Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
Friday’s MotoGP Qualifying Results:
1. Valentino Rossi, Honda, 1:31.196
2. Troy Bayliss, Ducati, 1:31.278
3. Sete Gibernau, Honda, 1:31.527
4. Carlos Checa, Yamaha, 1:31.562
5. Loris Capirossi, Ducati, 1:31.583
6. Olivier Jacque, Yamaha, 1:31.655
7. Tohru Ukawa, Honda, 1:31.711
8. Colin Edwards, Aprilia, 1:31.820
9. Max Biaggi, Honda, 1:31.861
10. Alex Barros, Yamaha, 1:32.039
11. Noriyuki Haga, Aprilia, 1:32.175
12. Nicky Hayden, Honda, 1:32.199
13. Marco Melandri, Yamaha, 1:32.283
14. Shinya Nakano, Yamaha, 1:32.483
15. John Hopkins, Suzuki, 1:32.798
16. Yukio Kagayama, Suzuki, 1:32.859
17. Makoto Tamada, Honda, 1:33.338
18. Jeremy McWilliams, Proton, 1:33.386
19. Andrew Pitt, Kawasaki, 1:34.028
20. Ryuichi Kiyonari, Honda, 1:34.220
21. Garry McCoy, Kawasaki, 1:34.451
22. Nobuatsu Aoki, Proton, 1:35.203
23. Chris Burns, ROC Yamaha, 1:35.221
24. David De Gea, Sabre, 1:36.851
Friday’s 250cc Grand Prix Qualifying Results:
1. Fonsi Nieto, Aprilia, 1:33.859
2. Manuel Poggiali, Aprilia, 1:34.366
3. Randy De Puniet, Aprilia, 1:34.633
4. Roberto Rolfo, Honda, 1:34.789
5. Toni Elias, Aprilia, 1:34.814
6. Naoki Matsudo, Yamaha, 1:35.260
7. Franco Battaini, Aprilia, 1:35.589
8. Sylvain Guintoli, Aprilia, 1:35.670
9. Anthony West, Aprilia, 1:35.725
10. Sebastian Porto, Honda, 1:35.778
11. Erwan Nigon, Aprilia, 1:36.193
12. Johan Stigefelt, Aprilia, 1:36.323
13. Eric Bataille, Honda, 1:36.331
14. Jay Vincent, Aprilia, 1:36.487
15. Alex Debon, Honda, 1:36.553
Friday’s 125cc Grand Prix Qualifying Results:
1. Andrea Dovizioso, Honda, 1:38.297
2. Daniel Pedrosa, Honda, 1:38.328
3. Stefano Perugini, Aprilia, 1:38.622
4. Hector Barbera, Aprilia, 1:38.675
5. Steve Jenkner, Aprilia, 1:38.718
6. Alex De Angelis, Aprilia, 1:38.752
7. Youichi Ui, Aprilia, 1:38.889
8. Pablo Nieto, Aprilia, 1:39.020
9. Casey Stoner, Aprilia, 1:39.170
10. Masao Azuma, Honda, 1:39.408
11. Arnaud Vincent, KTM, 1:39.460
12. Mika Kallio, Honda, 1:39.465
13. Gabor Talmasci, Aprilia, 1:39.477
14. Lucio Cecchinello, Aprilia, 1:39.664
15. Mirko Giansanti, Aprilia, 1:39.951
More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Yamaha:
CHECA ON PROVISIONAL FRONT ROW AGAIN FOR FORTUNA YAMAHA TEAM
Carlos Checa continued his run of strong form today as he put his Fortuna Yamaha Team YZR-M1 on the front row of the provisional grid for Sunday’s British Grand Prix at Donington Park. Checa recorded the fourth fastest time with a 1:31.562, just inside the fastest ever lap of the famous circuit.
MotoGP class rookie Marco Melandri was set for a second row start before slipping to 13th on the provisional grid in the usual end of session reshuffle. Melandri’s time of 1:32.283 was only a fraction over a second slower than the pole time with the top 11 riders separated by only one second.
World Champion Valentino Rossi (Honda 1:31.196) made a strong start to his second “home” Grand Prix. The London-based rider was fastest for most of the session and held off a late challenge from Australian Troy Bayliss (Ducati 1:31.278) with a string of flying laps at the end of the hour. Third place on the grid went to Spaniard Sete Gibernau (Honda 1:31.527) just ahead of Checa. All four front row starters were inside the previous circuit best lap (1:31.563) set by Rossi in qualifying last year.
Fortuna Yamaha Team Catalan-born rider Carlos Checa made a strong start to the weekend this morning with fourth place in free practice. Checa, who along with Rossi and team-mate Melandri is a UK resident, waited until the last ten seconds of the session to replicate that fourth place in this afternoon’s qualifier with a flying lap.
“I think for a starting point that’s not too bad,” said Checa. “We did a good job this afternoon. It was quite difficult to find the right tyre and I’m not so clear in this area. We’ll do some more work with the tyres tomorrow morning. Today I wasn’t feeling too good as I had a headache. I may have picked up a cold so I’ll go to the Clinica tonight to perfect my personal ‘set-up’ for tomorrow.
“The team are working well. They have given me a good bike here like at the last race and that helps to give me a new positive feeling that I didn’t have at the start of the season. Now we’re going better we can hopefully score some good results.”
Marco Melandri was a little disappointed with his provisional fourth row start despite feeling happier with his general set-up today. The 20-year-old reigning 250cc World Champion finally qualified thirteenth fastest with his Fortuna Yamaha Team YZR-M1 with 1:32.283, missing the opportunity to put in a faster lap at the end of the session.
“I’m happy, but sad about the last lap,” said Melandri. “On the second to last lap I saw that I had three minutes to go so I thought I could get another lap in. But in the end I was too late. My feeling with the bike is quite good and I never really had a good feeling at this track in previous years. I feel better on the M1 than I did on the 250 here. I think I can improve quite a lot tomorrow. We’ve changed the set up a little bit since Assen. I gave feedback to the crew and they’ve altered the suspension geometry a little and it feels better for me. I’m really happy with the work of the team. They say the weather will be good for the next two days so hopefully I’ll get a better grid position tomorrow afternoon!”
Team Director Davide Brivio welcomed the team’s first qualifying performance, “It’s been a good day,” he explained. “With both riders we have some room for improvement tomorrow. Carlos did well with a fast lap at the end of the session. Unfortunately Marco thought he would still be in time for one more lap and so didn’t get his flying lap. But he seems to have a good feeling on the bike and both riders are quite happy. We’ll keep working methodically to improve our performance throughout the weekend.”
More, from a press release issued by KTM:
Vincent Flies to 11th for KTM-Red Bull
World champion Arnaud Vincent has qualified 11th on the provisional grid at a sunny and warm Donington Park in preparation for Sunday’s British Grand Prix. The race is the halfway point of the championship season with Vincent’s teammate Roberto Locatelli 22nd in first qualifying.
Both riders recorded their fastest laps after the chequered flag had been waved with Vincent’s late dash closing him to within 1.1 second of pole position. And the Frenchman believes he could have been much faster after he was delayed by traffic on his final fast lap. The Donington circuit, which does not rely on outright speed and horsepower, is proving to be KTM-friendly and both Vincent and Locatelli are hopeful of improved performances in final qualifying.
# 1 Arnaud Vincent
11th/1:39.460
On my final lap I had to pass three riders and there was a lot of traffic. The layout of this track suits the KTM engine characteristics and for tomorrow I hope to have my best engine fitted to my preferred chassis. Today the engine in my best handling chassis was a little down on performance.
#10 Roberto Locatelli
22nd /1:40.396
Donington has a lot of little bumps at some corners especially the final hairpin section and I need to work with my technicians for a better set-up over the bumps. Apart from that the motor does fell more suited to this track compared to the faster circuits of recent races.
Harald Bartol
Team Manager
A positive day for us and for sure Donington is a track where we can maximise the performance of the engine with our current level of development. After Assen we did a lot of tests on the gearbox and have eliminated that as the cause of our power loss on the faster circuits. There is another reason and In the coming weeks we will look for the solution with more dyno testing in the workshop.
More, from a press release issued by Alice Aprilia Racing Press Information:
GREAT BRITAIN GP/ 1st QUALIFYING SESSION
Donington – A big quantity of competitive spirit and limited gaps for the first qualifying session on Donington Park circuit or the 8th round of the world championship: 13 riders in one second. So tomorrow and especially on Sunday the challenge will be very hard. The features of the British track which is fast and easy-riding in the first part and slow and “tortuous” in the second one, create some setting problems: in fact, it must decide if it’s better to improve the handling or the stability. So difficult choices for everybody but the show on track is still the same.
COLIN EDWARDS: “I feel fine here because I am well-known by the public and there are a lot of photographers searching for me all the time. But this is not the problem. In the first part of the track I am very fast and enjoy my trajectories. The second part I simply terrible: I must control the bike in acceleration and it’s not so funny. Tomorrow we are going to make new experiments in order to balance the bike”.
NORIYUKI HAGA: “It’s a pity cause my engine switched off at 100 metres to the finishing line. I like the whole track also the second part but I need a perfect setting on order to be more competitive: now the bike is to “nervous” in the final part. Anyway I feel confident: I like this track very much and I absolutely want to get a good result”.
GIGI DALL’IGNA (Project Leader): “We have not been so lucky in the final part of the session: Haga’s engine switched off in the last corner because of a fuel distribution problem. It’s not a serious thing but Nori could easily improve his lap time. Colin found a Proton bike in the middle of the track so he lost too much time. Anyway the info achieved today are very important: the challenge is big and the gap is very low. Tomorrow we will try to improve the performance of our bikes in the second part of the track”.
More, from a press release issued by Pramac Honda Team Press Information:
Donington Park – (Great Britain) Round 8 – 11/12/13 July 2003
Friday – qualifying sessions
Tough first round of practice sessions for Makoto Tamada at Donington.
First day of apprenticeship at Darlington for Makoto Tamada, who had a tough time getting a feeling for the highly technical British circuit. This is also the first time he has tried out the new frame, which has just been flown in for his RC211V, and that has made his job twice as hard: a new circuit and a new motorcycle configuration that he needs to get to grips with.
As the first quarter of the qualifying session was coming to an end, Makoto Tamada went into a harmless slide on the McLeans corner. Just slight damage to his RC211V, but enough to prevent him from continuing his comparative tests on the two different frames. Makoto carried on with the bike with the latest frame – the one not involved in the fall, and he finished the session with a slight loss of concentration. This means there should be plenty of room for improvement tomorrow when the great Japanese rider will have acquired better knowledge of the English circuit and, of course, of the new alternative configurations of his Honda.
Makoto Tamada (Pramac Honda Team): 17th – 1:33.338
“A pleasant, technical circuit. The two 180-degree hairpins are absolutely great. Even so, my harmless slide did complicate matters and I found myself having to work only on the new configuration of my bike. I find the bike a bit heavy, what with having the two frames, and it’s rather jerky when I’m braking. We’re going to have to work on the set-up of the suspension, and get the settings just right. We also need to find the right direction to follow in order to improve, but I think we’ll be able to get the details sorted out tomorrow. As far as today is concerned, I must say it’s hard to give a precise idea about the differences between the two different frames.”
More, from a press release issued by Team Suzuki:
SUZUKI TEAM STEP FORWARD AT DONINGTON
Team Suzuki Press Office Friday 11th July 2003
Team Suzuki riders Yukio Kagayama and John Hopkins qualified side by side once again for the provisional starting grid for Sunday’s British GP, setting 15th and 16th-fastest lap times round the swooping 4.023km parkland circuit outside Derby.
Both riders were enjoying the benefit of the latest in a continuing line of improvements and revisions to the new GSV-R MotoGP prototype. New chassis and engine parts were aimed at making the 200-plus horsepower machine more predictable and easier to ride.
The effects were immediately discernible, and though not the final answer in unleashing the full potential of the 990cc V4 racer they are proof that development is moving ahead, and in the right direction. Hopkins set the second-fastest top speed time today, at 268.1km/h, with only Loris Capirossi (Ducati) faster through the speed trap.
The British GP, eighth of 16 rounds, is the home race for the team, based in Kent south of London, and also for Hopkins, who was born in the USA but to an all-English family. As well as his mother and sister from the USA, Hopkins is playing host to a number of home-country relations at the British race. Hopkins is fresh from a first drive in a McLaren Formula One car – a two-lap test at the French GP last weekend. “It was pretty tightly controlled, but I managed to get the back to slide out of the last corner, and gave it a good run up through the first five gears,” he said. “It felt like a big go-kart. A really fast go-kart.”
Kagayama is also a temporary resident of England, where he is contesting the full British Superbike Championship. “Yuki” (29) is fresh from his first double win last weekend at the Rockingham BSB round; while the British GP is the fifth of nine consecutive weekends of top-level racing. He is taking the place of the injured team regular Kenny Roberts, who expects to be fit to return for the next round in Germany.
Today’s practice took place in dry and partially cloudy conditions, with a cool wind keeping temperatures to 21 degrees. There is one more hour-long timed qualifying session tomorrow for Sunday’s race, with good weather predicted for the rest of the weekend.
JOHN HOPKINS – 15th Position, 1:32.798
We got some new parts here, and it definitely seems to be a step in the right direction. The engine changes are the biggest improvement. They don’t make the bike faster or change the limits of performance, but they make it easier to get to the limit and to ride at the limit. This afternoon we messed round with the set-up, but we went the wrong way. This may have interrupted our progress, with changes that weren’t necessary but that’s all part of trying to get the bike the best it can possibly be for Sunday.
YUKIO KAGAYAMA – 17th Position, 1:32.859
After my first ride on the new bike at Assen, we asked for some changes from the factory, and we have them here already. And it is working a bit better. The throttle response is improved, not perfect, but better than before. The chassis is not so bad, here or at Assen. This is my first time at the long circuit here, but the hairpins are not difficult corners, and I like the other part of the circuit, so I am enjoying myself. I was pleased when I got in to the 32s this afternoon, and sure I would be higher up the grid but when I got back to the pit, I found I was in the same position. Everybody else also went faster!
More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Racing:
Checa claims provisional front row at Donington
Round: 8 – Donington MotoGP
Circuit: Donington Park
Date: 11 July 2003
Temp: 21°C
Weather: Dry
A late surge from Carlos Checa (Fortuna Yamaha Team) during the opening qualifier for the British MotoGP, held July 11 at Donington Park, produced a valuable provisional front-row start for this weekend’s eighth round of the world championship. The Spaniard, who resides in England, set his best time of 1:31.562 with less than two minutes of the one-hour session remaining – claiming fourth place on a grid that saw the top 13 riders covered by little more than one second. Joining Checa on the front row is reigning world champion Valentino Rossi (Honda), who set the fastest time of the day with a 1:31.196, ahead of Australian Troy Bayliss (Ducati, 1:31.278) and Spain’s Sete Gibernau (Honda, 1:31.527).
Frenchman Oliver Jacque (Gauloises Yamaha Team, 1:31.655) claimed the sixth fastest time, with team-mate Alex Barros also qualifying under the existing lap record –rounding out the top ten with a time of 1:32.039 – despite a less than ideal chassis set-up.
Donington is also the adopted home Grand Prix for Italian rider Marco Melandri (Fortuna Yamaha Team, 1:32.283) who lives in Derby, just a few miles drive from the technically demanding circuit. The MotoGP rookie felt he could have gone faster today, but mistimed his run and was met by the chequered flag as he came round to attempt his flying lap. Melandri finds himself 13th in the overnight standings, just 1.087 seconds behind provisional pole-sitter Rossi.
Shinya Nakano (d’Antin Yamaha Team, 1:32.483) was one of a number of riders to be caught out in the early stages of the session when he slid from his YZR-M1. Despite the fall the Nakano was able to return to the pits and use his spare bike to take a place on the fourth row of the grid.
Fortuna Yamaha Team
Carlos Checa 4th, 1:31.562: “I think for a starting point that’s not too bad. We did a good job this afternoon. It was quite difficult to find the right tyre and I’m not so clear in this area, yet. We’ll do some more work with the tyres tomorrow morning just to make sure. Today I wasn’t feeling too good as I had a headache. I may have picked up a cold so I’ll go to the Clinica tonight to perfect my personal ‘set-up’ for tomorrow.
“The team are working well. They have given me a good bike and that helps to give me a positive feeling that I didn’t have at the start of the season. Now we’re going better we can hopefully score some good results.”
Marco Melandri 13th, 1:32.283: “I’m happy, but at the same time sad about the last lap. On the second to last lap I saw that I had three minutes to go so I thought I could get another lap in. But in the end I was too late. My feeling with the bike is quite good, and I never really had a good feeling at this track in previous years. I feel better here on the M1 than I did on the 250 and I think I can improve quite a lot tomorrow. We’ve changed the set-up a little bit since Assen. I gave feedback to the crew and they’ve altered the suspension geometry a little and it feels better for me. I’m really happy with the work of the team. They say the weather will be good for the next two days so hopefully I’ll get a better grid position tomorrow afternoon!”
Gauloises Yamaha Team
Olivier Jacque 6th, 1:31.655: “We managed to find a good base set-up quite quickly this morning and after that I concentrated on posting fast consistent laps rather than going all out for one quick lap. Consistency over race distance has been our weak point up until now and if we want to put in the kind of performance the bike and I are capable of at this circuit then it’s what we have to focus on.”
Alex Barros 10th, 1:32.039: “I’m not too thrilled about my position but the times are very close and if we manage to make the bike turn a little better I think my time should come down quite a lot. Apart from the bike not turning in fast enough yet, I have no particular set-up problems. Given that I like this circuit and usually go well here I think I should be OK come Sunday.”
D’Antin Yamaha Team
Shinya Nakano 14th, 1:32.483: “Today was a difficult day because I crashed at the beginning of the session when I touched the track kerbing. It meant that I had to finish the session with my second bike. We have been working with the engine response and the chassis set-up, and although the 14th place would be seen as a bad result, overall the day wasn’t too bad for me.”
More, from a press release issued by Team Proton KR:
V5 Home Debut
Jeremy McWilliams: 18th, 1:33.386
Nobuatsu Aoki: 22nd, 1:35.208
Team Proton KR riders placed 18th and 22nd in a hard first day of practice for Sunday’s British GP, home race for the Banbury-based team, and only the fourth race for the radical new V5 four-stroke racer.
But two weeks since the Dutch TT, with two test sessions and gallons of midnight oil burned at the factory, has yielded yet more clear progress. Oil-control problems encountered at Assen have not returned, while the overall package has taken another step forward, as the team tick off the teething problems one by one, and also polish the settings and engineering details to achieve the right balance and feel for the brand new machine.
One problem will take longer to solve – crankshaft failures have dogged the first version of the engine, and the team is still waiting for delivery of redesigned components.
One result is that there only three of the new four-strokes at Donington Park. The team had four bikes at Assen two weeks ago, but a shortage of parts has limited them for this race. Aoki has two of the new machines; McWilliams just one, with one of the old three-cylinder 500cc two-strokes on which they started the season standing by as a spare.
Hopes were also dashed for a first outing for the latest power-up engine that arrived from Rob Muzzy’s workshops in the USA during the break after Assen. This also succumbed to teething troubles. “We always knew it would take time to get the new parts we need,” said team owner Kenny Roberts.
Today’s first practice took place in dry and intermittently sunny conditions, with a cool breeze keeping overall temperatures down. There is one more day of practice before Sunday’s race.
Jeremy McWilliams
I feel as though I am doing everything possible at the minute, but I am limited by how fast the bike can go into the corners. I don’t get on with the slipper clutch yet, and the back wheel tends to lock up. You have to wait until it all comes back into line before you can commit to the corner. I can only brake as late and as hard as the engine will let me. If we can sort that out, there’s another 1.5 seconds, or at least a second, improvement. We’ve improved it already with the tests since the last race, and I think we can get it better for tomorrow.
Nobuatsu Aoki
This morning for the first time I felt really comfortable on the bike. My crew made some geometry changes, with the engine a bit higher, that gives me more confidence. In the afternoon we changed the gearing a little, by changing both front and rear chain sprockets. That obviously changed the chain force, and it felt like anti-squat geometry that wasn’t working right. The whole balance was wrong. Tomorrow we’ll put it back to how it was this morning, then we’ll see.
Kenny Roberts – Team Owner
We only have three bikes because we’re out of parts – though we will get another engine tonight. We had one of the power-up engines here too, but it broke. We’re still having crankshaft problems, and it’s going to be some weeks before we get the redesigned parts. You have to remember that this is still just the first development version of the bike – we never really intended to race it.
More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse:
Ducati Marlboro Men Make great Start at Donington
Ducati Marlboro Team riders Troy Bayliss and Loris Capirossi made a superb start to their weekend at breezy Donington Park this afternoon, placing second and fifth in the opening qualifying session. Bayliss was just 0.082 seconds off provisional pole despite two minor crashes, and even though the Desmosedici has never been here before.
“We’re quite happy with today because now the bike seems to work everywhere, more or less,” said Ducati Marlboro Team technical director Corrado Cecchinelli. “Of course, both our riders know and like this circuit, which obviously helps. Donington is one of the slowest tracks in MotoGP but we don’t ‘turn down’ the engine here, we prefer to leave it the same, so the riders are fully familiar with its behaviour. The only particular set-up feature here is the fork setting – we run a harder front-end here so the forks don’t bottom during braking for the slow hairpins. Troy had a couple of crashes, both going into those slow turns, because he lacked a bit of feeling with the front, so he was finding it difficult to feel the limit. Loris wasn’t able to do as many laps as he wanted this morning because we were making a few changes to the bike, but this afternoon was good for him. He did his fastest laps with potential race tyres, and tomorrow we’ll try to do as many laps as possible on those tyres for Sunday.”
Bayliss bounces back from two spills
Two low-speed spills couldn’t stop Ducati Marlboro Team rider Troy Bayliss from challenging for provisional pole position today. The Aussie, who hasn’t been on the front row since May’s Spanish GP, slid off at Donington’s two slowest turns – the bumpy, off-camber Goddard hairpin this morning and the slightly less bumpy Melbourne hairpin this afternoon. He walked away from both crashes, though he did sustain a minor injury in the second get-off, when his bike’s handlebar struck his left arm.
“They weren’t so much crashes as ballet,” grinned Bayliss after his second graceful fall. “I’d been getting a bit of chatter mid-corner – the bike was trying to tell me something. Both times the bike slid and nearly picked itself up but not quite! You have to be careful to find the right way here – especially at Goddard. The second one happened when I was trying a few different lines at Melbourne. But overall the bike feels good, I feel really comfortable on it. We seem to have a base setting which is pretty good everywhere, and I like this place, even though I’ve never won a race here. The plan for tomorrow is to work some more on grip – this isn’t the grippiest track in the world.”
Capirossi 0.2 seconds off front row
Loris Capirossi, gunning for his seventh consecutive front-row start, ended this afternoon’s opening qualifier in fifth spot, just two hundredths of a second off the provisional front row. And the Ducati Marlboro Team man is in confident mood, because he did his quickest lap on race tyres, not softer qualifying rubber.
“I’m happy with that because we lost some time making adjustments in the morning session,” said the Italian who won his first GP victory here in 1990. “This afternoon was much better and we’re very close to pole, even though I was using quite a hard rear tyre for my best lap. We are still trying to find more feel from the front end but I’m confident we can improve tomorrow when we’ll try some other tyres. We know what we’ve got to do and I’m confident for the weekend.”
More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki:
DIFFICULT DONINGTON CHALLENGE FOR FUCHS KAWASAKI TEAM
Fuchs Kawasaki riders Andrew Pitt and Garry McCoy became the unwilling ‘wheelie-kings’ of Donington Park during today’s first qualifying session for Sunday’s British Grand Prix.
Both riders struggled to keep sufficient front wheel contact with the four kilometre East Midlands circuit, which is proving to be another new and difficult challenge in the development of the Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine.
Even so, Pitt and McCoy both sliced more than two seconds from their morning free practice times as they worked closely with Kawasaki technicians to find solutions to the unique challenge of Donington Park.
The compromise is for smoothness under hard acceleration and braking in the stop-go Melbourne Loop, and for confidence-inspiring steering through the fast sweeps of the Craner Curves and Starkey’s Bridge.
For the first time this season McCoy concentrated on evaluating a softer and ‘more flexible’ version of the ZX-RR chassis, which has been adapted to the Australian’s own set-up requirements. McCoy used this frame specification, which has been employed in recent GP outings by wild card rider Alex Hofmann, for his qualifying run today. The Australian hopes to make further progress tomorrow after running a series of back-to-back tests today against his regular race mount, which features a later, stiffer ZX-RR frame.
On the tyre front, Dunlop have lived up to their Donington reputation with an excellent supply of rubber for the ZX-RR, which in today’s conditions, have produced consistent performance and grip levels.
Andrew Pitt – 19th – 1:34.028
‘I’m struggling to keep the front wheel on the track, especially through the tight, stop-go section; that’s the biggest problem we’ve got here and while it’s something that we’ve had at other tracks, the problem seems magnified at Donington. Another problem is finding the balance between good steering through the fast sections and the stop-go part before the pits. On a positive note, the Dunlops feel good with a lot of consistent grip.’
Garry McCoy – 21st – 1:34.451
‘Wheelies are fun, but they are definitely not the fast way around Donington. It is really hard to keep the front wheel down and it feels like you can only use half to three-quarter throttle in every gear. This is not a new problem, but it seems worse here than other tracks; even going to taller gearing didn’t really solve it. I ran the more flexible frame this afternoon and I’m working out how much different it feels; we’ve got some more settings to try tomorrow and still quite a few tyre runs to do for Dunlop.’
Harald Eckl – Team Manager
‘Donington is a very different kind of track and this is our first time here with the ZX-RR. There have been good and bad points about today. The good is that we’re still on a steep learning curve and amassing data and experience for the future, while the bad is our positions on the provisional grid, as both the team and riders want to be closer to the front. The other good news is that our tyre partner, Dunlop, have supplied us with some good tyres which are very consistent and offer an excellent level of grip.’
More, from a press release issued by WCM:
BRITISH GP – DONINGTON
Qualifying – Friday July 11th 2003
WCM DEBUTS AT DONINGTON
CHRIS BURNS: 23rd 1:35.221
“That was alright for my first real go on a 500. I¹ve never ridden a 500cc four-cylinder two-stroke before other then a handful of laps at Rockingham on Wednesday, so I’m pretty happy with coming out and qualifying today.
The bike is light, small, easy to ride and pretty smooth and I am quite surprised at how good it feels for the age of it. It rode sharp and felt strong.
From Free Practice this-morning it was in my mind throughout the session to not drop it, only having one bike was in the back of my mind. So when I ran wide into the gravel on the fifth lap, I was determined to hold onto it and put it down gently in the litter. I lost 20 minutes in that session, getting back into the garage whilst the mechanics re-fitted the exhaust pipe.
Basically, all I’m missing is some horses down the straight, it’s amazing how much you can gain on the four-strokes in the corners, but as soon as you straighten up the four-strokes are gone.
It’s my second official practice session of the season, the first, back in April in Suzuka. I am really l