Positive day for Yamaha at Pirelli test

Positive first outing for Haga and Corser on the All-New R1 After working hard to make the first race version of the 2007 YZF-R1 ready for a two day Pirelli Development Teams’ test at Valencia, the Yamaha Motor Italia team enjoyed two positive days of work under clear Spanish skies. Troy Corser set a best of 1’34.9 with a race set-up, with Noriyuki Haga on a 1’35.1, on qualifying tyres. Both existing team rider Haga and new signing Corser made back-to-back evaluations of the 2006 and 2007 models, and despite the ’07 model being in its very first stage of development and testing, each rider found real improvements in the performance of the new machine.

Haga spent his time on the new machine, while Corser moved on to the ’07 machine after riding most of day one on the previous model. The fastest rider in the test was Max Biaggi (Suzuki) who set a fastest lap of 1’33.9 on race tyres.

Noriyuki Haga (Yamaha Motor Italia): "We started yesterday just making a shakedown test on the new ’07 bike. Compared to the ’06 bike it was a good start. It’s already quite a good bike and of course we are only at the first step. We have understood what we need from this test and I am sure it will be even better in Qatar. The feeling from the bike is different, front and rear, and it turns a little bit better than the ’06 bike. The ’07 engine is easier to control because the feeling from the engine is good, although right now we only have one specification of race engine. We need to make some adjustments to the mapping and the take it from there”.

Troy Corser (Yamaha Motor Italia): "We tried some new swingarms and experimented with the length of the bike, but even considering that, out lap times weren’t so bad. This was our first day with the new bike because on day one I hardly touched the new bike. For a first full day on the new bike I think we have got some good info to take away and prepare for the Qatar test. I think the new bike overall is maybe already a little bit better than the fully developed ’06 bike. And we have only just started. The ’06 bike feels a bit more nervous, and the new one feels easier to ride overall. It feels more stable under braking, even thought he ’06 bike was good in that respect too. The ’07 just feels even more stable again. We are still working on the throttle but already the ’07 engine pulls right through the midrange to the higher revs. It just feels more linear. We tried some new versions of the development tyres and found an improvement with both front and rear. I’m pretty happy."

Massimo Meregalli (Team Coordinator - Yamaha Motor Italia) "We can only think of this test as a positive one. To do so many laps and have so few problems was great. In the end we used the new bike all day on the second day and Troy was faster on the new bike when compared to the old one. We are quite optimistic because we didn’t expect this. Because the bike is new we can expect to experience a few problems. The bike was finished only on Saturday night and after we had run in the engines and checked that everything was working we put them in the trailer and drove straight to Valencia. So we were expecting a few small problems, as usual when all is new. When we go home will have a lot of data to check and we go to the next test with good experience from this first one "

OFFICIAL SBK TESTS Circuit: Valencia Circuit Length: 4005km Lap Record: 1' 35.007 (Neil Hodgson, 2003) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 33.758 (Troy Bayliss, 2006) Temp: 23ºC

WSB - fastest time over two days Biaggi, Suzuki 1’33.9 Lanzi, Ducati 1’33.9 Kagayama, Suzuki 1’34.2 Bayliss, Ducati 1’34.2 Toselan, Honda 1’34.2 Nieto, Kawasaki 1’34.8 Corser, Yamaha 1’34.9 Laconi, Kawasaki 1’34.8 Haga, Yamaha 1’35.1 Rolfo, Honda 1’36.7

Pirelli Test Session: Spain Circuit: Valencia Date: 14-15 November 2006 Temp: 23ºC Weather: Sunny

Parkes flies solo at Valencia Yamaha Motor Germany rider Broc Parkes was on form once more in testing, posting competitive times despite having a heavy workload of machine and tyre evaluation duties to perform, in the absence of his team-mate Kevin Curtain. His absolute best lap on day two was a 1’37.0, putting him fourth fastest overall.

Parkes rode most of the test alone, aided at some points by Yamaha Motor Europe test rider, Jeffry de Vries.

Sebastien Charpentier (Honda) was the fastest rider on display, setting a 1’36.4.

Broc Parkes (Yamaha Motor Germany) "It would have been good to have another day and I had a lot of work to do as it was. We wanted to get through a lot of new things on the bike and we had to get those worked out properly, so we didn’t devote so much time to testing tyres to start with. We went through a lot of stuff anyway and the bike is working well. I think I did a 1’37 flat, and that was only half a second off the fastest guy, so that was pretty good. We have new quick shifters now and the bike is lighter, so we can move the weight around the bike if we want."

Pirelli Valencia Test WSS Circuit: Valencia Circuit Length: 4.005km Lap Record: 1' 38.664 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2006) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 36.4 (Sebastien Charpentier, 2006 - this test) Temp: 20ºC WSS - fastest time over two days S. Charpentier, Honda 1’36.4 K. Sofuoglu, Honda 1’36.8 G. Nannelli, Ducati 1’36.9 B. Parkes, Yamaha 1’37.0 F. Foret, Kawasaki 1’37.7 B. Veneman, Suzuki 1’38.6 P. Riba, Kawasaki 1’39.3