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Valentino Rossi. Courtesy
MotoGP. |
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Camel Yamaha Team rider Valentino
Rossi reaches another special milestone
in his illustrious career this weekend
as he contests his 100th consecutive
premier-class race in the Grand Prix of
Turkey.
The Italian and his team-mate Colin
Edwards travel to the Istanbul Park
circuit, located 300 kilometers north
west of the capital city of Ankara,
looking to build on tentative first
impressions of the track from last year,
when they finished second and seventh
respectively in a race won by Marco
Melandri.
The third round of the current season
will also be Rossi’s 160th appearance in
all classes since making his 125cc debut
in Malaysia in 1996. So far he has
amassed an incredible tally of 80
victories, his latest coming just over
two weeks ago in the Grand Prix of
Qatar; a triumph that also moved the
27-year-old level with Mick Doohan, with
54 premier-class wins, leaving him
second only to the legendary Giacomo
Agostini at 68.
As well as taking him level with Mick
Doohan in terms of career wins,
Valentino Rossi’s victory at Qatar also
pulled him to within striking distance
of the all-time record Grand Prix points
total, currently held by Max Biaggi.
Having now scored a total of 2886 points
in all classes Rossi will move ahead of
Biaggi simply by finishing in ninth
place or above this Sunday.
However, as always, his only target is
victory at one of only two circuits on
the current calendar where he has yet to
climb onto the top step of the podium in
at least one of the three classes.
“Qatar was like the start of my
championship but we’re already behind in
the points and we need to do our best to
catch up,” said Rossi. “My rivals
are very strong and we need to be able
to fight for the win again in Turkey.
Istanbul isn’t one of my favorite tracks
and we had a really hard time there last
year - we had already won the
championship and it was difficult to
stay 100% focused at that stage of the
season, plus we had some set-up problems
with the bike. This time we go
there feeling fully motivated. We
don’t know how the new bike will react
at this circuit; I hope that it will go
well and that we won’t have any
vibration problems. There are some
fantastic fast corners so if the bike is
working well it could be great fun to
ride there. We tested again after
Qatar and we made some improvements, and
although we still haven’t completely
solved our problems hopefully even if
they do reappear at some stage, we’re
going to be able to cope with them
better now.”
Colin Edwards simply stated that
“Hard work will pay off”. Edwards
is keen to get to Turkey this weekend as
he aims to convert the fast and
consistent pace he has shown during
pre-season testing and Grand Prix
practice sessions into a solid race
result. Eleventh and ninth place
finishes from the first two rounds have
not been a true reflection of the
Texan’s efforts this year and he is keen
to turn things around at a circuit he
admits he struggled to get to grips with
last season.
“I have to say I wasn’t too enamored
with the track when we rode it last
October but I was busy trying to adapt
to a new riding style at the time and it
didn’t make life easier,” says Edwards.
“This time my riding style is sorted out
but we still have a few problems with
the bike so we’ll have to see how it
goes. I was very disappointed with
the way things went in Qatar but it has
been nice to have an extra weekend off
over Easter to mull things over and I
can’t wait to get out and put it right
on the track. So far this season we’ve
been strong in practice - if anything
just struggling a little bit to make the
step up on a qualifying tire but in
general the pace on race tyres has been
good. We were unlucky at Jerez and
I was really confident of a good result
in Qatar but we came up against a few
problems in the race that hadn’t
bothered us in practice. The day
of tests after the race gave us some
good data to work from and hopefully
things run smoothly from day one in
Turkey.”
Istanbul Park Hosts the Turkey
MotoGP
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Istanbul Park. Courtesy
MotoGP. |
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Just in:
Turkey MotoGP Qualifying Results
The Istanbul Park circuit was
designed by famed German architect
Hermann Tilke, the man behind the Sepang,
Bahrain and Shanghai circuits, and was
used for the first time by the MotoGP
World Championship last October.
The spectacular 5.378 kilometer track
features fourteen turns - eight lefts
and six rights – and like Phillip Island
it has the unusual characteristic of
running counter-clockwise. Like
the Losail circuit in Qatar, several of
the Istanbul track’s corners are based
on famous bends at other circuits, such
as the "Senna Esses" at Sao Paolo, the
"Spoon Curve" at Suzuka and the "Eau
Rouge" at Spa.
Spectators have ideal facilities to
enjoy the action, with seating capacity
for around 130,000 fans and an
impressive main grandstand which can
hold up to 25,000. Sunday’s
schedule will start one hour later than
usual, with the red lights due to go out
for the MotoGP race at 1500h local time.
Like all Herman Tilke tracks,
Istanbul Park possesses a wide variety
of corners and the challenge is further
enhanced by plenty of gradients, with
the track built on four different ground
levels. However, by far the most
exciting feature of the layout is turn
eleven - a fifth gear bend that is taken
at speeds approaching 270km/h, making it
easily the fastest corner in the MotoGP
World Championship.
Combined with some of the tightest
chicanes on the calendar, the key to
set-up at Istanbul Park is about making
compromises. “Istanbul is a tricky
circuit because it has some of the
fastest corners in the world combined
with some of the slowest,” explains
Andrea Zugna, Colin Edwards’ Data
Engineer. “In turn eleven you need
good stability at high speed to give the
rider the confidence he needs to attack
the corner, but from turn twelve to the
end of the lap you have three very slow
chicanes which require good agility; so
you have to find a balanced set-up
between those two characteristics.
“This track is also unique because of
the changes of elevation. For
example turn one dips downhill before
going immediately up again, creating a
lot of compression on the front forks.
The rider’s skill is also very important
because there is only really one racing
line and they must find it - especially
through the three consecutive lefts in
the middle of the lap, where it is also
very bumpy. It is important that
they have confidence in the front
through here. Last year Colin
struggled a little because it was the
first time he used his new riding style
but his pace in practice was good and
his fastest lap came towards the end of
the race so we know the data is good.
Hopefully it will make life a little
easier this weekend!”
