Yamaha revient sur Estoril 2004

[FracK]

Valentino Rossi put on a show of supremacy during the 2004 Estoril MotoGP, storming to a clear five second win over Honda rider Makoto Tamada. Tamada was himself four seconds ahead of Alex Barros (Honda) and championship rival Sete Gibernau (Honda). Fellow Yamaha rider Carlos Checa also rode a strong race to complete the top five.

Starting from second on the grid in perfect sunshine, Rossi slid in behind Loris Capirossi at turn two, but shortly after he passed the Ducati rider and took the lead. From this point Rossi was unchallenged for the rest of the 28-lap race, taking his sixth victory in his debut season with Yamaha and the 65th of his Grand Prix career at that stage. Checa spent the early part of the race engaged in a battle for fifth with fellow Yamaha rider Marco Melandri, before the Italian fell on lap eight, leaving Checa to hold onto fifth place ahead of John Hopkins (Suzuki).

2005 Set-up Report YZR-M1
Estoril is a technically challenging venue, due to a combination of its design and geography. The 4182m circuit is situated 32km west of Lisbon on the western coast of Portugal, 7km from the beach resorts of Cascais. As beautiful as the costal area is Estoril is regularly hit by offshore winds which can result in a light film of dust forming on the track surface. Combined with its flat camber and irregular use, grip levels are always at a minimum for the first few days during the Portuguese MotoGP. That is until a clean racing line is formed.

As the circuit naturally becomes cleaner and faster over the course of the GP weekend the ideal chassis set-up also changes. The new one session qualifying format will prove a great benefit to the teams and riders here, allowing time to find the best package before having to push hard on Saturday afternoon - hopefully at which point the track will have a clean line.

Compromise is the key in Estoril, with its high-speed straight - topping 320kmh - combined with some seriously hard braking - especially into turn one. also the most popular passing point. Add in a sequence of tight twists and turns, a few fast sweepers, the meanest chicane on the championship calendar, and you need a bike set-up that can do everything well.

The engine alone must cater for all extremes here. Predictability, due to the low grip levels, low to midrange power must satisfy the drive needed off the half dozen second gear corners as well as the everlasting high-speed right hander onto the main straight. Here the rider needs high amounts of grip, confidence and predictability to achieve the drive necessary in order to reduce the risk of being passed on the line at the chequred flag.

Chassis wise the first target is a balanced, neutral geometry; offering good turn-in characteristics while also catering for the big braking areas - such as turn one. The base setting will be similar to those used at Donington, only with slightly higher rate fork springs to deal with the extra weight transfer under deceleration. Meanwhile the rear spring will be softer to improve feedback under power, although it is a fine line, with the circuit reasonably narrow and the limited amount of grip off the racing line there is little room to run wide.

The focus will be on a set-up suited more to the latter part of the race, at which point the grip levels will be fading - more so than at any other circuit. Again the low grip levels are a factor, as are the repetitive bumps in the track surface on the exits of the turns, which can unsettle a fast bike on old tyres easily.