Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

by **MadKaw** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:15 am

Circuit: Istanbul
Date: 18/04/2007

KAWASAKI READY TO FIGHT AGAIN IN ISTANBUL
The well-deserved three-week break after the Spanish GP comes to an end this week with the Kawasaki Racing Team heading now to Asia for this weekend's Grand Prix of Turkey at the stunning circuit of Istanbul Park.

An anti-clockwise circuit with a total of 14 turns at which Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet and Olivier Jacque will try to make up for the performance showed in Jerez at the second round of the 2007 season. After racing in Losail and Jerez, which held preseason tests prior to the GP's, this weekend will be the first occasion this year for all MotoGP teams and riders to ride at the undulating 5.340 km Turkish circuit.

Randy de Puniet is ready to make another step forward in the development of the Ninja ZX-RR after the successful two-day test that the Kawasaki Racing Team did in Jerez after a race at which the results were below expectations. The new rear suspension and chassis settings as well as some improvements on the engine side, means the 26-year-old faces with confidence his 20th MotoGP appearance. After having qualified sixth under the rain, his best grid position up to then, Randy de Puniet finished last year's Turkish GP in twelfth position and collected the first MotoGP points of his career. Much more mature and experienced now, higher are the Frenchman's expectations for this year's race.

De Puniet's fellow countryman, Olivier Jacque, also worked hard during the tests in Jerez focusing on suspension and chassis set up. A different rear suspension configuration and the new front fork used there gave him a boost after the hard weekend he went through in Spain. Istanbul Park is not a mystery for the 33-year-old rider, who rode there for the Kawasaki Racing Team in 2005 as a replacement for the injured Alex Hoffmann. But this time, as a factory rider, there won't be any excuses and he is certainly going to fight and put in the performance expected from a former World Champion.

Even though the Bridgestone tyres were not very well suited in the past to the low-friction Istanbul circuit, the Kawasaki Racing Team is confident about the tyre's choice they made for this race weekend after the positive test done in Qatar and following their Bridgestone technicians' advice.

With the tyres pretty much decided and the satisfactory improvements tested in Jerez, now it is time for the riders and their respective crews to put everything together in a bid to get the best result of the season for the Kawasaki Racing Team in Sunday's 22-lap Turkish GP.

Kawasaki MotoGP Pilot #14
“I am really looking forward to this weekend’s race. My beginning of the season was not as good as I expected it to be but Jerez was kind of a turning point. We improved a lot the bike during the tests and I left with a good feeling, which makes me face the Turkish GP with a lot of confidence. However, I don’t want to be under any illusions. Istanbul Park is a nice and fast circuit; I like it! Last year it was difficult to set up the bike but I hope this time, with a year of experience, it is going to be easier. The part that I like the least is the final one, after the back straight. It is too small and slow. It is difficult to say in which position I will finish but for sure I will try my best this weekend.”

Kawasaki MotoGP Pilot #19
“We didn’t have much time to rest since we started in January and this break has been great for all of us to recharge batteries and come back stronger. Now I’m really excited about getting back on the bike, and even more after the successful tests we did in Jerez. The race there was a nightmare for me, but the tests let me leave with a better taste in my mouth. I’m really eager to try the engine improvements in Istanbul. I like the track; it’s quite surprising with all its ups and downs and the first high-speed corner. Definitely, we will need a powerful engine but we cannot forget the last section, which requires an easy handling bike. We don’t know what to expect but I will be happy if I can finish among the first ten riders.”

Kawasaki Racing Director
“Jerez race wasn’t what we were expecting but we left with a very positive feeling. We tested our bike in full wet conditions for the first time as well as a new chassis, some new parts and made adjustments on the geometry to make it better handling. Rear traction, one of the main issues during the weekend, was improved and so was rider’s performance. We also checked some engine parts which seemed to make the engine work better, especially in acceleration. Istanbul is a technical and low-friction circuit that combines fast and low speed sections. Last year’s race was difficult, not only for Bridgestone but also for Kawasaki, but we both have improved since then. It is a fast track and we could be a little handicapped there but sure we will do better with respect to Jerez. The target is always the same one: finish in the top ten. However, we are not going to know where we are until the first practice. We still can improve the bike three or four tenths and I am confident we will do it if we keep working in that direction.”

by **mfzx6r** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 8:36 am

lets hope for a good result

by **red_dave** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 9:52 am

GO TEAM FROG! :twisted:

by **mfzx6r** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 10:41 am

red_dave wrote:GO TEAM FROG!

We'll be watching it live on foxsports Hey Dave

by **red_dave** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:27 pm

mfzx6r wrote:
red_dave wrote:GO TEAM FROG!

We'll be watching it live on foxsports Hey Dave

King oath Mario!

Feel sorry for those guys without it! I'd hate to watch these races after midnight... :lol:

by **mfzx6r** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 1:36 pm

red_dave wrote:
mfzx6r wrote:
red_dave wrote:GO TEAM FROG!

We'll be watching it live on foxsports Hey Dave

King oath Mario!

Feel sorry for those guys without it! I'd hate to watch these races after midnight...

or on a Tuesday !! :lol:

by **MadKaw** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:15 am

Circuit: Istanbul
Date: 20/04/2007

JACQUE SIXTH FASTEST ON OPENING DAY IN ISTANBUL
The three-week break seems to have had a reviving effect on Olivier Jacque, who led the charge for the Kawasaki Racing Team today to finish this afternoon’s free practice session sixth fastest overall at the impressive anti-clockwise circuit of Istanbul Park.

After two days of fickle weather, the forecast have been respected today and a sunny but cold day has characterised the opening day of the Turkish Grand Prix, although overnight rain left the 5.34 km track damp and slippery.

Jacque was one of the first ones to go out on the track in this morning’s hour-long session and the improvements tested at Jerez’s test proved to be on the right direction allowing him to carry out a steady performance since the very first moment.

With the track almost ten degrees warmer in the afternoon, Kawasaki’s 33-year-old kept working on the gearbox and the balance of his Ninja ZX-RR as well as their choice of tyres. After last year’s performance, it was a mystery how competitive Bridgestone tyres’ were going to be and eight of their riders at the top ten was a splendid result for the Japanese manufacturer.

Worse was the debut of Jacque’s teammate. Randy de Puniet was one of the numerous riders to suffer the consequences of this morning’s unpredictable track. The 26-year-old Frenchman was high-sided off his Ninja ZX-RR due to an excess of confidence that led him to rush when opening the throttle on only his second lap at the Turkish circuit.

With his right heel a bit sore, de Puniet had to catch up on his programme in the afternoon. With the same tyre for almost all the session, the young Frenchman worked on the chassis balance and suspension set up in order to improve rear grip and handling of his Ninja ZX-RR.

With both riders satisfied with the base set up of their machines, tomorrow will be the time for thorough work with the tyres and balance adjustments in order to gain consistency on the lap times to face Sunday’s 22-lap Grand Prix with more confidence.

6th – 41 Laps – Best Lap 1’55.651
“We started where we left in Jerez. The bike is more efficient now and both sessions have been quite significant. I felt comfortable riding the bike and my lap times improved in every run I did. The set up we found in Jerez is working well here. The engine is the same one but with the new mapping it seems to be more powerful. We also improved the balance of the bike and the gearbox, as this circuit is a little bit tricky, and worked as well with three different rear tyres and two front ones. We don’t know yet which ones are best and that is what we will try to confirm tomorrow. In short, it has been a positive first day and it is important to start like this.”

12th - 30 Laps - Best Lap 1'56.225
“I had a bad crash in my second lap this morning and I hurt my right heel. It was so painful and I thought I would probably have broken it but it wasn’t broken. I have been lucky! There are no excuses; I made a mistake. I tried to make up the time in the afternoon and we went through slight changes in the set up and also a couple of tyres with positive results. I did 22 laps with the same tyre, and set my best lap on the last one. We will go through it again tomorrow, but anyway, it is quite promising. Stoner was so fast today but all others are quite close. I struggle a bit entering the corners so, apart from the tyres, the plan for tomorrow is to work on the balance of the bike.”

Technical Manager
“Unfortunately, Randy crashed in the morning and that delayed a little bit our programme. The most positive is that he wasn’t injured. Olivier went step by step and progressed a lot throughout the session. Hopefully he will keep doing it tomorrow. About the set up, there are still some points to improve, mainly regarding the feeling, and tomorrow we will keep working on geometry and suspension in order to fix it. Tyre-wise our choices are limited, like everybody else’s, but we are optimistic. The main issue now is the balance as this circuit has a lot of hard-braking points and accelerations. We need more stability if we want to improve the consistency of our lap times.”

1. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'54.200; 2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.779; 3. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +0.862; 4. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha Factory Racing +0.920; 5. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda Gresini +0.958; 6. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.451; 7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +1.507; 8. Alex Hofmann (GER) Pramac d'Antin Ducati +1.536; 9. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +1.665; 10. Marco Melandri (ITA) Honda Gresini +1.710; 11. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts +1.871; 12. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +2.025

by **FrogZ** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:42 am

red_dave wrote:Feel sorry for those guys without it! I'd hate to watch these races after midnight...

Dont know about down south but we get it the same time as you do on free to air. :wink:

The MAIN race that is, then they replay the 250 & 125 after.
BUT we dont get the wind down laps (ie monos burnouts etc.)
Nor do we get WSBK so feel free to keep rubbing it in...

by **Zoidberg** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 7:18 pm

Stoner fastest after Friday practices by nearly 8 tenths! Jacque is a surprising 6th place which will hopefully continue and Chris the V in 7th. It appears Turkey is very much a Bridgie track with 8 of the top 10 running Bridgestone rubber.

by **Zoidberg** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:01 pm

After 3rd practice, Stoner is still fastest but Rossi has narrowed the gap to 3 tenths. Jacque is in 9th and RdP in 10th. Nakkers is second last!

1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 54.085 secs
2. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1min 54.334 secs
3. Toni Elias SPA Gresini Honda (B) 1min 54.496 secs
4. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 54.558 secs
5. Colin Edwards USA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1min 54.561 secs
6. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 54.576 secs
7. John Hopkins USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 54.644 secs
8. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 54.850 secs
9. Olivier Jacque FRA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 54.876 secs
10. Randy de Puniet FRA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 54.921 secs
11. Alex Barros BRA Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (B) 1min 55.034 secs
12. Makoto Tamada JPN Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha (D) 1min 55.081 secs
13. Alex Hofmann GER Pramac d'Antin MotoGP (B) 1min 55.177 secs
14. Marco Melandri ITA Gresini Honda (B) 1min 55.241 secs
15. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Dunlop Tech 3 Yamaha (D) 1min 55.482 secs
16. Carlos Checa SPA Honda LCR (M) 1min 55.570 secs
17. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 55.587 secs
18. Shinya Nakano JPN Konica Minolta Honda (M) 1min 55.711 secs
19. Kenny Roberts USA Team Roberts (M) 1min 56.207 secs

by **Rusty** » Sat Apr 21, 2007 8:05 pm

It's looking more and more like Hayden's gonna need to change camps.

by **MadKaw** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 9:23 am

Circuit: Istanbul
Date: 21/04/2007

KAWASAKI FACES WITH OPTIMISM THE ISTANBUL CHALLENGE
Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet and Olivier Jacque will start tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix from the third and fourth row respectively after qualifying eighth and eleventh at the one-hour long qualifying session that took place today at the Istanbul Circuit Park.

Despite the grid position achieved is not as good as expected, the Kawasaki Team faces with optimism the third race of the 2007 season after showing an important improvement on the engine and chassis side making the riders feel more comfortable and reducing the lap times as the sessions were progressing.

Randy de Puniet made today a huge effort after yesterday’s crash, not only as he had to catch up on his schedule but he had to overcome a huge pain in his right heel and hip. With better surface conditions than yesterday, the 26-year-old worked throughout this morning third free practice session to refine the race set up and checking again the softer rear race tyre option that yesterday left him with a good impression.

However, an increase of the track temperature in the afternoon made de Puniet and his crew go for a harder option as a consequence of an increase of rear sliding. Half way through the session, like happened in Jerez, de Puniet was the first rider to switch to the qualifying tyres in the one-hour long qualifying session holding the pole position until the last minutes. While the Kawasaki rider couldn’t improve his lap times with his other two sets due to the over-sliding, his rivals took advantage of their sets relegating him to the eighth position.

De Puniet’s team-mate, Olivier Jacque achieved today his best qualifying position of the season setting his best lap time almost under the chequered flag and with his third set of qualifying tyres. Even though the experienced French rider was losing a lot in the first intermediate, he made up the time in the second and third and lost out on the third row by less than a tenth.

Satisfied with the race set up of his Ninja ZX-RR that he and his crew ended up with in the morning, Jacque knows that the start will be vital if he is to achieve his aim of a top ten position tomorrow.

With the top ten in mind, the Kawasaki Racing Team faces with optimism tomorrow’s 22-lap race after the improvement in feeling and consistency of both riders and the Ninja ZX-RR performance, with the only doubt remaining of which will be the tyre choice for the race. Further discussions tonight and tomorrow’s weather conditions will resolve it.

8th - 46 Laps - Best Lap 1’53.706
"My heel is still sore but the hip is even more painful but I had to put up with it and did the best I could. This morning we did many little adjustments in the bike and worked for the whole session with the same front and rear tyre, which was the soft option that I liked yesterday. It went pretty well but in the afternoon it was sliding a lot due to the increase of the track temperature. This is the reason why we tried a harder one but it was sliding a little so we are not sure which one we will use tomorrow. My first qualifying worked quite well but I had problems with the other two. I don’t know what happened, we need to check but the engine drop down and the front end was suddenly moving a lot. Anyway, I am confident because my feeling on the bike is quite good as is my race pace.”

11th – 48 Laps – Best Lap 1’53.847
"I was expecting a better result at the qualifying session but the qualifying tyres didn't offer as much improvement in side grip over the race tyre as we were expecting, and there was some confusion as well at the end with lots of riders waiting for the Ducatis so they could follow them. The wind didn’t help to find the right line and the balance of the bike. We did some suspension adjustments this morning, and tried two different tyres but the choice will depend on tomorrow’s weather. I am sure that if we do a good start we will be able to get the aimed top ten positions.”

Kawasaki Racing Director
"This weekend has been quite positive so far. We brought some new chassis parts and the engine is working very well. Checking the speed sheets, we can be satisfied. And the chassis parts helped to improve the lap times as well. We are satisfied too with both riders’ performance. We are working on the right direction and tomorrow our aim is to have both riders at the top ten. Seventh position for Randy and eighth for Olivier can be possible. And this is our target.”

1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Yamaha Factory Racing 1'52.795; 2. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha Factory Racing +0.149; 3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +0.176; 4. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.580; 5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.764; 6. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.818; 7. Jeremy McWilliams (GBR) Ilmor MotoGP +0.842; 8. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +0.911; 9. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP +1.040; 10. Toni Elias (SPA) Honda Gresini +1.052; 11. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.052; 12. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda +1.193

by **mfzx6r** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 10:44 am

FrogZ wrote:
red_dave wrote:Feel sorry for those guys without it! I'd hate to watch these races after midnight...

Dont know about down south but we get it the same time as you do on free to air.
The MAIN race that is, then they replay the 250 & 125 after.
BUT we dont get the wind down laps (ie monos burnouts etc.)
Nor do we get WSBK so feel free to keep rubbing it in...

it starts at 6:45pm live on foxtel :wink:

by **red_dave** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:01 pm

45 mins 'til the GP telecast starts!

Well for those with Fox Sports that is... :lol:

by **Strika** » Sun Apr 22, 2007 6:39 pm

talk to ya's all when it's over. Going inside to watch it now!!!

go Casey!

Kawasaki Sportsbike Riders Club - Australia - Online Forum

Kawasaki Moto GP - Istanbul

Kawasaki Moto GP - Istanbul

Who is online