Yearly Archives: 2012

What a stunning display of riding prowess by team mates Cal Crutchlow and Andrea Dovizioso! In the third round of the 2012 MotoGP season, both riders for Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team fought a stunning battle on track at Estoril as they have in the previous two rounds. The pair were barely split by more than just a couple of tenths throughout the 28-lap race, with British rider Crutchlow holding the early advantage having started third on grid.

Dovizioso who had to start from the third row, seized fourth place from Crutchlow with a clinical overtake at the first corner on lap five.

Crutchlow shadowed the former 125cc World Champion for the remainder of the race but Dovizioso rode a faultless race to ensure he finished top non-factory rider to collect 13 valuable World Championship points.

Today’s result means Crutchlow remains in fourth place in the overall rankings on 37-points, with Dovizioso just two-points further back in fifth. Dovizioso and Crutchlow’s brilliant consistency also helped the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team strengthen its position in third place in the Team World Championship standings heading to the squad’s vital home race in Le Mans on May 20.

Andrea Dovizioso 4th – 35 points:

“I am very satisfied with my performance in today’s race and particularly with the pace I could run because I was very fast and consistent throughout. It is a good way to end the weekend because a few small problems on Friday and Saturday meant we could not work as much as we would have liked to improve the bike. I am happy because the target this weekend was to reduce the gap to the fastest and we managed to achieve that. But the fact I could keep the speed for 28-laps that I was not able to find in practice is a very positive point. It is a good fourth place but there’s no doubt starting from third on the grid hampered me at the beginning of the race because I couldn’t even try to stay with the leading group. Maybe it would have been closer or maybe we could have even been with Pedrosa, but we will never know. Now I am looking forward to racing in Le Mans because it is the home race of the Tech 3 Team and it is also a raced sponsored by Monster Energy, so everybody has a lot of motivation to do well.”

Cal Crutchlow 5th – 37 points:

“I’m pretty happy with fifth place but I would like to have been a bit closer to the top three like I was in Jerez. Fair play to Andrea because he rode a great race once he passed me early on and it didn’t matter how much pressure I put on him, he never cracked. I certainly couldn’t have done anything else to try and pass him but it is another top five finish and I am still fourth in the points. I had a couple of issues, which didn’t help me. I knew rear grip was going to be an issue in the race and that’s how it turned out. I’m not really sure why so we will have to have a close look at the data to understand this. Stopping the bike was also a bit of a problem and it felt like I was having to push a lot harder than the four in front of me to run the times. But it was a good race with Andrea and we have carried on the momentum from the first two races and now we can look forward to Le Mans. That’s a massive weekend for Monster and Tech 3 Yamaha, so I’ll be determined to be back fighting for the podium again.”

Herve Poncharal – Team Manager:

“That’s three races now in 2012 that have been exciting but also nerve-wracking to watch as the manager of the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team. On one hand I want to see all the races like this with Andrea and Cal battling inside the top five, but it is always tense when they are fighting so hard together. But credit to both of them because they delivered another fantastic double result for Tech 3 and today confirmed how strong our line-up is in 2012 and how competitive the Yamaha YZR-M1 package is. I’m really happy for Andrea because I think a few times this season he has been quite unlucky but he needed to be riding at his best to keep Cal at bay today. We knew that Cal was never going to give him a moment to relax but he dealt with that pressure extremely well. It was another great ride by Cal today and a measure of how far he has come to be battling again comfortably inside the top five. Clearly I think for the whole team it’s very exciting to see us being so competitive. We are fighting at the front in every session and every race and keeping Yamaha and our sponsors happy, which is vitally important. Now we look forward to our home race in France where we will arrive higher in the Championship than we have ever been going to Le Mans. We are excited and hoping to perform for the French fans as we have in the first three races.”

Yamaha Factory Racing rider Jorge Lorenzo continued his unbroken podium record at Estoril today. Starting from fourth on the grid he was quickly into second at the first corner and held the position to the line after a determined effort to stay with race leader Casey Stoner. Lap three of the race saw Lorenzo deliver a new fastest lap record for Estoril of 1’36.909. A single point separates him from the current Championship leader Stoner.

Ben Spies started well from fifth, slotting into fourth in the first corner before running wide and dropping back several places. The Texan made a couple of mistakes and dropped to ninth where he battled Stephan Bradl for eighth, eventually passing the German to take the position at the line. Spies will arrive in Le Mans in 11th position with 18 points.

Jorge Lorenzo, 2nd

“I’m happy with this second position because I was expecting to fight for third or fourth and not the victory. The bike improved a lot from the practices so it was possible. I had two problems, at the start I used a lot of clutch and burnt it so for two or three laps it was burning and I lost a lot of distance from Casey. Also at the end Casey was very strong. After this everything was working well and I made a fastest lap, which is not very common for me. We are just one point behind Casey, hopefully we can improve something on the bike tomorrow and be in front again.”

Ben Spies, 8th

“Very mixed emotions today, this is actually the first time in three years that I’ve finished a race here. As I told the team, I made four or five big mistakes during the race, they cost me time and places. It was a rough race but I’m continuing to build my confidence, I don’t enjoy Estoril so I’m happy to have finished. Now we go to Le Mans which is a great event with an amazing crowd but another track I don’t love so much! I’m happy with the bike and it’s performance so we’ll continue to build my confidence and improve the results.”

Wilco Zeelenberg, Team Manager

“A fantastic result after a very tough race weekend. Both Jorge and the bike got on very harmoniously in the race and he was able to push. We are only one point behind Casey and we’re consistently finishing on the podium which is important. We’ll test tomorrow to see what developments we can use to improve and see what happens in Le Mans in two weeks time.”

Massimo Meregalli, Team Director

“Ben had some difficulties during the race, he made a few mistakes, I think the first one put a lot of pressure on him so he was trying to push harder and was unable to. The most important thing is he got back his feeling and was quite satisfied with the set up which gives us good confidence for the coming races. Tomorrow we will test some new items, let’s hope they give us some good results. Jorge did a really great job and pushed really hard. He never gave Casey room to breathe and he couldn’t do more than that. This is the right attitude to get the title.”

Casey Stoner is in ominous form.  After being relegated to third position in the season opener at Qatar due to an arm pump problem, Stoner had bounced back last week to break his Jerez jinx to win there and this week he broke the Estoril to grab victory and lead in the MotoGP series.  Jorge Lorenzo who had a disappointing qualification yesterday made a good start to settle down behind Stoner who started from pole and took the lead right in the beginning and at one point Lorenzo looked as if he could overcome Stoner and fight for victory.  But towards the winding down laps of the race, Stoner upped the ante to extend his lead over Lorenzo by one and a half seconds and comfortably took victory.  Through out the race Dani Pedrosa, Stoner’s teammate on the other Repsol Honda remained in third place.  This is the third race in succession that the same three have finished on the podium and the second in succession where Stoner has been on the top step followed by Yamaha’s Lorenzo and Dani Pedrosa.  Lorenzo’s teammate Ben Spies continued to have horrors and could only manage an eighth place despite having shown promise in qualifying yesterday.

Much behind the first three was an interesting battle between teammates at Tech3 Yamaha, Andrea Dovizioso and Cal Crutchlow.  In the first two races, the Englishman Crutchlow took fourth position and this had led to a war of words with Dovizioso who simply put Crutchlow’s success down to the increased 1000cc which was what the latter was used to in World Superbikes.  Crutchlow’s response was that Dovizioso had to learn how to ride the Yamaha after having campaigned all his life and in all categories on Honda machinery.  Crutchlow initially held the advantage over Dovizioso but the latter got the better of the former to hold fourth position.  Crutchlow despite his best attempts had to settle for fifth place this time around.  Both Crutchlow and Dovizioso are not just fighting for their positions in Tech3 Yamaha team but also are contending for the factory Yamaha position which everyone seems to sure will fall vacant at the end of this year due to the under performing Ben Spies.

Alvaro Bautista’s confidence with the Honda has been increasing and he rode to a lonely 6th place while Valentino Rossi finally accepted that he has to work with the machinery given to him and therefore rode to a seventh position ahead of all other Ducatis and especially ahead of Hayden who outperformed him in the first couple of GPs leading to many punters in the paddock to say that for all practical purposes Nicky Hayden was now the leader.  Rossi put a point across yesterday by out qualifying Hayden but was still behind Pramac Ducati of Hector Barbera.  Today in the race however, Rossi  righted that too by ensuring that he finished as the first Ducati.  Spies followed in eighth but only after he fought off the challenge of Stefan Bradl riding the LCR Honda.  The LCR Honda is rumoured to be the bike that was meant for the now late Marco Simoncelli and if that is indeed the case, then Bradl is riding a factory spec Honda albeit in a satellite team.  Barbera on the Pramac Ducati was able to stay ahead of the factory Ducati of Hayden who could only finish in eleventh position.

From then on it was a list of CRT machines led by Aleix Espargaro who fought with teammate Randy De Puniet to take the honour of being the top CRT rider for the second race in succession.  Apart from the afore mentioned ART bikes, Danilo Petrucci riding the Ioda machine featuring a custom frame and an Aprilia engine to finish in the points in fifteenth position while fourteenth went to the Honda CRT of Michele Pirro.  Karel Abraham on the Cardion AB Ducati,Mattia Pasini on the Speed Master ART, Yonny Hernandez on the FTR Kawasaki, James Ellison on the PBM ART and Ivan Silva Inmotec Kawasaki did not finish the race.  Colin Edwards who broke his clavicle in yesterday’s qualifying did not start the race.

Saturday’s event-filled qualifying session for the Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril saw Ducati Team riders Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden working hard to find a setup for tomorrow’s race. The Italian finished the day ninth-quickest, with his American teammate one position back, and while neither rider is enthusiastic with his grid spot, the session marked a step forward for the team in terms of gap to the front.

Valentino Rossi 9th on the grid with a fastest lap of 1:38.059:

“The day wasn’t bad in the end. We’re on the third row, 0.8 seconds behind pole position, and we’re matching the pace of the intermediate group, after the top four. We’ve worked better this weekend, steadily making small improvements, and now I’m able to ride closer to the limit and push harder on the bike. We have a lot of work to do, especially on acceleration, where we’re losing time, but for sure it’s our best session so far. We managed to improve in T4, the sector where we had problems yesterday. We loaded the rear of the bike to improve grip, which worked. I’m also doing better on the brakes, so I should be able to fight better during battles. We’ll see. Tyres will be important, because the soft is difficult to manage to the end, whereas with the hard, it’s very difficult to push in the beginning. We’re leaning toward the soft, but we’ll wait for tomorrow to decide.”

Nicky Hayden 10th on the grid with a fastest lap of 1:38.253:

“Obviously, this isn’t where we wanted to be. I’m one second from the top, which sometimes isn’t that far off, but here I’m in tenth place. All weekend, we just haven’t been able to find that last little bit, as I’ve had a lot of little problems. For whatever reason, we’re not getting the bike to work the tyre properly, and it’s not really gripping the track. I used the same hard tyre the entire morning session, so I thought I’d take more of a step in qualifying. Some of my used tyres still look like new, but they’re just spinning. We’ve got to sort that out and improve change of direction. We’ve only got 20 minutes in the morning, but we’ll see what we can come up with. It’s going to be difficult. On a positive note, I went much faster than I did here last year in qualifying.”

Crutchlow hasn’t qualified lower than fourth in 2012 and once again this Saturday put up a tough fight for pole position. The short delay in proceedings due to the Edwards’ unfortunate accident didn’t knock Crutchlow out of his stride and five minutes were left on the clock when he surged to the top of the timesheets with a lap of 1.37.289. That time kept Crutchlow at the top of the standings until just over two minutes remained and at the end he was only 0.101s behind Stoner and 0.088s adrift of Pedrosa.

Andrea Dovizioso will start tomorrow’s race from the front of the third row of the grid having set the seventh quickest time. The Italian was disappointed with his pace on the soft Bridgestone tyres in the decisive final moments of the session.

Cal Crutchlow 3rd on the grid with a fastest lap of 1.37.289

“To be back on the front row again is a really great achievement for the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team and this is reward again for all of our hard work. I am really happy as well to be the fastest Yamaha because that proves what a good job all of us are doing. I was on the hard tyre for the first part of the session working on the race set-up and it felt a little different to what I am used to, but we made a lot of progress with the bike during the session. I felt really comfortable and confident on the soft tyre and felt I could be fighting for the front row. I was actually going to scrap my best lap but I made up some time in the last sector and it was good enough for the top three. I’m happy with that but we still have to improve the bike a bit more for the race. I want it to turn a little better and brake a little better. I am looking forward to the race but it is going to be a difficult job. We know Jorge is going to be there and a podium will be very hard but as always I’ll try my best.”

Andrea Dovizioso 7th on the grid with a fastest lap of 1.37.917

“I’m quite angry to have qualified down in seventh today because we could have done much better. It is always tricky when you have to start from the third row of the grid and I hope my starting position is not going to hamper me at the start of the race. Getting a good start will be crucial but I am really satisfied about my pace on the hard tyre. I was third fastest and only 0.2s behi nd Lorenzo on the hard tyre, so I think my rhythm for the race is going to be very competitive. Qualifying didn’t go quite according to plan. I had a small problem with one engine so we had to check that and switch to the second bike in the middle of the session. And when I went out on the new tyre there was the red flag. I think without a couple of issues we could have been higher up the grid. I feel we have made a lot of progress this weekend, but unfortunately that hasn’t been reflected on the timesheets.”

Casey Stoner took his first pole position of the season with Dani Pedrosa in second just 0.013 off his team mate in a dramatic qualifying practice session at the Estoril circuit.

Casey Stoner said “In general it’s been a good day for us and I’m really happy to get pole. FP3 was positive and we made progress on the bike, we had the bike turning well with good front feeling. Unfortunately in qualifying we tried to improve it further but managed to lose the good points! We did find a little better feeling in the rear but we couldn’t get the bike to turn and do what we wanted it to. We didn’t really feel we had the pace to be on pole today, but after the red flag came out with 10 minutes remaining we were able to get out there and put together a good enough lap to take pole.

“We’ve been pretty fast in every session and our race pace gives us confidence but we’ll have to have a think about which set up direction we go for in warm up and hope this is the best for the race. I was sorry to see Colin has broken his collar bone again and I send him by best wishes” he added.

The Repsol Honda Team is prepared for a big battle tomorrow with Casey looking for his first victory at this track in the premier class.

“I think we did a good job in qualifying and to be on the front row here after all the issues we had is a great thing. I couldn’t put too many good laps together because I had some problems on the bike, first with the brakes, then with the electronics and by the end I was feeling good but we had to stop again due to the red flag. I honestly think that in the last minutes of the session I could have taken the pole but there was a lot of traffic and I missed it by just 0.013. The race will be very tough tomorrow because the track conditions are poor, the grip is low and it makes the tyres spin a lot. We will try to set up our bike a little better for tomorrow to do our best in the race” said Dani Pedrosa.

Dani will be hoping to repeat the win he achieved here last year and also take his 100th career podium.

In an unfortunate turn of events, Randy De Puniet lost his front and crashed into a completely unaware Colin Edwards who was off the racing line on an out-lap. While Randy De Puniet suffered abrasions to his fingers, contusions to his left shoulders and is reported to be hurting while breathing, Edwards was diagnosed to have a fractured left collarbone by the circuit medical centre.

After the crash Colin Edwards was taken to the Circuits clinic and was taken care of by Dr. Sarmiento and his team. He was under observation after the accident and has finally been release to leave the clinic. The American rider will have to fly tomorrow to Barcelona in order to have surgery on his left collarbone. The surgery will most likely be performed by Dr. Javier Mir on Monday. Dr. Mir previously operated on Edwards during the crash at Catalunya last year where he fractured his right collarbone.

“We solved a few problems that we had this morning. We did a few laps on old tires and when we changed to the news tires. With the old tires he already improved the lap time from the fasted one he made this morning. The bike seemed to feel good for him and its just a shame to finish the weekend like this with such an unfortunate crash.” said Kornelis Veldeman – Crew Chief

“Our main concern is Colin´s wellbeing. We are hoping he will have surgery performed on Monday by Dr. Javier Mir in Barcelona and this is our main concern. The only positive outcome of today would be that the difficulties encountered during this morning’s free practice were solved and during qualifying unfortunately he wasn’t able to get in his fast lap.” said Marco Curioni – Managing Director.