Rossi Looking For Seventh Win Of MotoGP Season In Qatar

Rossi Looking For Seventh Win Of MotoGP Season In Qatar

© 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

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From a press release issued by Galouises Fortuna Yamaha:

GAULOISES FORTUNA YAMAHA TEAM PREVIEW

Qatar Grand Prix
Losail, Qatar
September 30, October 1 & 2, 2004

MOTOGP VENTURES EAST TO ALL-NEW VENUE

Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Carlos Checa face the prospect of four races in five weekends in their final push towards the end of an extraordinary MotoGP season. The opening section of the final quartet takes place at the all-new Losail International circuit on the outskirts of Doha in Qatar, the first time that a MotoGP race has taken place in the Middle East.

With a 39-point lead over his closest challenger Sete Gibernau (Honda) and a maximum of 100 points available from now to the season-ending race at Valencia on 31st October Rossi is in an enviable position, having taken to his Yamaha M1 with no small degree of success. The five-time World Champion has taken six race wins so far in 2004, a full 50% of all races, making this the most remarkable Yamaha season since the early nineties. His second place at the last MotoGP round in Motegi, Japan, was his 98th podium finish in the three different classes of Grand Prix racing. This puts Rossi in the top seven riders of all time to stand most frequently on a Grand Prix podium. Rossi is now about to face an all-new challenge at Losail – a track no MotoGP rider has any experience of, other than a walk around the track layout.

Rossi’s team-mate Carlos Checa, a 31-year-old Spanish-born London resident, will be going for his first win of the year in Qatar. Having experienced both highs and lows this year, Checa’s grinding determination has brought him to his current seventh place in the championship standings, with realistic ambitions of finishing within the top four before the season end.

ROSSI UP TO THE QATAR CHALLENGE

The combination of Rossi, his YZR-M1 and the expert support from the Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team has not only taken six wins this year, but also four pole positions and the lead in the BMW award, for the rider with the best combined time in all of the season’s qualifying practices. For Rossi however, the new track is just another challenge his peerless talent has to match up to and master.

With vast experience of winning championships, Rossi knows that last weekend’s second place at Motegi was an important result, especially as his main rivals all found Motegi a difficult nut to crack, another vindication of an overall championship challenge. “The bike was working really well in Motegi. There were problems with it sliding towards the end of the race and I thought it was better to hold on to second place and valuable points than to push any harder and risk falling. Anyway Tamada was so strong that I don’t think it was possible to beat him. We need to continue the same level of work for the rest of the season, remain concentrated and pull off good results for the remaining four races.”

The Losail circuit, just outside the Qatari capital of Doha, is already piquing Rossi’s imagination. “I’ve been looking forward to Qatar and waiting for a chance like this for a long time,” said Rossi. “It’s such a long time since we went to a new track, at least one that’s new to everyone. It will be the chance to see who is really the best rider, as we will be making new lines on a new surface. It’s going to be so hot, and it will be hard to make it through the whole race in such conditions.”

Rossi has seen the new MotoGP venue first hand, and came away impressed with the job at hand. “I have already visited the Losail circuit for the foundation ceremony in December,” affirmed Rossi. “It seems like a really good place, and I hope it will be a good competition. I really hope a lot of people come to watch us. In a way it’s like every other race for us because we’re setting the M1 up at new circuits all the time this year. We seem to be good at getting the best out of it in limited time. I think there are something like 15 corners at the Qatar circuit, more than almost any other, so that should be interesting.”

CHECA ANTICIPATES A WARM WELCOME

The punishing temperatures expected at Qatar have filled some MotoGP riders with trepidation – the prospect of a full duration MotoGP event in the heat of an Arabian desert. Not so the super-fit Checa. “The hot weather won’t be a big problem for me, it’s normally the same in Malaysia,” stated the Catalan rider.

Checa also feels that the unknown nature of the circuit will help the more experienced riders, himself among them. “A surprise is always nice. The pressure at Losail could come from the track itself, or other unexpected problems at a new venue. Many people say that the track could be slippery or dirty and it will be very hot. But I think it’s always nice to go to a new place. I normally like to go to new circuits.”

DAVIDE BRIVIO – TEAM DIRECTOR

Heading up a talented group of engineers and administrative staff in the Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team, Davide Brivio has seen the remarkable progress of Rossi first hand, but he knows that Losail will present one of the more unique challenges the team has faced in 2004. “Qatar will be very difficult; it will also be very hot,” nods Brivio. “Looking at the map of the circuit it has a lot of corners, a lot of different types of corners, and that provides us with many challenges. But it also makes life more interesting for everyone involved.”

Brivio continued, “I think it will be hard for the riders and for everybody to work on something new and see how things will go at an absolutely brand new track – which bike, rider and tyre will adjust to the circuit best. We are going there with 39 points advantage but these last four races will be very important. We need to ‘manage’ this advantage, for Valentino to be on the podium in each of the races to achieve our final goal. For Carlos, Losail can be a good track and he is very fit, a factor which will help him a lot. In the last races, for whatever reason it has not been so good for Carlos, so Losail offers him the opportunity to have better results.”

TECHNICALLY SPEAKING

The Losail circuit will boast the most cutting-edge facilities ever enjoyed by MotoGP but the track itself is the only part that will make any impact on the result of the race and the overall championship battle.

At 5.4km Losail is of a greater length than most MotoGP venues, and certainly few existing tracks feature quite so many corners, and in such endless varieties. To their eternal credit the track designers have eschewed the adoption of rhythm-disrupting chicanes, yet have managed to make the layout of the circuit fascinating on paper. Several high-speed corners, plus two tighter hairpins, make Losail a circuit of contrasts. Six left and ten right hand corners are laid on top of a largely flat surface, removing at least one complication to the machine’s set-up.

The true nature of Losail will only reveal itself during the first practice sessions, but the relatively fast corners that abound around the track will require stability from chassis and suspension set-up. The fact that the track will demand an almost constant alteration of machine direction and lean angle adds another requirement – agility when flicking from side-to-side.

The last corner and the first, both right handers, will be preceded by exceptionally heavy braking, but these are expected to be the only places at which such severe braking forces will be generated.

VALENTINO ROSSI: INFORMATION
Age: 25
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: 65 (26 X MotoGP, 13 X 500cc, 14 X 250cc, 12 X 125cc)
First GP victory: Czech Republic, 1996 (125cc)
First GP: Malaysia, 1996 (125cc)
GP starts: 136 (44 x MotoGP, 32 x 500cc, 30 x 250cc, 30 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 34


CARLOS CHECA: INFORMATION
Age: 31
Lives: London, UK
Bike: Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team YZR-M1
GP victories: 2 (500cc)
First GP victory: Catalunya, 1996 (500cc)
First GP: Europe, 1993 (125cc)
GP starts: 164 (44 x MotoGP, 92 x 500cc, 27 x 250cc, 1 x 125cc)
Pole positions: 2 (1 x MotoGP, 1 x 500cc)
First pole: Spain, 1998 (500cc)

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