While the major teams tested at Jerez last week, Suzuki and Kawasaki both tested at Phillip Island; similar strategy but for different reasons. For Kawasaki there is no doubt that they want to do their testing a little out of the way after their disastrous 2008 MotoGp season. Suzuki, on the other hand, had a good season but chose to test at PI because their bike has traditionally struggled at the Australian layout, so testing here is vital.
After the rest of the field had already packed up at Jerez, the Kawasaki and Suzuki teams continued testing for one more day at Phillip Island, working mostly on testing new parts to be used on the 2009 versions of their respective MotoGP machines. Though everyone except for John Hopkins – who is still in pain from an injury caused at Assen – improved their times, for all except for Marco Melandri, the improvements were fairly small.
Only Melandri made a big leap, taking 0.7 seconds off his best race time, set on the Ducati. But it is clear that both Suzuki and Kawasaki have a big hill to climb if they are to be competitive. The engineers will now return to their workshops with the data collected from the tests, and prepare the 2009 versions of the machines, which are due to be unveiled at the first test of the year. For Suzuki, that will be in Sepang in early February, together with the rest of the MotoGP paddock, but Kawasaki have chosen to return to Phillip Island once again at the end of January, for another private test.
Times set on day 3:
1 Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1’30.9
2 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1’31.1
3 Marco Melandri Kawasaki 1’31.8
4 John Hopkins Kawasaki 1’32.1
5 Olivier Jacque Kawasaki 1’32.3
Fastest times set during the race in early October:
Pos. No. Rider Manufacturer Fast Lap Diff Diff Previous
1 69 Nicky HAYDEN HONDA 1’30.059
2 1 Casey STONER DUCATI 1’30.067 0.008 0.008
3 46 Valentino ROSSI YAMAHA 1’30.284 0.225 0.217
9 65 Loris CAPIROSSI SUZUKI 1’30.971 0.912 0.098
12 7 Chris VERMEULEN SUZUKI 1’31.313 1.254 0.112
15 21 John HOPKINS KAWASAKI 1’32.010 1.951 0.095
16 33 Marco MELANDRI DUCATI 1’32.519 2.460 0.509
So it can be seen that both teams have a long, long way to go if they want to improve their standings in 2009. Time will undoubtedly tell.
And, here is the provisional 2009 calendar.
Date Grand Prix Circuit
April 12th* Qatar Losail
April 26th Japan Motegi
May 3rd Spain Jerez
May 17th France Le Mans
May 31st Italy Mugello
June 14th Catalunya Catalunya
June 27th** Netherlands Assen
July 5th*** United States Laguna Seca
July 19th Germany Sachsenring
July 26th Great Britain Donington Park
August 16th Czech Republic Brno
August 30th Indianapolis Indianapolis
September 6th San Marino & Riviera di Rimini Misano
September 20th Hungary Balaton
October 4th Portugal Estoril
October 18th Australia Phillip Island
October 25th Malaysia Sepang
November 8th Valencia Ricardo Tormo – Valencia
* Evening race
** Saturday race
*** Only MotoGP class
Thanks to motogpmatters for all of this info.