Newsgroup: it.sport
Titolo: Dorna NEWS - Marlboro Riders

19 July 1996 - 19:30 CET
First 125 & 250cc Qualifying
250cc
HARADA SIXTH
Tetsuya Harada set sixth fastest time in the Donington sunshine this 
afternoon, and is confident of making further
improvements tomorrow following changes to the chassis set-up of his 
Yamaha YZR250. "The bike is a lot better than it has
been at the last two GPs," said the Marlboro Yamaha Team Rainey 250 ace. 
"We've not made any huge changes to the bike
since Germany, but we have changed the rear suspension linkage ratio. 
The bike is better but it's still not turning the way I
would like it to. I have to stop the bike, turn it and then accelerate, 
so I'm losing time before I can get on the throttle. I do
have more confidence in the tyres though, so I hope I'll be able to go 
faster tomorrow once we've made some more
alterations to the chassis."
SUTER EIGHTH
Marlboro rider Eskil Suter is on course for a second row start after 
establishing eighth fastest time on his Mohag Aprilia. "I
know I can go faster tomorrow because I missed my braking marker at the 
chicane on my fastest lap, and that lost me some
time," said the Swiss star. "I think I can make up the gap to Ruggia in 
fifth because the times are very close, but it will be
difficult to do better than that because there's a big gap from Ruggia 
to Biaggi on pole."
BIAGGI FASTEST
Max Biaggi (Chesterfield Aprilia Team) took provisional pole despite 
suffering lingering after-effects of his big crash at Assen
three weeks ago. "I would say I'm about 80 per cent fit," said Biaggi. 
"I can't go jogging at the moment because my back still
hurts, so I'm not as fit as I should be and that makes a big difference 
at this level. "The biggest problem here is that the track is
very slippery. Tyre choice will be more crucial than ever on Sunday."
125cc
OETTL SEVENTH
Peter Oettl ended this afternoon's first qualifier in seventh place. 
Donington Park is not Oettl's favourite circuit, and a second
row start for Sunday's British GP would make the Marlboro Aprilia Eckl 
rider a happy man. "This is a very difficult track for
me," said Oettl. "I like fast corners, so the new section of the track 
around the Melbourne and Goddard hairpins is a problem
for me. I've got to work on my riding to get through those slow corners 
faster, and I think we can improve the performance of
the bike through that part of the circuit. This is a tough race for me, 
but I've twice finished third here. It seems I only really get
going in the race, so a second row start would be okay for me." Today's 
125 session was topped by veteran former World
Champion Jorge Martinez on his Aprilia.
GEISSLER 13th
Unlike his Marlboro Aprilia Eckl team-mate, Manfred Geissler loves 
Donington. The young German equalled his best-ever
finish of seventh place at Donington last year, and he is determined to 
have another good ride on this visit. "Donington is one
of my favourite tracks," said Geissler, 13th quickest so far. "My aim 
tomorrow is to make the second row, and I think that's
possible because we are definitely making progress with the bike. We did 
a lot of experiments with the suspension, which will
help us tomorrow, and we also improved the gearbox set-up after this 
morning's session."
-- 
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19 July 1996 - 19:30 CET
First 500cc Qualifying
BAYLE FASTEST!
Former motocross world number one Jean-Michel Bayle took another 
significant step forward in his roadrace career at
sun-blessed Donington Park today, taking his first ever provisional pole 
in the 500 class and breaking Kevin Schwantz's
long-standing Donington lap record. It is the second GP in a row that a 
Marlboro Yamaha Team Roberts rider has secured
provisional 500 pole; two weeks ago Kenny Roberts Junior topped first 
qualifying in Germany. "We started the session a little
late because I had asked my technicians to make some changes to the 
electronics, and the bike wasn't quite ready," said
Bayle, who led a thrilling opening session which ended with one second 
covering the first 13 riders. "First of all we tried a lot
of changes to that chassis but the bike didn't feel good, so I came back 
into the pits and we returned to the settings we ran this
morning. When I got back out on the track I soon realised the bike was 
working well, but the track was very busy, so I had
to take the time to find a clear road for a fast lap. "After I did my 
best time we tried some other changes, but the bike wasn't
working so well during the last five minutes of the session. Pole was 
not my aim this afternoon, we were just working as usual
to get the bike right for the race. "I feel better than I did in 
Germany. I was really tired at the last GP, so I made sure I got a
good rest at home before coming here." Bayle has scored one pole 
position in roadracing, when he was fastest in qualifying
for last year's Argentine 250 GP.
CAPIROSSI MOVES FORWARD
Loris Capirossi was fifth fastest this afternoon, after making a crucial 
change to his Marlboro Yamaha Team Rainey YZR. The
Italian had struggled at the last few GPs, forcing team chief Wayne 
Rainey to suggest a new direction with chassis set-up.
"Loris wasn't comfortable with the bike, so went back to a setting I 
knew from when I was riding, and he doesn't have to fight
the bike anymore," said Rainey. "We changed the whole bias and balance 
of the bike. It's not a big jump, but he's now riding
with confidence. He's not afraid of the bike. "Capirossi was delighted 
with the change. "Basically we have come back to the
longer wheelbase chassis I ran at the start of the year," said the 
Italian. "I feel a lot better on the bike."
ROBERTS JUNIOR SIXTH
Kenny Roberts Junior moved up to sixth fastest at the end of this 
afternoon's session after making a vital change to the front
end of his Marlboro Yamaha Team Roberts YZR. Early in the session the 
American had been up in the top four, before
dropping down the order and then bouncing back. "This is pretty much the 
first time we've struggled with the set-up of the
bike," said Roberts Junior. "I've only a little experience on the 500, 
so we can only make little steps forward. Four minutes
from the end of the session we added some pre-load to the front fork and 
changed tyres and I got that lap in. We just kept
chipping away and now we're finally getting close with the set-up. We're 
going to make both bikes the same for tomorrow,
and that way we should be able to make twice as much progress."
ABE NINTH
Norifumi Abe was a promising ninth fastest today. The Marlboro Yamaha 
Team Roberts ace is a little wary of Donington
after two painful crashes on his past two visits. In '94 Abe made his 
foreign race debut here but made an early exit from
proceedings when he fell in the first practice session and broke a hand. 
Last year he also fell heavily during practice. "Grip is
always a problem at Donington," smiled the irrepressible Japanese. "I've 
had two big crashes here, so I took my time in
working up to speed today. My last lap was almost a second faster than 
previous laps, so I think we're moving in the right
direction. The toughest thing here is all the heavy braking Ğ it's very 
hard on your arm muscles."
CRIVILLE WORKS ON GRIP
Marlboro rider Alex Criville took a close third fastest on his Repsol 
Honda. Pole sitter at the last three GPs, the Spaniard is
concentrating on tyre selection. "We've been playing around with 
carburation and suspension settings, but our number one
priority here is tyres," said Criville. "At the last few races I have 
been fastest in practice, but I've struggled in the late stages of
the races as the tyres have lost grip. That's why I'm trying a lot of 
different tyres with a variety of different suspension set-ups.
I want to make sure I've got good grip all through the race on Sunday."
CADALORA UP FRONT AGAIN
Marlboro rider Luca Cadalora was fourth fastest this afternoon, less 
than one tenth of a second slower than Jean-Michel
Bayle's provisional pole time. "But I'm not so happy because I'm not 
really getting the kind of feeling I want from the front
end. We need to work more on our fork settings," said the Italian. "The 
good thing is that we're very close to pole, and that I
got my time without pushing too hard, because I never push it until the 
bike is perfect. We also have a little work to do on the
carburation Ğ it's too smooth at some parts of the track and too vicious 
at others."
DOOHAN SECOND BY A FRACTION
Bald-headed Mick Doohan was just four hundredths of a second behind 
Jean-Michel Bayle this afternoon. The Australian's
last-minute efforts to topple the Frenchman from provisional pole came 
to nothing when he was baulked by a slower rider on
his last lap. "It's not a big problem. My main worry is to get the bike 
good for Sunday. We've not had any grip the last couple
of years here, because it was cool, but this year it's warmer, so we've 
got grip plus some feel," said Doohan, who had his
head shaved yesterday during the Riders for Health charity day. "They 
auctioned off the first cut, then Randy (Mamola) did
the rest, and then they got a hairdresser to trim it up. I'm going to 
leave it a couple of weeks, untils a bit of hair has grown
back, then we'll see whether I'm going to keep it short or not."
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