Rossi and Edwards begin tough set-up job at Sachsenring

The Camel Yamaha Team began their preparations for the German Grand Prix at the Sachsenring today with riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards working hard to adjust their YZR-M1 machines to the tortuous demands of the MotoGP World Championship's shortest and slowest circuit. The first day of free practice was held in cloudy yet warm conditions of around 20ºC, with the threat of storms hanging ominously over the circuit throughout the day but thankfully not progressing beyond a couple of spells of light rainfall as the riders squeezed every available minute out of the two hour-long sessions. Both Rossi and Edwards admitted running into difficulties as they adjusted the base setting of the bike, which so far hasn't proven as well suited to this circuit as it has to faster tracks such as Donington, Assen, Mugello and Catalunya in recent weeks. The Italian ran sixth fastest in the morning session, with the American ninth, but they were both unable to match the progress made by their rivals in the afternoon and they slid marginally down the time sheets at the end of the day - Rossi ending up seventh with Edwards in eleventh. Both riders face a crucial day of set-up work tomorrow as they prepare for the tenth round of the season on Sunday. Valentino Rossi (7th - 1'23.871; 43 laps) "We knew before we came here that this was not one of my favourite circuits and that it was always going to be a big effort from the first day. Unfortunately that is proving to be the case and I have not got comfortable with the bike or the track today. We are trying a whole 'sack' of things to make the bike better but we keep running into problems and haven't found the best way to work yet. Luckily we still have two hours tomorrow to do this so we hope the weather stays dry because we need all that track time to work on the bike. Anyway I am still confident because Jerry and the engineers have shown in the past few races when I have been injured that they have a great ability to set the bike up using a minimal amount of data. Tomorrow we will have to stay concentrated and see what we can do. It already looks like it will be a tough battle on Sunday but the tough ones are always the most fun!" Colin Edwards (11th - 1'24.100; 33 laps) "We're struggling. The bike feels a bit rough in a few sections and we need to make some drastic changes tomorrow to get it working how we want. The bike and I are not getting along with the circuit at the moment and I'm losing around half a second in the second section alone, which is clearly not good enough. We have to work on that and generally improve the speed through the corner in all the other sections - it's not carrying enough pace and no matter what I tried it just wasn't happening today. We know we've still got a lot of work to do but that's what we're here for and I'm looking forward to tomorrow." 

Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director "Clearly we still have plenty of work to do tomorrow because we are not where we want to be on the first day. We need to improve the pace of both riders, who are struggling with different kinds of problems. As always they are working together for the good of the team and the engineers will use their feedback to try and come up with some better settings tomorrow. This is a very particular track because it is so tight and twisty, unlike any other circuit in the world, so we have to look for something particular with the setting. That is not as easy as it sounds but we will keep going!" Checa within reach for Tech 3 Yamaha Racing Team in Germany Although at least half of the opening practice session for Sunday's German Grand Prix was lost due to the now familiar inclement conditions, Carlos Checa on the Tech 3 Yamaha was less than a second off pole position at the end of the day's proceedings to be well within striking distance to score his best grid position of the year. A further encouraging sign for Checa after the afternoon's second free practice session was the inspiration that he is less than two-hundredths of a second behind fellow Yamaha rider, Colin Edwards. This has set the scene for an interesting duel in the solitary qualifying shootout tomorrow. The same cannot be said for Carlos's team mate, James Ellison as he struggled with tyre selection problems to be in 19th position although he remains confident that the situation will improve after finding a suitable front tyre to hasten progress tomorrow. Carlos Checa (12th, 1'24.116, 47 laps) "The day started pretty well as we were very close to the front guys but lost a little in the afternoon. Truthfully though, the day was quite acceptable for our situation. We still need more grip on the side of the tyre, especially on the right side around here. In the slow area where we don't need so much throttle - we only open the throttle maybe 10-15% - this is no so bad but, the areas where you go harder on the gas at the back of the track I don't have enough support and grip in the rear. We have to find something in the settings and in the tyre which will improve this situation - especially the very fast downhill right hand turn. It is hard to put the bike on the side of the tyre and open the throttle hard to get drive. But saying that, lately in the last few races we are improving in all areas every time I ride the bike and to be closer to the other Yamaha's than we have been all year gives me a good feeling. This is what you need to keep trying after all the hard work the team and Dunlop have been doing so hopefully the progress will again continue tomorrow and I can move closer to the front." James Ellison (19th 1'25.833, 41 laps) "A steady start to the weekend really but from one round to the next the bike changes so much and you have to start from scratch all over again. The twists of the second split are the best bit for me at the moment but the fast bits where you dab the brake and let it run in, it just vibrates and there is no stability. I tried a wider rim today that seems to help but it makes it harsh although it improves the corner entry and that gives me more confidence. I think with the tyre construction we were using it's a lot stronger and doesn't seem to squash as much. What we need to do now is go back a bit to a little softer tyre as because the rim is wider the tyre is a lot stronger and there is no give in it. The harder tyre seems to be picking up all the bumps and ripples a lot more. At least we are finding a direction. I know we are a bit off Carlos at the moment but this afternoon we are near the time he was doing this morning so we are really a session behind. I think we will find a good direction now we have the new front tyre. We were so far off this morning and losing time with the wet track that this afternoon was really our first session. We made steps in this afternoon's session so I think tomorrow will be a lot better. Herve Poncharal - Tech3 Yamaha Team Director "I seem to say this every week but this first session was very good. Carlos is again lapping closer to the leaders and this morning was just 0.6 second off the fastest time. We know the lap times here are pretty close because of the low lap times but he is very close to the other Yamaha's which makes us happy. It shows that we are getting the right pace and have improved quite a lot on the tyre department. We lost half a session this morning but it is the same for everybody. It may be a bigger deal for us in a way as we need more track time than everybody else but c'est la vie, there is nothing we can do with the weather. "Although we haven't done a race distance yet, so far the feeling is not too bad to get the firm indication for what we need. The weather should be warmer tomorrow, with the sun expected to come out and we plan to do a lot of laps because the race is long. So far we are happy. "But I am worried for James. To be last is not good and the tyres have improved so much. We have to find some speed because it is now over halfway through the season and it is very important and crucial for him to be quicker."    Round: 10 - 2006 MotoGP Sachsenring Circuit: Sachsenring Circuit Length: 3671 Lap Record: 1' 23.705 (Sete Gibernau, 2005) Fastest Lap Ever: 1' 22.756 (Max Biaggi, 2004) Date: 14 July 2006 Temp: 20ºC Free Practice :  Pos.  Rider  Manufacturer  Nat.  Free Practice  1  M. Melandri  Honda  ITA   1' 23.145   2  D. Pedrosa  Honda  ESP   1' 23.486   3  L. Capirossi  Ducati  ITA   1' 23.490   4  N. Hayden  Honda  USA   1' 23.525   5  K. Roberts  Team Roberts KR  USA   1' 23.676   6  J. Hopkins  Suzuki  USA   1' 23.693   7  V. Rossi  Yamaha  ITA   1' 23.871   8  C. Stoner  Honda  AUS   1' 23.889   9  S. Gibernau  Ducati  ESP   1' 24.022   10  M. Tamada  Honda  JPN   1' 24.030   11  C. Edwards  Yamaha  USA   1' 24.100   12  C. Checa  Yamaha  ESP   1' 24.116   13  S. Nakano  Kawasaki  JPN   1' 24.190   14  R. De Puniet  Kawasaki  FRA   1' 24.582   15  T. Elias  Honda  ESP   1' 24.626   16  A. Hofmann  Ducati  GER   1' 25.092   19  J. Ellison  Yamaha  GBR   1' 25.833