Carlos Checa has been a regular fixture at the top section of the timesheets during the winter, but a crash during a hot lap meant a trip to hospital and no further progress from eleventh position. Fortunately no serious harm was done and the Spaniard will be fine for the opening race of the season later this month.
Meanwhile, James Ellison has continued to improve his times, although not at the same rate as the other riders. Qualifying tyres have been a difficulty for the Brit, who is barely improving on his normal times with the extra sticky rubber. The one remaining question mark over the Tech 3 team is the performance of their Dunlop tyres over a race distance. Checa certainly looks capable of qualifying well, but what is not yet known is if the Dunlops will be able to compete with Bridgestone and Michelin runners as races are coming to a close.
 Carlos Checa (11th - 1'41.134)
"We're still improving a lot but we have a long way to go with the endurance of the tyre. It's hard to know at the moment what will happen over race distance. We've had a lot more problems here than in Qatar or Barcelona and of course this is disappointing, but we need to stay calm about this and remember that it's very early days.
The bike is working well but there is a lot of work to do on the package. For now we can all relax for a short while and then finally start racing!" James Ellison (18th - 1'42.686)"It's been slow, steady progress. Every time I get to a new circuit it's taking me longer than everyone else to get comfortable on the bike and so I'm not making progress as quickly as I should, but I am getting there. The first couple of days I tried to follow Carlos and see how and learn something from him. I've been trying to copy his riding style but to be honest it wasn't really working for me. This morning I went back to riding how I've always ridden and I went second quicker straight away. Now the bike isn't moving around so much and I'm feeling more comfortable. On race tyres my pace isn't so bad, I'm feeling okay. On the qualifiers I'm three seconds down, and they're not really making much difference to my times. I don't have much experience with them and so it's taking me time to learn. I'm not that worried. It seems that I got rid of the chatter today, going back to my old riding style, so it's just the durability of the tyres that we have to worry about now. I'm looking forward to the race, I love the track, although it's been difficult to get used to with this bike because everything happens faster! It's my first race with the Yamaha and I've got to take things slowly, but I would like top ten or at least top 15. I know I am nowhere near the peak of my capabilities yet and I know I can keep improving as the season goes on. Herve Poncheral - Tech 3 Team Manager"Unfortunately Carlos had a crash when he went out at the end of the day on a qualifying tyre. He was very fast and it was looking like a top five lap, but then he fell. The most important thing is that he's been checked out by the doctors and he's okay.
We've been to four different tracks and for sure here we've had the most problems. However we're still not too unhappy because we've done a lot of laps and the pace hasn't been so bad. James has improved every day - from .44 to .42s consistently, and he's more comfortable and confident. He needs more miles before he can really start to push. I want to thank everyone for their hard work over the winter and Carlos especially for everything he's brought to the team. He's done a great job and he's pushing every step of the way. He's a huge help to the Yamaha/Dunlop project."
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