MotoGP
MYT Spanish GP day 1 notes
The Marlboro Yamaha Team is back to full strength for this weekend’s Spanish GP, Carlos Checa rejoining team-mate Max Biaggi after missing the South African GP through injury. The pair, who were super quick during February’s group pre-season ...
Edited: Apr 15, 2002, 11:45 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
The Marlboro Yamaha Team is back to full strength for this weekend’s Spanish GP, Carlos Checa rejoining team-mate Max Biaggi after missing the South African GP through injury. The pair, who were super quick during February’s group pre-season tests here, ended the first day of qualifying fifth and 12th and are confident of better to come during tomorrow’s all-important final session.
“I expect times to come down again tomorrow, to the kind of pace everyone was running back in February,” said team manager Geoff Crust. “Max has been working his way though all the tyres and doing a little bit of work on bike balance. We don’t want to play around with things too much, because we expect the track to get better tomorrow, more like it was during pre-season tests, and we know we’ve got the right set-up for those conditions. Max had a minor fall at turn four this morning. He hit a bump, that unloaded the front and down he went. Carlos is getting back into the swing of things after a month off the bike. He’s been losing time through a few parts of the track, so we need to take a look at what we can do to fix that for Saturday.”
BIAGGI A FRACTION OFF THE FRONT ROW
Max Biaggi ended today’s opening qualifier in fifth spot, just seven hundredths of a second off the provisional front row. The Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR500 rider came back from a minor tumble in this morning’s session to run some good, consistent times in preparation for Sunday’s race, round three of this year’s 500 World Championship.
“I actually came in on my fastest lap near the end of the session,” he revealed. “My first three splits on that lap put me just a tenth down on Rossi but the bike wasn’t quite right so I wanted to come in and change settings. We tried something new with set-up today but it wasn’t the right direction for this racetrack, so for tomorrow we’ll go back to what worked at the tests. We know what to change, we just didn’t have time during the session and I’m sure I can improve a lot once we’ve made the switch.”
This morning Biaggi tested a high-tech Dainese leather suit, fitted with 64 sensors that monitor various body functions like heart rate as well as temperature and humidity within the suit.
CHECA BACK IN ACTION
Carlos Checa was back on board his Marlboro Yamaha Team YZR500s for the first time in a month today, steadily working himself back up to speed and ending the afternoon 12th quickest. The Spanish star suffered an injured kidney when he crashed his Supermotard bike during a training run a week before the South African GP and was in hospital for a week. “I feel fine, but I need to get my feeling back,” said Checa, who was seventh in this morning’s ‘free’ session. “I took a step backwards when I crashed my Supermotard bike and now I need to recover, it’s only normal that it takes a while to get back up to speed. The bike isn’t bad but I’m getting an unstable feeling from the front through some of the braking areas and that’s stopping me rolling into the corners with good speed. We worked at the problem this morning but I couldn’t push as hard as I wanted to at the end of this afternoon’s session so we’ve got some work to do on that.”
ROSSI LEADS THE WAY
World Championship leader Valentino Rossi (Honda) dominated today’s opening qualifying session, steadily upping his pace in the closing stages to end up 0.718 seconds ahead of his closest challenger. “I’m very happy,” said the Italian, winner of the opening two races of 2001. “I managed a 43.5 before I even switched to soft tyres at the end of the session, that made me four tenths faster than anyone with a normal race rear.”
ABE AND NAKANO GIVE CHASE
Yamaha riders Norick Abe and Shinya Nakano were the closest men to Rossi, 0.718 seconds off provisional pole and less than two hundredths apart. In fact the next nine riders behind Rossi are separated by just 0.4 seconds. “I ’m feeling really good on the bike,” said Abe, who once had a reputation as a slow qualifier but has reinvented himself this season. “500s are so close now that qualifying is very important – you need a good grid position, that’ s why I’m trying so hard.”
FIRST QUALIFYING 1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Nastro Azzurro HONDA 1'43.113 2. Norick Abe (JPN) Antena 3 YAMAHA-D'Antin 1'43.831 3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Gauloises YAMAHA Tech 3 1'43.848 4. Loris Capirossi (ITA) West HONDA Pons 1'43.894 5. MAX BIAGGI (ITA) Marlboro YAMAHA Team 1'43.971
12. CARLOS CHECA (SPA) Marlboro YAMAHA Team 1'44.072
-MYT
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Spanish GP Shell Advance Honda preview
Next article Michelin Nazareth qualifiying
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Valentino Rossi
The closest finish in MotoGP history: Toni Elias over Valentino Rossi 20 years ago
MotoGP
MotoGP
Portuguese GP
The closest finish in MotoGP history: Toni Elias over Valentino Rossi 20 years ago
Marc Marquez to read Valentino Rossi’s new book “when I retire” from MotoGP
MotoGP
MotoGP
San Marino GP
Marc Marquez to read Valentino Rossi’s new book “when I retire” from MotoGP
Valentino Rossi abandons Nordschleife Permit plans for 2026
Endurance
Endurance
NLS8
Valentino Rossi abandons Nordschleife Permit plans for 2026
Latest news
Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
28 min
Alex Bowman hits out at critics in snarky post, shooting down early exit rumors
Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
50 min
Ryan Blaney gets sweet redemption after 'nightmares' following 2024 Homestead loss
IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing
IndyCar
Indy IndyCar 1 h
IndyCar 2026 season review: Dale Coyne Racing
Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Homestead-Miami
1 h
Noah Gragson apologizes to Daniel Suarez for spinning him at Homestead
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe