yamaha:

INSIDE LINE
MARLBORO YAMAHA TEAM GRAND PRIX PREVIEW No 6
Marlboro Catalan Grand Prix, Catalunya
June 14/15/16 2002

ONWARD AND UPWARD FOR HARD-WORKING MARLBORO YAMAHA TEAM
Marlboro Yamaha Team riders Max Biaggi and Carlos Checa roll up at Catalunya this weekend aiming to maintain their impressive forward progress of recent weeks. Some superb work from Yamaha’s racing department in Japan has pushed the mighty YZR-M1 towards the front of the MotoGP pack at the last two GPs in France and Italy, where Biaggi and Checa both qualified in the top three.

A fortnight back at Mugello, Biaggi scored the M1’s best-ever finish, coming home a close-run second, and now he wants to go one better. Checa had set the early pace at Mugello, taking provisional pole on day one, and though some cruel luck consigned him to a fourth-place finish, he knows he’s ready to fight for victory when things go his way.

The main reasons for the M1’s extra performance are a new chassis and seat/tank unit, used for the first time at Mugello, and new parts for the bike’s innovative computer-controlled engine-braking system, run for the first time at Le Mans. Last week both Biaggi and Checa tested at Valencia to further improve the performance of these latest upgrades, and they will have each of their bikes equipped with the new chassis and seat/tank units this weekend.

After Sunday’s racing the MotoGP season moves into its northern European phase, with the next three events in the Netherlands, on Saturday June 29th, Britain, on Sunday July 14th and Germany, on Sunday July 21st.


HOME-FAVOURITE CHECA GETS FASTER AND FASTER
Local favourite Carlos Checa knows that he and his Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1 are almost ready for their first MotoGP victory; all he needs is a little luck. The Spanish star made a superb start to GP racing’s new four-stroke era, finishing the first two races in third and fifth, and he gets faster and faster, as more and more new parts arrive from Yamaha’s hard-toiling race department. In France last month he qualified a superb second quickest and he was third on the grid in Italy. But the last three races have not been kind to him and Checa hopes he can leave his run of bad luck behind, starting this weekend.

“I’m optimistic that things will be better this weekend, I don’t know what I’ve done to deserve so much bad luck!” says Checa. “Catalunya is obviously a very big race for me. We have three GPs in Spain every year but this is really my home GP, because this is where I grew up. There’s always a lot of friends and family in the paddock, so I want to make them smile on Sunday, like I did in ’96 when I won my first GP there.

“We tested at Valencia for two days last week, which helped us to better understand the new chassis we got for first practice at Mugello, I just hope the chassis gives as good a feeling at Catalunya. We chose Valencia because it’s tight and it’s been the tighter tracks that have caused us problems. The way we are going at the moment, we aren’t far off being able to fight for the win. I think the four-strokes will once again have the advantage over the two-strokes at Catalunya, though maybe not as big an advantage as they had at Mugello. There’s a lot of long corners, so you’re at maximum angle for a long time, and the four-stroke gives better traction in this situation. Also, the start-finish straight is longer than Mugello’s, so the fastest four-strokes will probably be running more than 320kmh again. My only concern is that they had a truck race at Catalunya last week, which can damage the track surface.”

Marlboro Yamaha Team director Davide Brivio shares Checa’s confidence. “If it wasn’t for some bad luck, Carlos would have had better results at the last two races, for sure,” says the Italian. “But we are looking forward to the next few races because the bike is on the way up and we know that Carlos is capable of competing for a win if his luck changes. The M1 has improved a huge amount since we tested at Catalunya in early March, and last week’s tests at Valencia were useful because we were able to try different set-ups with the new chassis. Our speed at the last two races shows just how far we’ve come and just how much effort Yamaha are putting into this project. The factory and the team have been working so hard, now we deserve some good results for our efforts.”

M1 project leader Ichiro Yoda adds: “We can use more aggressive geometry settings for Catalunya, compared to Mugello, which is why it was good to go to Valencia because that track also demands quick turning. The new chassis offers improved front-end traction, which also means better braking into turns, and I’m glad that Carlos and Max will have two new chassis each this weekend, instead of just one each, like they had at Mugello.”


UPBEAT BIAGGI GETTING CLOSER TO A WIN
Two weeks ago in Italy Max Biaggi scored his best result on his Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR-M1, taking a hard-fought second place, just 2.4 seconds off the win. A fortnight earlier he finished third in the French GP, which suggests that the Italian star and his hardworking back-up crew are edging towards achieving the M1’s first victory.

Biaggi has been impressed with the recent efforts of his Yamaha engineers, who have turned the M1 into a competitive MotoGP machine in the space of a few weeks, after a difficult start to GP racing’s new four-stroke era. Improved engine and chassis performance allowed him to lead both the French and Italian GPs, after qualifying third and second quickest, just a fraction of a second off pole. Last week’s team tests at Valencia should allow the former 250 World Champion to increase his impressive pace still further.

“I would like to thank Yamaha for all their efforts during the last few weeks,” Biaggi says. “I’m feeling more positive now, much more so than at the start of the season, but if we are to win, we must keep working hard. The new chassis we got for Mugello gives me a better feeling from the front end, though we still need to work at lightening the handling. I think the biggest improvements we’ve had this year are the upgrade parts for the engine-braking management system which we got before the French GP.

“I like Catalunya a lot, it’s one of my favourite tracks, the layout is fun. We tested there at the start of the season when things weren’t looking so good, we were having problems with engine braking at that time, but I know we will be more competitive this weekend, so I’m smiling more now!