Yamaha World Superbike riders Marco Melandri and Eugene Laverty have just completed two very successful days testing their R1 machinery, in ideal weather conditions, at the Misano Adriatico circuit on Italy’s Adriatic Riviera.
The team enjoyed good weather, sunshine with an air temperature of 31 degrees and a track temperature of 44 for the two days testing with rain appearing briefly this afternoon but only disrupting track time by less than 30 minutes. The 12th round of the World Superbike championship will take place close by in Imola, just next week, in what should be similarly warm conditions.With just three stop offs left on the 2011 calendar, the Yamaha WSB team made sure to make the most of the two days testing, Marco Melandri completing 172 laps while Eugene Laverty put in a total of 190, as final preparation work before the season close down. Yamaha World Superbike Team riders also got the chance to get to grips yesterday with the new tyres Pirelli have prepared for the final phase of the championship and gather important data for the development of new 2012 tyre compounds.
Melandri and Laverty worked their way through a variety of different settings over the two days, making adjustments and advances to the chassis, electronics, engine brake and geometry of their R1 machinery. Improvements were immediately evident, allowing the Yamaha WSB riders to then proceed to improve on fast lap times but also to work on their race pace and successfully complete a series of consistently fast laps on race tyres. Marco Melandri wrapped up the two days testing in Misano after setting the fastest time. The Italian lapped the track in a time of 1’35.8, an impressive eight tenths of a second faster than June’s race record lap (1’36.520) set by Carlos Checa, the current championship points leader. Team-mate Laverty was also on the pace, completing the two days just two tenths of a second behind Melandri, setting the second fastest time of 1’36.0.
With the successful work completed over the two days in Misano, The Yamaha World Superbike Team will head to Imola next weekend, confident of having the competitive package required to put on a strong battle for victory and keep the championship title within reach.
Marco Melandri
Yamaha World Superbike Team
“We’ve just completed two very positive days testing. I had a particularly tough race weekend here in June so we tried various new settings over the last two days and found positive results all around. We made progress with the engine brake which I had been struggling with during the season and hopefully we made a step in the right direction which will help in the remaining three races also. We spent a significant part of yesterday working with Pirelli mainly on new compound solutions for the 2012 season. Overall, it went really well. We worked very hard but made improvements and were fast and consistent throughout the two days.”
Eugene Laverty
Yamaha World Superbike Team
“We got a lot of work done over the last two days testing. It’s possibly the best test we have done so far this season. The first day we worked mainly with Pirelli on trying solutions for next year which should be useful. In the remainder of yesterday and then again today we tried a variety of different settings and gathered plenty of useful data. We discovered some interesting things about the geometry of the bike which should help me improve my turning and will be a benefit to me in the last three rounds of this season. We definitely mad a big step in the right direction and I’m quite pleased with the two days overall.”
Andrea Dosoli – Yamaha World Superbike Team Manager
“We were back on track in Misano, three months after the race, a race which didn’t go particularly well for us with either Marco or Eugene. There was a wide time gap behind Carlos and Max and we just weren’t fast enough. This time in Misano we immediately tried different chassis set ups on both bikes which provided positive results allowing both riders to put in faster laps. On day one we spent the morning getting reacquainted with the track before then moving on to working through some new tyre compounds with Pirelli and providing them with important data they’ll use to develop suitable tyres for the coming rounds and in particular for next year. Today we worked our way through various different front and rear set-ups making changes to the chassis, the electronics and geometry of the machine, improving on overall performance and allowing both riders to improve on fast lap times but also on race pace and consistency. We are coming away from Misano pleased with the work carried out and confident ahead of next weekend’s race in Imola.”
