Cal shows Toseland the way at Portimao test
Wed, 28 Oct 2009
2010 Yamaha World Superbike riders James Toseland and Cal Crutchlow wasted no time yesterday, getting straight down to business with their first ride on the championship winning R1.
Both riders were working with their new teams for the first time, but gelled quickly and had got down to under the race pace of Sunday’s championship final before the end of the first sessions.
It was the first step in adapting the bikes to their new riders, both Toseland and Crutchlow are out again today to make further changes and close in on the perfect set up for their 2010 race season. Despite a high speed high side in the morning session, CIA Insurance supported Cal Crutchlow showed no signs of slowing down and continued to make significant time improvements over the afternoon’s practice time.
New team mate and fellow British rider James Toseland also showed solid improvement over the day, despite being new to the bike and track he quickly got down to business and continued to shave time off his laps over the course of the sessions.
Having achieved an incredible victory on Sunday and lifted the World Superbike title for the first time, the Yamaha team were straight to business today, working hard to develop championship winning riders for the next season.
Cal Crutchlow (1'42.7): “It was a good enough day apart from a stupid crash this morning after about 30 laps, there seemed to be something wrong with my rear tyre which caused me to high side. I hit my head and have had a few headaches today but ok apart from that. The testing has gone well, we’ve done quite reasonable times, all credit to the guys who’ve worked really hard. We haven’t changed much on the bike today, just tried to make it my bike a bit, tomorrow we’ll do some more and see how we go.”
James Toseland (1'43.7): “I’m feeling really positive, it’s obviously my first time on the bike, it felt a bit alien after two years on a GP bike but the balance of the bike felt good and I’m really impressed with how the team’s working, I’ve got an old friend of mine as a chief engineer. I’ve been really impressed to work with him today and Silvano Galbusera (Yamaha World Superbike Team Technical Co-ordinator) looking over him with his experience has been great. What’s been nice is the changes we’ve been making have always been in a positive direction, so to say we’ve got down to more or less race pace on a brand new track and a brand new bike is good, I’m pretty pleased with it.”
Massimo Meregalli, Yamaha World Superbike Team: “Cal’s first day went pretty well, it was easier for him compared to James as he already knew the track, but it was still a really good first test session for him. For James everything was new, the bike, the track, tyres, many things! I think tomorrow he will make another step. For the first day we are very satisfied with both riders.”
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