Gresini Racing Indianapolis GP Friday report

New Surface Steals The Headlines At Indianapolis

Marco Simoncelli, San Carlo Honda Gresini

Photo by: Bridgestone Corporation

For better or worse the new track surface at Indianapolis has dominated conversations throughout the paddock today, with the riders struggling to find any grip at all this morning before the conditions gradually improved as the day progressed. It certainly hasn't been an easy first day for anybody, including Marco Simoncelli, who has plenty of work to do along with his team in the quest for front grip. With plenty of traction on the rear it is an interesting conundrum for the telemetry engineers to figure out alongside their counterparts from Bridgestone, who will be working hard this evening to put Marco in a stronger position tomorrow. Hiroshi Aoyama encountered similar problems today but both riders are confident of a different outcome tomorrow.

Marco Simoncelli (7th 1’41.742) “It hasn't been a particularly happy first day here. The new track surface at Indianapolis has given us some grip issues – there wasn't any this morning and maybe a little too much this afternoon. After four or five laps of the opening session the left hand side of the front tyre at full lean was completely gone, so I couldn't ride the bike as I wanted to. Now along with my technicians and the guys from Bridgestone we will sit down and try to work the problem out. It could be partly to do with my riding style or maybe down to the set-up, in particular the weight distribution.”

Hiroshi Aoyama (12th 1’42.673) ”The new track surface created very unusual conditions. We tried to modify the set-up after this morning's session and found a slight improvement. It is clearly still not as good as it could be so we will try and improve it tomorrow and above all find more grip.”

Fausto Gresini “We have had a few problems with the new surface that has left us a little off the pace compared to recent races but I am pretty satisfied. We know we have a lot of work to do because the way the front tyre is reacting is not allowing Marco to ride as he wants but the technicians will look at all the data and I am sure they will come up with the right solutions to give Marco what he needs. Hiro's situation is quite similar so he also needs to work with the team to find a more suitable set-up.”