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Foggy PETRONAS Racing’s Steve Martin and Craig Jones showed good pre-season form today for the first of a four day test at Phillip Island in Australia.
With both riders’ performance at the team’s previous test in Qatar last December being affected by injury and illness – with Steve recovering from surgery and Craig struck with a viral bug – they were eager to return to their PETRONAS FP1 seats in full health and fitness.
With the day’s forecast rain not materialising, Craig’s first visit to the circuit saw him complete almost 50 laps as he familiarised himself with the track layout and its unique nature. Although hampered by a few technical difficulties, the young Brit was able to steadily improve his lap times to finish the day with a time of 1:37.83.
Steve was immediately on the pace around his native circuit, lapping consistently in the 1:34s. He worked solidly through his testing schedule, completing over 70 laps, to further evaluate development parts and suspension settings in preparation for testing new tyre compounds tomorrow.
Craig said, “I feel 75 per cent there with learning the track and I’ve really enjoyed today. It’s been a bit of an eye opener riding here for the first time as the circuit is like no other I’ve ever ridden at before. It’s fast, bumpy and undulating, with lots of blind corners and, it’s so windy! I’m happy with what I’ve achieved today although a few minor technical issues hindered my track time, so now I’m looking forward to tomorrow to start my testing programme now that I have a feel for the track.”
Steve commented, “I’m happy with how the day has gone and we’ve made positive steps forward each time I’ve gone out. My lap times have also been good and consistent from the outset, so it’s good to be on the pace and feeling back at full health and fitness to really ‘ride’ the bike.”
LOVE IS GIVING SOMEONE THE ABILITY TO DESTROY YOU, THEN TRUSTING THEM NOT TO.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, VODKA in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming…….WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!
FPR Makes Solid Test Progress
FPR’s experienced and youthful pairing of Steve Martin and Craig Jones today made significant progress with the team’s pre-season testing programme, on the third of a four day test at Phillip Island.
Steve Martin was again straight on the pace with his PETRONAS FP1 and finished the day second in the timesheet, with a time of 1:33.40 – an improvement of over half a second from his best time yesterday.
A race simulation was planned for Steve during the afternoon, but a rising track temperature to in excess of fifty five degrees, resulted in his efforts being turned to further systems’ management evaluation.
Team-mate Craig Jones completed almost eighty laps over the course of the day as he worked on the set-up of his FP1, to include geometry, suspension and chassis adjustments in preparation for the race at Phillip Island in six weeks. The young Brit was also able to knock a further one second off his lap time to achieve a respectable 1:35.6.
Steve commented, “It’s been a good day and we were able to take another half a second off my lap time by using the new 2006 race tyre compounds which we evaluated this morning. We’ve also done a fair bit of work with the suspension settings, on older tyres, which has been useful, and tomorrow I’m hopefully going to do two long runs to test the different tyres that Pirelli are bringing to the race here. I feel really good in myself physically this evening, and that I’ve got my ‘bike fitness’ back which is great.”
Craig said, “I’ve spent a lot of the day working on the straight line stability and set-up of my bikes to suit this circuit and made good progress in both areas. I’ve learnt the track even more today and am now very confident with my racing line and braking points. We’ve got a good direction for tomorrow and I’m confident that we can come away from this test with a set-up for the race that I’m very happy with.”
Unofficial Times (race tyres)
1. Troy Corser (Alstare Suzuki) 1:32.79
2. Steve Martin (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:33.40
3. Yukio Kagayama (Alstare Suzuki) 1:33.68
4. Norick Abe (Yamaha France) 1:34.5 (1:34.0 qualifying tyre)
5. Sebastien Gimbert (Yamaha France) 1:34.6 (1:34.2 qualifying tyre)
6. Shinichi Nakatomi (Yamaha France) 1:35.1
7. Craig Jones (Foggy PETRONAS Racing) 1:35.6
LOVE IS GIVING SOMEONE THE ABILITY TO DESTROY YOU, THEN TRUSTING THEM NOT TO.
Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, But rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, VODKA in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming…….WOO HOO, WHAT A RIDE!!
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