HURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAY!!!
Glad to hear that! The chap had really thrilling crash then and it`s nice to hear he`s back!

Yeah I shall be pleased to see him in the 250cc race

Not only you! We all here! It`s not good, when someone crashes... And it`s good, when everything occures to be fine in the end!

Yes, I agree - it is so good to see someone come back like this after a crash. Crashes are a good thing only because they make us remember how dangerous this really is. We so often see dreadful crashes and then the rider just gets up and walks away but we must remember it cannot always happen like that.
You have to congratulate a rider who has been out for so long and is still prepared to come back again

Yesss, crashes are created to remind us of the fact that "Motorsport can be dangerous" ... Alas, not only on a track...
Anyway, really, my congratulations to Sekiguchi!

Yes it's great to hear that he's back already, it was a pretty serious crash he made there.. I'm happy for him he can join for the last races of the season

And actually it's good that crashes happen, because they learn things out of it for people that ride on the roads; for example for the leathers, the way they roads must be build and so.. but ofcourse I wouldn't want to be in sekiguchi's place when he crashed then!
But still riding your bike on the roads is still dangereous because of other cardrivers not seeing the bikers.. That's how I lost my cousin, he wasn't even speeding, just a tourist that took the wrong way and wanted to make a U-turn I realy hate that wife, he had two children and was so young! Unfortunatly you hear such things too often...

Anyway, I'm happy that he's back!

Ohhhhh... How sad to hear that you lost someone, Stella...

But certainly I agree that anything that`s happening is for better, and we can always make right conclusions from everything to avoid it in the future... Hoping they`ve made them after sekiguchi`s crash!

Changeable weather makes for tricky first day on the island

Phillip Island greeted the MotoGP paddock with a full spectrum of unstable conditions today, as the weather switched back and forth between heavy rain and bright sunshine. Temperatures remained cool throughout the day thanks to a cold wind off the Bass Straight and it was a delicate day of set-up work for the Fiat Yamaha Team. Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards, both sporting a one-off red and white livery on their M1s inspired by Fiat's famous 'Abarth' racing brand, finished the day fourth and 15th in the combined standings.

After an extremely wet start to the day a dry line had begun to appear by the start of MotoGP practice, although it began to rain heavily again in the last twenty minutes of the session. Rossi made a good start to the day and finished the first session third, with Edwards in 11th. This afternoon's practice was a much brighter and more stable affair weather-wise, save a few spots of rain mid-way through, and the riders had the chance to start working towards an effective race setting to suit the high-speed nature of the track. Rossi continued to make good progress and finished the day happy with an overall fourth position, 0.423 seconds from Casey Stoner, who topped the time sheets. Edwards meanwhile continued to struggle and was disappointed not to find a clear way forward with the setting of his M1 around what is one of his favourite tracks.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 4thTime: 1'31.934Laps: 45
"The Weather today was unbelievable and the track went from wet to dry four or five times, which made it very difficult to understand. The conditions definitely weren't the best, especially because it was very, very cold. Despite this it was not a bad day; we worked well, tried several different settings and found some good tyre possibilities to keep going with tomorrow. In fact we tried quite a lot of tyres, wet and dry, and our level for the first day in this respect is not so bad, although we will be in better shape if we have a little bit more temperature. At the end we are fourth but it's okay, especially considering that we have a few problems still to deal with, including not enough weight on the front which means I'm not yet fast enough in the long corners. We have some ideas about how to improve on things for tomorrow. I love this track a lot and it's always a great feeling to ride here and with the 800 it is no different. Of course today it wasn't the best conditions to be riding in or to fully enjoy the track, but hopefully tomorrow will be better."

Colin Edwards - Position: 15thTime: 1'33.965Laps: 32
"Today was not the day I had hoped for starting out at Phillip Island. The bike was most definitely riding me for most of today and not the other way around! To be honest I was just holding on for most of the time and trying to survive and, try as we might, we couldn't seem to get to a decent base setting. The bike felt pretty nervous and twitchy and we're definitely going to have to change a few things to get it working. Obviously Valentino's doing a lot better with the same bike so we need to look at what he's doing to see if it can help us. We didn't even really get to a stage today where we could gauge how good the tyres were so we've really got some work to do tonight. I'm disappointed because I'm always so excited to come here; it's one of my favourite tracks and I haven't ridden one good lap today. Anyway, we'll have a big meeting tonight, look at the data and I have every faith that my guys will be able to turn things around as usual."

Davide Brivio - Team Director
"Unfortunately the weather has been quite bad at times today and the conditions have not been easy for anyone. Despite this Valentino has made quite a good start and he is in a good position, so now we will just try to keep going like this tomorrow to finalise the best package for him. Colin has had more problems today and we have some work to do to get him into a position where he is comfortable, but it's only Friday so we have time to study the data and make some changes. Now we hope that we have better weather tomorrow so everyone can enjoy being here and we can fulfil our potential."

Rossi confident of matching Stoner

By Toby Moody and Matt Beer Friday, October 12th 2007, 10:12 GMT
Valentino Rossi admitted that he was impressed by Casey Stoner's practice speed at Phillip Island, but is confident he can close on the champion during the weekend. In changeable conditions in Australia, Stoner set the fastest time in both practice sessions.

"Stoner is very fast. He has a little bit of an advantage compared to the other guys," Rossi admitted.

"But I think we are able to get better. With the wind today I had a lot of problems controlling the bike. Tomorrow we can improve and it's possible to make a better lap time, for sure."


Stoner was fastest by 1.3 seconds in morning practice, with Rossi 2.3 seconds slower than the Ducati in third place. Although Stoner's time was set just before another shower hit, Rossi reckoned the Australian had put in a brave performance on a still-damp track.

"The gap in the morning was incredible," said Rossi. "Stoner had a big advantage - he was faster. But especially he was very fast when it was not completely dry.

"He went faster this morning than this afternoon. That means he was very brave, because there were two or three parts where it was not completely dry, so he risked a little bit."


Rossi denied that Yamaha's decision to skip the pre-season test at Phillip Island had put the team at a disadvantage this weekend.


When asked if testing at the track would have made any difference, he replied: "Not very much. The test was in different conditions, and was very far away, in February. I need more laps to remember the secrets of the track, but it's not a big issue."


He also confirmed that Yamaha were not using their new pneumatic valve engine in Australia.


"We have some small different parts, but we're using the normal valves," Rossi said. "I don't know if we will use the new valves another time before the end of the year. Maybe Malaysia, maybe not. It depends if they fix the problems."

Free practis 3

weather: clouded
air:11°C
ground:13°C
humidity:81%
windspeed:7km/h


1. EDIT:
after 10 min:




2. EDIT
vale did a run of ten laps then he went to the pits...

after 25 min: