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LORENZO AND ROSSI FIRST AND FOURTH IN HOT AND HUMID SEPANG

Jorge Lorenzo shook off last Sunday's disappointment and got straight down to business at the Sepang International Circuit today, finishing the first free practice session in first place. His fellow Fiat Yamaha rider Valentino Rossi, who is looking to wrap up the championship this Sunday, was fourth fastest on a typically hot and humid day in Malaysia.

Rossi and Lorenzo were first and second for most of the first half of the session, both quickly finding a good rhythm on their M1s around the 5.548km circuit despite the oppressive heat. Casey Stoner took control in the last ten minutes but some quick last-minute laps from 22-year-old Lorenzo saw him move to the top of the timesheets and finish the practice 0.064 seconds ahead of the Australian despite some pain in his little finger - a hangover form Sunday's crash.

Rossi ended the day 0.684 seconds down on his team-mate but is confident that the information gathered today will enable him to make a step forward tomorrow morning. Today marked ten years to the day since the Italian won the second world championship of his career, in the 250cc class at the Rio Grand Prix in 1999.
Jorge Lorenzo
 
Position: 1st   Time: 2'02.180   Laps: 23

"I was riding quite aggressively today and I felt good on the bike right from the start, so I am very happy about this after what happened last weekend. It's very hot and it's really hard work to ride out there, but I feel okay. Unfortunately I have some pain in my finger where I hurt it on Sunday, it's not too bad but the cut is right on the knuckle, so it's a bit painful when I have to bend it to brake. Anyway, like I said on Sunday it could be a lot worse! I love riding at this track despite the heat and our bike is working well so I am hopeful for a good weekend."
 
Valentino Rossi
 
Position: 4th   Time: 2'02.864   Laps: 23

"I am quite happy about today, even if the time and the position isn't perfect. We worked mainly with old tyres to understand the nature of the bike when it's sliding, which is important here, but actually my pace was very consistent and I think we can make another step tomorrow. It seems that Bridgestone have brought good tyres here, they are working very well despite the very hot temperatures and the fact that the track is a little bit dirty today. We still need to find a little bit more grip so we will look to improve the setting of the bike for this in the morning - it's going to be very important to be on the front row for Sunday. I think the race will be very hard and we will have to take care to prepare properly and drink a lot of water because it is very, very hot."

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Edwards and Toseland looking to improve in Sepang

Colin Edwards and James Toseland are both confident they can make major improvements after a difficult start to their preparations for Sunday's Malaysian MotoGP race.

The Sepang circuit typically poses the toughest examination of man and machine on the MotoGP calendar with sweltering hot temperatures and high humidity key features at the Malaysian GP.

Today was no exception with temperatures peaking at 31 degrees and ground temperatures reaching 46 degrees, though heavy cloud cover prevented conditions from reaching the extremes often experience d at Sepang and the best lap times were just a fraction off record pace.

Texan Edwards posted a best time of 2.03.739 to finish ninth quickest, the 35-year-old searching to improve edge grip on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine.

British rider Toseland was a further six places back, the 28-year-old steering his YZR-M1 to a best lap time of 2.05.218. Toseland was also striving to find more edge grip to cope with the fast and sweeping nature of the 5.548km circuit.

Sunday's 21-lap race is the penultimate round of the 2009 MotoGP world championship, with Edwards still firmly in the hunt for a top five overall placing, and Toseland in contention for seventh position in the rankings.

Colin Edwards 9th 2.03.739 - 22 laps

"I feel good on the bike and I'm riding as hard as I can but my bike felt pretty slow out there today if I'm being honest. I know this track like the back of my hand because we have come here so many times to race and test and we've got a particular gearbox setting where I know exactly what is going to happen on the track. But we've got to change the gearing tomorrow because I was braking so much later than normal because I just wasn't carrying the speed down the straight. The problem it gave me was that to make up any time you've got to ride much faster in the corners. But that means you wear the side of the tyre really quick, and with these high ground temperatures it is wearing the tyre much faster than I want. I'll sit down with my guys at Tech 3 tonight and see what we can come up with and I'm still confident of a positive weekend."

James Toseland 15th 2.05.218 - 20 laps

"It has been a tough start but I knew it would b e because I was running an old engine today and that had a big impact on our performance. For the rest of the weekend we'll have a fresher motor in that should help because I was quite far down the speed charts. But I was struggling for side grip this afternoon. I'm running more corner speed to make up for the loss in acceleration and that is wearing the rear tyre quite quickly. And during that session we couldn't find the side grip I needed to go faster. We've gained a lot of data though and I'm sure with a few ideas that my guys at Tech 3 have, I'll be in better shape tomorrow."

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HOT START FOR REPSOL HONDA TEAM AT SEPANG

The Malaysian Grand Prix weekend fired into life this afternoon with an hour of MotoGP free practice in typically tropical conditions at the Sepang International Circuit near Kuala Lumpur. The Repsol Honda Team made a positive start to the penultimate round of the 2009 season, with Dani Pedrosa clocking the third fastest lap and Andrea Dovizioso finishing fifth in the rankings. With air temperatures climbing into the thirties and humidity at over 50 per cent, it was a hot afternoon's work for the factory Honda squad.

Pedrosa was fast out of the blocks today and spent the entire session at the business end of the timesheets. Working with his team on the ideal machine set-up and on narrowing the options for tyre selection, the 24-year-old Spaniard was able to set a lap time of 2m 02.758s, just over half a second behind today's fastest rider, Jorge Lorenzo. Pedrosa has taken pole position for the last two years at Sepang and will be keen to make it three poles in a row during tomorrow's qualifying session, which follows another hour of practice in the morning. Pedrosa's RC212V was fastest through the speed traps today with top speed of 309.5km/h (192.3mph).

Dovizioso's best lap of 2m 03.142 was just 0.384s behind Pedrosa and clearly indicated the Italian's intentions to fight at the front of the pack this weekend. Riding with impressive commitment and aggression at the longest circuit on the MotoGP calendar, Dovi was evidently enjoying himself, and he remains confident of moving further forward tomorrow. Dovizioso secured his first MotoGP podium at this circuit last year and will be looking to battle at the sharp end again come Sunday's race, which begins at 15.00hrs local time (GMT + 8 hours).
 
DANI PEDROSA - 3rd - 2m 02.758s 

"I'm happy with how this first practice session has gone and we've established a good base for the weekend. As expected, it was really hot out there and the first session for this Grand Prix is always the toughest because it takes a little time to acclimatise. By Sunday, the heat will no problem. The track was a little dirty which affected the grip, but that's also normal for Sepang and it will improve through the weekend. The lap times are already quite competitive because we test at this circuit and all the teams have plenty of set-up data even before we arrive. I'm not worried about being half a second back from the fastest time at this stage - it's not so important and we have some areas to work on to improve things. To achieve good stability under braking is the key area for us and we'll be working to make some improvements to the set-up for tomorrow."
 
ANDREA DOVIZIOSO - 5th - 2m 03.142s 

"I'm satisfied with this first practice session. I like this circuit very much, I feel comfortable and also the feeling with the machine has been good today. We started with a good direction and worked on some set-up options and particularly on the traction control settings. This is a very important factor for Sepang so that we can be consistent during the race because there is not so much grip here and the performance of the tyres can fade as the race goes on. We will continue working on a few adjustments tomorrow and I'm very confident that we can improve. Today the conditions out there were very demanding. It was so hot and humid and, in addition to the outside temperatures, we have to cope also with the heat that comes from the bike. Anyway, I'm feeling good and I'm positive and confident that we can qualify well and fight with the top group - that's the target."

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STONER AND HAYDEN ON THE ATTACK IN MALAYSIAN HEATWAVE  

Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden started out the Malaysian Grand Prix on the front foot at Sepang, with the Australian second and the American eighth fastest in the first free practice session this afternoon.
Stoner demonstrated his improved strength and stamina in the gruelling conditions, with 31ēC ambient temperatures and 53% humidity, by lapping on the cusp of circuit record pace and improving throughout the 45-minute session - clocking his best time on his final lap, which was just 0.064 seconds shy of the day's pacesetter Jorge Lorenzo. Hayden also made gradual improvements and, like Stoner, he set his best lap time on his final effort, falling just 0.067 seconds short of another Spaniard in Toni Elias in seventh place.

CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team)  (2nd; 2'02.244)

"The lap times are surprisingly good considering the track conditions, which are definitely suffering from the heat and feel much less grippy than usual here. I'm happy with our pace and with my physical condition; even though it was hard work out there and I was tired by the end of the session, I don't think I was any worse off than anybody else and it is a different world compared to the way I felt at hot races earlier in the year. Having said that I didn't feel at all comfortable with the setting on either bike. Every time I went out there was a small problem holding us back - at first it was with the front chattering and folding, then we lost grip on the rear. There was no use staying out there on a bike that needed to be set up better so I had to keep coming in, which disrupted our rhythm and didn't give me chance to establish any kind of feeling. We made progress step by step but we need a better base to start off with tomorrow in order to prepare properly for the race."

NICKY HAYDEN - (Ducati Marlboro Team)  (8th; 2'03.426)

"I know my position isn't great but this is still the best Friday I've had in a while and we're only just over a second off the front, which isn't that much around this circuit, so I'm pleased. We made a change to the electronics today, which has improved my feeling for the bike, and I was able to lap consistently inside the top ten throughout the session, whereas usually I'm much further off in the first session. Obviously there are a lot of areas we need to improve, like every Friday, but in particular we need to look at why I am fourth from bottom on the top speed charts. That's strange because we know we have a strong bike so we'll try and fix that tonight because I'd certainly rather be fourth from the top! In general it's a good start and I'm eager to see how much we can improve with ninety minutes on track tomorrow."

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Capirossi sixth at a sweltering Sepang

23/10/2009 09:37am

Capirossi sixth at a sweltering Sepang Rizla Suzuki's Loris Capirossi got the weekend of the Malaysian Grand Prix off to an encouraging start as he recorded the sixth fastest time around the 5,548m Sepang International Circuit.

Capirossi (2'03.253, 20 laps) made a good start to the first - and only - practice session on day one by heading the leader-board in the early part of the session. He made regular adjustments to his Suzuki GSV-R throughout the hour and is confident of making improvements to both the bike and his lap-time as the weekend progresses.

Chris Vermeulen (2'03.763, 21 laps) produced a solid first day's work by posting the 10th fastest time of the day with his very last lap in the practice session. Vermeulen worked on the good base setting he had for the GSV-R from the winter test and made changes that suited the performance of the new bike, before using the harder compound Bridgestone tyre at the end of the session to good effect to improve on his time.

The hot and humid conditions that all the riders and teams expect at Sepang were prevalent today as the air rose to 31ēC and track temperatures got up to 52ēC. Jorge Lorenzo on his factory Yamaha recorded the fastest time of the day.

Rizla Suzuki has one more free practice session tomorrow morning, before an hour of qualifying in the afternoon will decide the grid positions for the race. Sunday's main event will get underway at 15.00hrs local time (07.00hrs GMT).

Loris Capirossi:

"We did struggle a bit at the beginning as we tried to modify the bike, but the times were still quite good so we knew we were going in the right direction. Towards the end of the session the bike became a bit better, but it is still not perfect so we have a bit of work to do. We used two completely different traction controls, we didn't quite get the best feeling from either of them but we certainly have a direction to follow tomorrow with the data we have got from them. Overall it has not been too bad today and we know we can improve quite a bit tomorrow, we have a good plan and if it all goes well we should have a really good weekend."

Chris Vermeulen:

"It is good to come to a track that the bike performs well at. Obviously we have tested a lot here and that meant we had a good set-up right out of the box. We ran-in some important components during the first part of the session and made sure we got a reasonable feel from the bike. At the end of the session we stuck the harder rear tyre in and got a bit faster. I am reasonably happy with the first session; we've still got some areas to fix, so we'll try a few different things tomorrow to hopefully get it right."

Stuart Shenton - Crew Chief, Loris Capirossi:

"We have tried to put the disappointment of Phillip Island behind us and today's session has gone some way towards that, but we still have a lot of work to do. We had a good pre-season test here earlier in the year and although the bike has progressed throughout the season we are hoping that we can get a good result from the new bike based on the settings we have from that test. First thing this afternoon we got through some runs that we needed to do to compare various things and we will look at the information from that this evening and see where we can make a difference. We need to make sure that we are ready for tomorrow and keep performing to the best of our ability and make things happen."

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