Kawasaki Moto GP Test - P.I.

Circuit: Phillip Island
Date: 26/11/2008



SUCCESSFUL FIRST DAY AT THE ISLAND FOR KAWASAKI
The Kawasaki Racing Team were met with perfect conditions as they arrived at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia today, to start the first of three days of development testing ahead of the annual test ban, which comes into force on 1st December.

This is an important test for Kawasaki, as all the data collected during these three days in the southern hemisphere will be fed directly in the development programme for the 2009 Ninja ZX-RR, which is due to make its track debut at Sepang in February.

To increase the amount of data collected, Kawasaki's regular MotoGP pilots were joined in Australia by test and development rider, Olivier Jacque, with the three of them clocking up more than 1000 kilometres around the Phillip Island circuit on the opening day.

Following on from the Valencia test, which was curtailed by rain on the second day, Marco Melandri used the first day of testing in Australia to continue his familiarisation with Kawasaki's Ninja ZX-RR. The 26-year-old Italian completed 93 laps of the 4.445km circuit, posting a best lap time of 1'32.5s. Melandri continued to make changes to the Ninja ZX-RR, to tailor the machine to his riding style, but was hampered today by a lack of feeling from the front end of the bike.

Melandri will work with his crew and Kawasaki's suspension engineers overnight to improve front end feel, and is confident that if they can make steps forward in this area then lap times in the low 1'31s bracket are achievable tomorrow.

For Hopkins the first day of testing at Phillip Island was a painful one. The 25-year-old Anglo-American suffered with a painful left knee and ankle injury, sustained during a high-speed practice crash at Assen back in June. The fractured ankle was fixed with a plate after the crash, but the tendons rubbing on the metal plate every time he changed gear left Hopkins' left leg swollen and sore after 76 laps of the Phillip Island circuit today.

Ignoring the pain, Hopkins worked closely with new crew chief, Naoya Kaneko, to make improvements to his Ninja ZX-RR throughout the day, and the Kawasaki pilot is confident of improving his lap times tomorrow.

Jacque's main focus during the first day of testing was on evaluating a revised chassis and new electronics package on the Ninja ZX-RR. The 35-year-old former world champion tested the new chassis, which features revised geometry, for the first time during the morning session, but was quickly able to match the lap times achieved on the machine that his two teammates were testing.

Jacque is confident that the new chassis offers many advantages over the old; a point he is keen to prove by reducing his lap times around the 4.445km Phillip Island circuit tomorrow, once he's had more time to refine the set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR to suit the characteristics of the new chassis.



Hopkins
#21 - 76 Laps - Best Lap 1'33.3
"We ride a lot more during testing than we do on a race weekend, and that has caused me some problems today. The left knee and ankle I damaged in the crash at Assen has been really painful. Every time I change gear the tendons in my ankle rub across the metal plate that was inserted to fix the bones, and this causes the ankle to swell up a lot. My knee also kept locking out, especially on the left-hand corners, so I'm not in great physical shape. Having said that, it's been good working with my new crew chief, Naoya. We communicate together very well and we've definitely made some improvements to the bike. Naoya is very methodical in his approach, but he also has a fresh way of looking at the problems and, as a result, we've made some big steps forward already. Now I just need more time on track, injuries permitting. Phillip Island has always been a difficult circuit for me, and I've never had a good result here, so the more time I can get on track over the final two days of testing the better."



Melandri
#19 - 85 Laps - Best Lap 1'32.4
"Today we've focussed on evaluating a new chassis on the Ninja ZX-RR, with positive results. This morning I was able to match my lap times on the older bike very quickly, but I think that at this point we are only using around 80% of the potential of the new chassis. With more set-up time tomorrow I hope we can get closer to using 100% of this potential and reduce our lap times as a result. We're also working with a revised electronics package on the bike, which gives us more options for fine-tuning the power delivery characteristics, and again the initial results have been positive. We will continue to work on refining the system over the next two days, and collecting the data necessary for further development back in Japan."



Kawasaki Competition Manager
"We came to Phillip Island to test because we've had some problems at this circuit in the past. So far it looks like it was a good decision, as the conditions have been perfect for testing most of the day, with only the wind causing some issues this afternoon. Marco has continued his familiarisation with the Ninja ZX-RR, and already he's working with his crew and making improvements. He had some issues with the front end of the bike today, but we think we have a solution for this that will improve things for tomorrow. John was not in the best of condition today; he was short on sleep as a result of jet lag and his Assen injuries were obviously causing him some pain on the bike. Hopefully, after a good night's sleep tonight, he'll be firing on all cylinders again tomorrow. Olivier was the fastest of our three riders today, which is very positive given that he's testing the chassis that may well form the basis of our 2009 Ninja ZX-RR. Hopefully he can continue to improve tomorrow with more time on the bike, as the data from this test is critical to our ongoing development programme in Japan. Overall it's been a positive first day of testing."

Marco faster than Hopper hey...

There's a surprise.

I think Hopper's over rated. If Kawasaki can give Marco a bike he likes, he'll walk all over Hopkins. And hopefully not be consistently second last. If they can't, his season at Ducati will look like heaven compared to 2009.

Oh dear, 1'32.5 is not going to cut it next year How the hell are they going to drop the 3 - 4 seconds they need to be competitive
I'm REALLY hoping for a few podiums in '09 but the Green team are going to hafta pull their fingers out for that to happen.
The Suzy boys were down there as well, anyone know how they went?

they dont even have the new bike yet.
so hopefull there is a second or 2 in the new bike

they dont even have the new bike yet.
so hopefull there is a second or 2 in the new bike

Only if it's 1000cc...

Oh dear, 1'32.5 is not going to cut it next year How the hell are they going to drop the 3 - 4 seconds they need to be competitive
I'm REALLY hoping for a few podiums in '09 but the Green team are going to hafta pull their fingers out for that to happen.
The Suzy boys were down there as well, anyone know how they went?

3.5 seconds has them below lap record pace. If they can get to consistent 1:30's on race tyres I reckon they're doing OK ... but I have to agree, it doesn't look good at this stage

i wanna see what this brand new ZXRR is like, i really hope its somewhere near the goods.... hell even if it was only as good as the customer hondas i'd be happy... lol

Man even Wattie could manage in the one fourties on his ten, we should have been down there this week .

Circuit: Phillip Island
Date: 27/11/2008



KAWASAKI CONTINUES GOOD WORK DESPITE RAIN AT THE ISLAND
Work continued in Australia today with the second of three days development testing for the Kawasaki Racing Team, which brought positive results, despite mixed weather conditions at the Phillip Island circuit.

Kawasaki's regular MotoGP pilots John Hopkins and Marco Melandri, who are joined by test and development rider, Olivier Jacque, were forced to halt their test sessions today due to brief rain showers. However, all three riders continued to make further improvements to their race machines and improved their lap times from the opening day of the test.

Melandri, who continued his familiarisation with the Ninja ZX-RR during yesterday, evaluated the revised chassis previously tested by Olivier Jacque in today's session. The 26-year-old Italian completed 64 laps of the 4.445km circuit and significantly reduced his lap time from yesterday by nearly a second to 1'31.8s, despite crashing without injury at turn four late on in the afternoon.

Melandri's crew will rebuild his machine ready for the final day of testing tomorrow when it is hoped dry weather will allow the Italian rider to continue development and make further refinements in set-up to suit his riding style.

Hopkins continued to suffer from pain caused by the aggravation from the plate in his ankle, which fixed a fracture sustained during a high-speed crash at Assen back in June. The 25-year-old Anglo-American has found it difficult to put pressure onto the footpegs of his Ninja ZX-RR during acceleration out of the turns and has used extensive strapping on his ankle during his 51 laps around the Phillip Island circuit today.

With the hindrance of his injury, Hopkins has worked through the pain to evaluate tyres for Bridgestone, using the same specification machine he signed off the 2008 season with at Valencia last month. The Kawasaki pilot posted a best time of 1:32.5s, although the focus was very much on tyre development rather than a fast lap time.

With more rest overnight Hopkins and his crew hope to conclude the test tomorrow with the collection of more much needed data for the winter development of the Ninja ZX-RR ahead of the test ban, which comes into force on December 1st.

Jacque followed on from yesterday to continue his evaluation of the new chassis, which features revised geometry, during today's test session. The 35-year-old former world champion completed 37 laps of the Phillip Island circuit and improved his lap time by three tenths of a second to end the day with a best time of 1:32.1s. Jacque will conclude the three-day test tomorrow with more evaluations of development parts for the 2009 Ninja ZX-RR, which is due to make its track debut at Sepang in February.



Hopkins
#21 - 51 Laps - Best Lap 1'32.5
"I am suffering quite badly with the pain from my ankle, as I just can't put weight on the pegs when accelerating out of the turns. We've done a lot of icing and strapping, but it's still very painful to ride. This test is important for us, and today we've spent a lot of time testing tyres using the same set-up we had in Valencia, as this gives us a reference point. We're not chasing lap times at the minute, particularly with having an injury, but we've definitely found some interesting results and gathered the all-important data we need. Hopefully with a bit more rest we can get out on track tomorrow for the last time this year to conclude our test with plenty of laps under our belt."


Melandri
#19 - 37 Laps - Best Lap 1'31.8
"With the rain today we've not been able to complete as many laps as we'd hoped. We've also not really improved our lap time as much as we would have liked, but we have tried many different set-up changes, with a focus on the chassis geometry. The wind was also a big problem today as it was very strong and changed direction from morning to afternoon. I'm not sure how much this affects our bike in terms of set-up, but it was very noticeable out on track. We have some more ideas to try tomorrow, but we still have a lot of work to do if we want to achieve the lap times we are aiming for."



Kawasaki Competition Manager
"Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been ideal today and we had to stop the test twice due to rain. Marco tested the new chassis and he has continued to improve his lap time, despite crashing this afternoon. His crew will rebuild the bike overnight and hopefully, with some good weather, we can continue to gather more information from him tomorrow. John is definitely struggling a little with his injury, but this test is very important for him and the team for our machine development. Hopefully with some rest overnight he can continue tomorrow because we need as much information from him as possible. I think we are coming closer to where we need to be, and the rider comments are all very similar, which is positive in terms of development, as we know where we need to concentrate our efforts. We are aware we won't find a big solution in these three days, but from this test we have a better idea of strategy for our winter development programme ready for next season."

Well it looks like the Coppers have found a use for Dave3's 7zilla.
FFS Bayliss was sub 1'30'''s on the 1750CC Kombi motor'd 1080 Fukati
Not nearly good enough "team Green".
But at least it's not Westy "stopping at honda to pay tolls" drooning around on his own like last years Praccie.
Nanna

race pace for last year at PI was high 1.28 to 1.29...we have no hope..

i was going to post here but im on HIATUS sorry.

race pace for last year at PI was high 1.28 to 1.29...we have no hope..

Are you sure that was race pace?? I thought thoughs times was quilifying and lap record.

i was going to post here but im on HIATUS sorry.

does anyone else see the irony??