Reflections on 2007 for Rossi, Stoner and Pedrosa

Thursday, 05 June 2008
Last year´s Catalunya top three were all in action on Thursday afternoon, speaking to the media ahead of what is expected to be another thrilling race.

On the eve of the 2008 edition of the Gran Premi Cinzano de Catalunya, last year´s top three finishers were all present at the pre-event press conference to talk about past, present and future for the Barcelona visit.
Casey Stoner, currently on the back foot in his quest to retain the MotoGP World Championship crown, finds himself in a very different scenario to this time last season. He was the winner of the three-way tussle in 2007, extending his lead in the standings, but now finds himself playing catch-up from fourth place.
`This has always been one of my favourite tracks, even when I started riding in the Spanish Championship,´ said Stoner, whose 2007 triumph was his first Grand Prix win in northeast Spain.
`Right now we´re not chasing the championship; we´re just taking things race-by-race in kind of the same way that we did last year. Right now we have nothing to lose except for more points, so we´re just going to do what we can.´
Valentino Rossi, current leader of the World Championship and on a three-race winning streak, lost out to Stoner in last year´s thriller. He acknowledged the fine form in which he finds himself, and sees now reason why things can´t work as well as in Mugello just one week ago.
`We are coming from a positive period, and this is also a circuit that I like,´ said the Fiat Yamaha man. `For this track we can use a similar setting to what we ran in Mugello, but we will wait until tomorrow to adapt it. The last race here was a great battle, with a lot of overtaking.´
Whilst joining in the plaudits for the 2007 race, home rider Dani Pedrosa also made his affections for the track known. In addition, the Spaniard confirmed that Repsol Honda will not be running the pneumatic-valve engine in Catalunya until Monday´s post-race test.
`This track is a special place, close to home. Last time it was probably the best race of the year, but I wasn´t really involved so much at the end,´ admitted Pedrosa. `I will probably not be using the pneumatic valve engine here. I think that it will be clearer and more intelligent to use it in the Monday test.´

Gawd, sounds hideous... but at least it's blue. What number is Marco Matterazzi in the national team? If VR doesn't wear his number, Marco might feel snubbed...

Vale Will Have His Number

How weird is this - I got my Minichamps Rossi riding figure today from Sari 2006 with Vale wearing Marco Matterazzi's Italian World cup winning shirt.....By the way, Marco's international shirt number was 23 (half Vale's 46 number)

Bridgestone Outlines The Demands The Catalunya Circuit Places On MotoGP Tires

Jun 05, 2008, ©Copyright 2008, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
From a press release issued by Bridgestone:
Bridgestone MotoGP Briefing - Round 7: Catalunya
Thursday 5 June 2008

With the sensational 1-2 finish from Mugello still fresh in its mind, Bridgestone heads to the Circuit de Catalunya near Barcelona for the seventh round of the 2008 MotoGP world championship. Valentino Rossi leads the classification by 12 points after three consecutive wins in China, France and Italy. Second-placed man from Italy, Casey Stoner, scored one of his ten wins in 2007 at the Circuit de Catalunya after an epic cat and mouse battle with Rossi and Dani Pedrosa right up to the chequered flag. The Ducati champion won the 25-lap duel from Rossi by a marginal 0.069s with third placed Pedrosa just 0.390s adrift making it the closest podium of the season. It was the first time that a Bridgestone-shod rider had even finished on the podium in Catalunya.

The hectic run of European races demands an equally aggressive rate of technical development for tyre manufacturers. Bridgestone has sent several hundred tyres from the technical centre in Tokyo, and from its European warehouse in Germany, to Barcelona, including some new specification rear race tyres that were successfully tested after the grand prix in Le Mans just a few weeks ago.

Hiroshi Yamada - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Sport Unit

“The last few races have seen a gradual improvement in our general competitiveness which has left me quite pleased. It has been great to see the last three races won on our tyres, but the Italian GP also saw several teams challenge for the podium with Valentino winning, Casey in second and Alex fourth, truly excellent performances. We can not take anything for granted in this sport, though, and we expect a real challenge from our rivals again this weekend. Casey won here last year, which was the first time a Bridgestone rider had even finished on the podium in Catalunya, so I hope we can draw from this experience and get another good result this weekend.”

Tohru Ubukata – Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Race Tyre Development

“The Circuit de Catalunya is a technical circuit with an asymmetrical proportion of corners with eight right-handers and just five left. The right-hand side of the tyre is put under considerable stress around the lap due to this frequency of long, right-handers, which significantly increase the temperatures on that side of the tyre. The asphalt surface is quite smooth, similar to somewhere like Shanghai, and quite tough on tyres. While soft tyres would enhance immediate grip levels, the abrasion over race distance requires us to run harder compounds for both front and rear, so we must again look at balancing performance with durability. We saw a notable improvement in our competitiveness in last year’s race with a thrilling battle up front, which resulted in Casey taking an excellent and well-deserved victory. His consistency over 25 laps was the key to that win, and durability over the race distance will again be a priority.”

2007 Flashback

Bridgestone riders were on strong form around the Circuit de Catalunya from the opening practice sessions. John Hopkins led a brigade of seven Bridgestone riders in the top ten on Friday, as Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa were the men to beat. Saturday’s qualifying session saw Rossi take pole position but by just 0.061s from Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet. Casey Stoner and John Hopkins also performed well and took fourth and fifth. In sweltering heat it was a three-way tussle between Rossi, Pedrosa and Stoner for the win, but after many passing manoeuvres, it was Ducati and Stoner who emerged victorious to take the first ever podium and win on Bridgestone tyres in Barcelona.

Rossi to run special livery in Catalunya.

Thursday, 5th June 2008

Rossi turns blue for Italian football team.

Following a special helmet design at his home Italian Grand Prix, Valentino Rossi's YZR-M1 will carry a one-off livery for this weekend's Catalan Grand Prix in celebration of the European Football Championships, which begin on Sunday.

The MotoGP World Championship leader's Fiat Yamaha has been specially painted in the style of the shirts of the Italian national team, the 'Azzurri', ahead of their opening game against Holland on Monday.

Rossi will also wear leathers designed in the same vein and even his famous number 46 has undergone a change for the weekend.


"Yes we have different colours on the bike because Fiat want to show [support] for the Italian football team," said Rossi. "The European championship starts on Saturday but Italy plays on Monday. I like the bike; it is blue like the Italian jersey. It is quite good."

The livery will be officially unveiled on Friday morning at the Montmelo circuit.
_____

Thanks for the articles! I can't wait to see the new livery!

Gi

Reminds me in 2004-2005 with Gauloises ...
It was blue, wasn't it ?

YES!!!! Personally, I think that was the best looking bike

.............and your right Catty, that Camel one was AWFUL - and came with the curse of Max!!!!!!

GO VALE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yup, Mel, the colour is cool and I'm anxious to see his matching leathers with that colours. I'm with Catty about the Camel colours, it just doesn't blend with Vale's character and not racy enough for him. (but I do have the Camel Yamaha shirt)

Camel was awful, i wouldn't like to se that one again on the bike.
I hold on my phone Valentino theme with 2005 bike rather than fiat yamaha.