IRTA
- Jerez
1.
Losail
2. Jerez
3. Istanbul
4. Shanghai
5. Le
Mans
6. Mugello
7.
Catalunya
8. Donington
9. Assen
10. Sachsenring
11.
Laguna Seca
12. Brno
13. Misano
14. Estoril
15. Motegi
16. Phillip Island
17. Sepang
18. Valencia
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News 08/07/07
Round 8. Britain
: Donington
Seby makes it 2 wins in a row after
a great display in the wet at Donington Park, edging the former World
Champion Skider to the line, with Guishermo third.
Seby clinched
his second consecutive win this season in today’s British Grand Prix at
Donington Park, putting on an impressive performance to fend off the
challenge of Skider.
Seby made a good start from pole to snatch the holeshot ahead of
Guishermo, while Vouks slipped back to third. The Greek ended the race
on another blow, sixth place after he went to gravel a few times.
Qualified in a low 4th place, World Champion Skider made a strong
charge, gaining a place on the first lap and challenging Guishermo for
second three laps later.
By mid-race, the Suzuki rider was chasing Seby
after passing Guishermo, but only managed to close the gap to little
less than two seconds.
At the front, Seby rode a flawless race despite Guishermo pushing hard
on his tail, but never close enough to have a clear shot at the lead.
With this second consecutive win, Seby consolidated his second position
in the standings, 28 points ahead of Vouks and only 14 behind Skider.
Lipton Icetea Ilmor’s DavyB took fourth, crossing the line more than
seven seconds after Seby, followed by Yamaha veterans Saber120, Vouks
and Transalp. down took eight ahead of CrazyBoy and Luke, who completed
the final top 10.
Despite it being his second year on a Yamaha, Seby has proven that he
has what it takes to beat Skider after two dominant victories in
Catalunya and Donington and consequently the mantle of being the top M1
rider. The Romanian has also stepped up onto the podium six times so
far this season, and with a little more help from M1 next race, the
22-year old now has the belief, the talent and team capable of fighting
for the title this season.
Seby Lords Of
Shadow (winner, 17:18.075):
"Thanks guys, this time it has been easier than in Catalunya.
In the past after I've won a race I took it easy in the next race. This
time I knew I had a good chance to win again and there was no point to
do another safe race, at this point of the championship I can risk more.
I started to practice on Monday after Catalunya and I did 26s with
soft-hard. Each day I did around 6-7 practice races. Total time was
around 17:22 in the first few days, then it dropped to 17:17. On Friday
I removed the preload from my setup and I could do consistent 17:15 in
all practice races, 25.3 - 25.5 hot laps and 26.3 - 26.5 last lap.
Friday night I hosted Skider and down, in qualifying down did a very
good lap and made me think about my practice with soft tyres which was
0 until that moment. He did 24.8 which was very good at that time. In
the race down had a very good start and I was amazed by his pace, at
one point he was almost 2 seconds in front of Skider and I knew that if
he would have continued that way I couldn't beat him. Even so, I kept
the camera on Skider because I was almost sure down would make mistakes
in the end of the race and Skider would catch up. Thats exactly what
happend, 6th or 7th lap Skider did 25.3 which was very good for
soft-hard and I thought "oh man, I can't do that, lucky he had a bad
start", few laps later Skid passed down but in the last 2 laps he made
some small mistakes or took it easy so he did 26.6 and 27.3 in the last
lap. When I saw Skider's total time (17:20), I knew I could win the
race even without risking so much. Saturday I woke up thinking about
how my race was going to be, I was trying to stay very concentrated so
I wouldn't be too sressed in my official race. I repetead few times in
my head 'if I stay calm and do my thing I can win it'. I begun the
practice and I did 17:14.9 in the first practice race, I was very happy
with that. In the second practice race i did 3 laps in a row in 25.3
but 17:15.1 total time. I knew in my official race I was going to be
with 3-4 seconds slower than in practice but also the hot lap would be
slower. On Sunday morning I did few laps with Soft tyres so I can be
ready to take the pole, I knew it was a very hard job but I did some
laps in time trial. I managed 25.2 with soft-hard and 24.8 with
soft-med, I knew that moment I can take the pole possition too. I did
1:24.602 with softs in time trial (ghosts on the site) and then I
called Saber120 and rezist to begin the action. I did 25.818 in the
first few laps of the qualifying and I wasn't sure if that was enough
to take the pole so I put in a couple more laps and did that 25.7.
While Saber120 and rezist raced I did a practice race with soft-medium,
my first until that moment. I did 24.9 hot lap and 17:13.9 total time.
I was very impressed so few hours after the race I was thinking 'choose
soft-med or soft-hard?'. At that point I was 95% I will win the race,
only lag or the no-coll file could have stopped me. I chose soft-medium
because I was a bit greedy, I wanted the hot lap too and I also wanted
to surprise Vouks, Guishermo and SFW with my pace from the first laps
(soft-med was very fast in the first laps).
At the start of the official race I started the bike last, the other 3
guys were 10 feet in front of me, I kind of risked in the first corner
and braked exactly like in practice, at the last moment... so I passed
them all on the braking and thanks to my medium rear tyre I went in
front right from the first corner. In the next 3-4 corners SFW tried to
put pressure on me, showing me his front tyre but I wasn't stressed, I
was sure I would leave him behind very soon. Actually at the start of
the race I wanted to humiliate the rest of the guys, to explode past
them and never look back. I was hoping few of them would be surprised
and make mistakes... SFW and Vouks made few mistakes in the first lap
so I had only Guishermo behind me. In the first laps I was about 1
second faster per lap and after mid race I was about 5 seconds in
front. At that point I thought 'why push so hard and win by a big
distance when I can take it easy and still win the race', actually I
reminded it was wet and anything could happen lol. If in the first laps
I did 29.3, 25.5, 25.1 and few other 25s, after mid race I did 26s, I
took it easy and I also reminded Skider's total time and I thought that
if I slow down a bit, Guishermo would push harder to catch me, this way
he would finish the race in front of Skider (I needed the points). In
the last 2 laps I was looking back, like waiting for Guishermo to push
harder but unfortunately he couldn't go as fast as I wanted so I just
had to finish the race like that. Last 2 laps were 27s, last two
corners I was looking back so it would look good on the video lol. I
saw the total times and I said 'damn' in my mind. I was hoping
Guishermo to finish in front of Skider.
Thats the real story of this GP, feelings and everything.
I managed to get everything I wanted (pole, hot lap and victory) so
congratulations and thanks to the competition (Skider, Guishermo,
DavyB, Vouks, Luke, down, SFW and everyone else who is happy with their
results).
See you all in Assen where I'll go as the favourite because of these 2
victories and the one from last year at Assen. ^^
Now it's time to relax, I need a vacation & stuff. I'll be back to
practice in about 2 weeks."
Skider Oasics
NoGrip Racing Team (2nd, 17:20.063):
"Congratulations Seby, a perfect race weekend, GG to Guishermo for the
podium aswell. I would've liked to race with Seby but lucky or unlucky
I couldn't because I had to go on a marriage over 500km from my home,
even so I think my chances of victory racing with him would've been
less. This time I had not enough time to train anymore so I'm very
happy with the 2nd place. I was lucky indeed being right behind Seby,
only 5 points less on the standings between us. I think it will be very
interesting from now on, we'll see what happens in the next rounds, the
middle of the season is done and now stay in front will be very
important. Anyway, I think the championship won't be a single 2 man
battle because we've got very fast riders getting confidence and
they'll want to win races. I hope to be there, get more time to
practice and try to add many points as I could. This couple of days
without races will give me time to relax and prepare better the next
round at Assen.
See you all, have fun!"
Guishermo
Hurricane Miu Racing Team (3rd, 17:21.107):
"GG Seby (you kicked everybody's ass) and Skider, and to everybody who
took part in the race.
I didn´t train as much as I would have liked and Sunday arrived and my
pace was low 26s, but I did two runs 1-2 hours before the race and I
was able to improve my pace to high 25s, so I was expecting to do a
good job. I raced with SFW, Seby and Vouks, I did a good start but in
the first corner I was too conservative and lost what I had done at the
start. Seby started to make a gap and I was behind SFW when he did a
mistake and was a bit wide at the long right hand corner... Then I was
second in front of Vouks and tried not to loose time with Seby because
I thought he was going to use the same tyres as me, but I did two
mistakes and lost 2 seconds and his advantage was around 4-5 seconds
with 2-3 laps to the end. Then I started to recover a little bit
because my rear was harder than his one but it was impossible to catch
him, he was just faster."
Vouks MotoGP
Greece Racing Team (6th, 17:27.108):
"GG again Seby... and please next time do not host fast guys when
they race before for some reason, I think it's not fair to know the
total.
GG Davy and to all who race this dificullt GP.
Dolz-Yvos: 6-2!
See you in Assen"
Luke
Tornado-CreW (10th, 17:33.735):
"GG Seby, you had a very fast speed in this race.
My Race was the best one from this season, my first top ten result, I'm
very happy, in Lap 9 I made a mistake and wrode off the track, I lost
around 4 seconds.
Also a great race for Jake and Bradders (podium Class, you are very
fast too, and it is fun to race in the same Class).
See y'all at dry Assen."
Jake Yamaha
England MotoGP (15th, 17:41.516):
"GG Seby!
My race went ok, I got a good start and pulled a gap over JC, but he
was quicker than me and after a few laps caught me and past me at the
half way point, I tried to keep up and I made a mistake causing me to
run off which cost me about 5/6 seconds.
But I still got 2nd in B, and moved closer to TT98 in the title chase.
GG LuKe, you're too bloody fast and gg to Brad for getting another
podium!"
Bradders
Yamaha England MotoGP (18th, 17:47.404):
"I didn't push too hard this race, I couldn't risk a crash. But I'm
very pleased with 18th and 3rd (B-class). I had an entertaining race
too, Chriss was very impressive for a rookie, and Atman and Gafo gave
me a good race as usual! Also, well done to Seby, Jake, LuKe and DavyB.
They all rode great races.
Thank God it's back to dry, and there's no place better than Assen!
Hopefully I can get my first top 10 and I'll be dissapointed with
anything other than a B-class win at my favourite track. But winning
races is not easy now LuKe, Jake, TT98 and Matt are all on it. Good
luck guys, see you in a few weeks."
Gafo Lipton
Icetea Ilmor Team (23rd, 17:54.490):
"Lipton Icetea Ilmor Team after race:
Manager:
Our team did good work but we are still waiting for more luck in this
season. I'm really proud that Davy did an amazing result. He's very
fast on wet and he proved it again here. The team needs this points and
he take for us 4th position. Gafo couldn't practice much here and he
has joined to race without qualifying and warm-up, so 23rd place
without crash and with regular laps is not best but good result. But
with this round we have some problems again. TxUs had problems with
machine and couldn't start in race.
Gafo:
This race was so dificult. I couldn't go faster on wet, especially
after that I started without warm-up. I was fighting with Atman and
Bradders on begining but after half race they started doing better lap
times and go away above 3 sec from me. I did a good race and I hope
that in next 2 rounds after summer-break and tests our team take points
with all riders. Thanks!
Manager:
After little summer-break our team is going to Assen for 2-3 days of
tests to improve our performances with full races, and with some
mechanical stuff.
See you all in Holland in 3 weeks."
With this second consecutive victory, Seby managed to escape from Vouks
in the Rider Standings and also to catch up a little to Skider who is
leading with 195 points, only 14 points in front of Seby. Vouks is 42
points behind Skider.
Guishermo is 4th with 146 points and SFW 5th with 118.
Oasics NoGrip Racing is still first in the Team Standings with a total
of 297 points but only 2 points ahead of Lords Of Shadow and a masive
100 points in front of MotoGP Greece Racing Team. Hurricane Miu Racing
and Nitram Racing complete the top 5.
Thanks to Seby's 2nd victory in a row, Yamaha extended the lead over
Suzuki to 10 points in the Constructors' Standings.
Moriwaki is 3rd, 62 points behind Yamaha with Kawasaki and Honda 4th
and 5th.
In the Qualifying Award, Seby is leader thanks to another pole
position, his 6th of the season. Skider is less than a second behind
Seby with Vouks 3rd, over a second and a half behind the Romanian.
In the Hot Lap Award Skider is the leader with Seby coming up to second
place thanks to a Hot Lap in this race, only 1.3 behind the Spaniard.
Guishermo is third, 1.484 behind Skider with Vouks and Saber120 4th and
5th.
Skider is also the leader of the Total Time Award, but only 3 seconds
in front of Seby while 3rd placed rider, Vouks, is more than 40 seconds
behind the front pair.
Join us in 3 week's time for the MotoGP500online Grand Prix of Assen.
Report by Seby
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