Jerez 2005 pre-season IRTA test - MotoGP
Jerez de la Frontera - Friday 25th March, 2005

Camel Honda commence final tests before start of MotoGP 2005

The MotoGP paddock has made the journey down from Barcelona to Jerez, where the
race atmosphere is beginning to set in. All the teams are present, with the
first grand prix of the 2005 season beginning in less than two weeks time, and
the three Irta test days which began today represent a perfect opportunity to
prepare for the imminent race. Troy Bayliss, who rode well here in December, was
suffering from a stomach bug which prevented him from sleeping properly last
night, but nevertheless still showed his continued improvements on the RC211V.
His teammate Alex Barros demonstrated his now customary  pace and consistency,
today completing a first race simulation of the year (27 laps) towards the end
of the session.

Ramon Forcada - Camel Honda - (Alex Barros's crew chief)

"Today we began by setting-up the bike, we've done a good job, but we're only at
the start of it. Doing a race simulation at the end, we realised that we need to
improve the suspension settings, on the front and the rear from the tenth lap
onwards. The overall time was satisfactory but we can do better, and we can only
make comparisons to 2003 because it was a wet race last year, so the time really
isn't too significant."

Alex Barros - Camel Honda - 1'41.637  (85 laps) 6th position

"I'm quite satisfied, even though you can't get the set-up one hundred percent
after just the first day. Nevertheless I'm happy to have done a race simulation,
the first of this year for me, and it allowed me to see how the bike behaved
over long distance, something we will work on tomorrow if the weather allows us.
The forecasts are for rain though, and that's why we did the simulation today,
but there is still work to do on the frame and the electronics to be at our top
level."

Santiago Mulero - Camel Honda (Troy Bayliss's crew chief)

"With respect to the test that we did here last December, the bike has changed
significantly since then, especially in the electronics, so today we worked on
that and the set-up of the rest of the bike. Troy went really quick with the
2004 bike and the enormous quantity of work done since then allowed us to go
well on this first day of tests too. At the end he was satisfied, and now we
only hope that it doesn't rain tomorrow, as the forecasts say, so we can
continue working like this."

Troy Bayliss - Camel Honda - 1'42.058 (86 laps) 12th position

"Over the last couple of days I've been a bit ill, and luckily I seem to be a
little better today, although I didn't sleep well last night. I'm quite tired,
but together with the team I did all the work scheduled for today. It wasn't too
bad for a first day; we worked on the set-up and on specific settings for
certain areas of the bike, mostly electronic ones, which have changed since we
were here in December. The tyres are different now too, so in general I think
we've done a good job today."

Official Lap Times

 1. Hopkins (Suzuki)         1'40.893
 2. Hayden (Honda)           1'41.045
 3. Rossi (Yamaha)           1'41.273
 4. Gibernau (Honda)         1'41.397
 5. Melandri (Honda)         1'41.626
 6. Barros (Honda)           1'41.637
 7. Tamada (Honda)           1'41.668
 8. Hofmann (Kawasaki)       1'41.702
 9. Nakano (Kawasaki)        1'41.775
10. Edwards (Yamaha)         1'42.018
11. Capirossi (Ducati)       1'42.025
12. Bayliss (Honda)          1'42.058
13. Elias (Yamaha)           1'42.270
14. Roberts (Suzuki)         1'42.375
15. Biaggi (Honda)           1'42.393
14. Xaus (Yamaha)            1'43.467
17: Guareschi (Ducati test)  1'43.643
18. Aoki (Suzuki test)       1'44.458
19. Byrne (Proton)           1'44.974
20. Ellison (Blata WCM)      1'45.060
21. Rolfo (Ducati)           1'45.064
22. Battaini (Blata WCM)     1'46.447