Another report and some more fantastic photos from our man on the ground Scott Jones of Turn2Photography. Scott is currently attending the British Grand Prix at Donington Park as a spectator, as official accreditation from Dorna is virtually impossible to come by. Here's Scott's view of the first day of qualifying at Donington:

Notes from Donington

Friday seemed like last year’s Saturday in terms of the number of fans in attendance, according to a friend who chalked up the impressive workday crowd to James Toseland’s popularity at his home GP. We overheard one child tell a friend he met at the track that his mum had phoned his school to say he had been vomiting all night and had to stay home, at which point she piled him into the car and headed for the races. Toseland’s name and number 52 dominate the apparel for sale, and from the shirts and hats appearing among the crowd it is hard to say who is currently more popular: Rossi or Toseland.

Rossi seems to be respecting Toseland’s stature on home turf, playing less to the crowd than he usually does on neutral territory. He seemed focused on his lap times, a man at the office, so perhaps he was more worried about Stoner’s lap times than he was his popularity in Britain.

Marco Melandri seems as at sea as ever. We watched the morning practice at the Foggy Esses, and more times than not, or so it seemed, Melandri struggled to find his braking point, often sailing in too hot and running the lefthander deep, having to look over his shoulder to see if his path back onto the racing line would encumber other riders.
 

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 Both today's sessions were dry, despite the forecasts for showers, though the conditions were far from ideal for motorcycle racing. That didn't seem to bother Casey Stoner, though, the Australian utterly dominating both sessions. Stoner was particularly impressive in the afternoon's session, putting in consistent long runs of 1'28, something which the other riders could only manage sporadically. This was very much the Casey Stoner of 2007, a thought which must worry the competition.

One surprise was Nicky Hayden finishing 2nd fastest. Hayden looked considerably happier on board the engine with the pneumatic valves, though whether that's down to the engine or Nicky Hayden is a question as yet to be answered. Either way, it left Hayden much quicker than he has been so far this season.

Hayden's team mate was less happy, suffering a nasty spill well into the afternoon session. Pedrosa got up painfully, though relatively uninjured, and was able to go back out on his second bike. A crash was the last thing Pedrosa needed, after badly hurting his back in a big off during testing after Barcelona. The FP2 spill definitely took the wind out of Pedroda's sails, as the Spaniard was significantly slower once he went back out again.

Valentino Rossi finished up the day 3rd fastest, but his deficit to Stoner must be worrying. Rossi was consistently 3/4 of a second behind Stoner, and will have some catching up to do during Qualifying.

The Tech 3 Yamaha team and the Gresini Honda team follow the top 3, with Colin Edwards the fastest of the bunch. His Tech 3 team mate James Toseland is fraction off the pace, which will be disappointing in front of his home crowd, but there should be more to come tomorrow. Alex de Angelis continued his run of good form, though once again, the question is not whether he's fast, but whether he can stay aboard the bike. Shinya Nakano is also making progress, though of the more steady kind.

The more interesting developments are happening at the back of the field, or in the case of Ant West, not at the back of the field. The testing which West did in Japan has made a big improvement, with West now firmly mid-pack, and right behind his team mate. More importantly, his deficit to the fast boys is only 1.4 seconds, instead of well over 2. It's too early to tell how this will actually work out, but the evidence so far is promising.

Ben Spies is another name who is not at the back of the field. The American managed to stay ahead of Sylvain Guintoli, and has gotten quicker every time he has been out on the track. It must be a culture shock for the Texan to be 17th, as he normally only has his Yoshimura Suzuki team mate Mat Mladin to contend with. But the low key approach he is taking is working well, if quietly, so far.

One man who is nearer to the back of the field than we have become accustomed to is Jorge Lorenzo. The Spanish rookie, who tore up the early season, is clearly shaken by the concussion he suffered in a big crash at Barcelona, and is circulating slowly and gingerly, at least in MotoGP terms. Lorenzo will be aiming just to finish the race, and on the evidence of today's free practice, that's all he will do.

Practice continues Saturday morning, with qualifying in the afternoon. During which period, it's due to rain. It will make qualifying very interesting indeed.

Circuit records:

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Racetracks are remarkable things. At their heart lies a deep paradox. For devotees of motor racing, they are mighty temples, places where they congregate to worship at the high altar of speed. For them, the smell of hot oil and fuel burnt and unburnt, and the deafening howl of engines pushed to bursting point and beyond for lap after lap stir the blood and are the very reason they flock to the track in their tens and hundreds of thousands, to fulfill a deep-seated need to experience the spectacle of racing.

For racing's detractors, the noise, the smell and the danger are precisely the reason to loathe racetracks. To them, thousands of people traveling from all around the world to watch a group of leather-clad lunatics waste such a precious – and costly – commodity as gasoline by going round in circles at high speed is utterly incomprehensible, and almost criminal in its wastefulness. The fact that this strange activity also produces a great deal of noise and a certain amount of stench just adds to their aversion.

In many countries, the problem is getting worse. Once located far from civilization, the space and open roads that made racing easy to organize have attracted wealthy refugees from the expanding towns, meaning that the suburbs are gradually closing in on the once isolated racetracks. And as those big comfortable homes, sold as oases of tranquility, get closer to the circuits, the complaints about the noise and the crowds and the traffic have increased, and the authorities which supervise the tracks are constantly forced to examine ways of reducing the problems.

Crisis? What Crisis?

Some tracks are luckier than others, though. For a variety of reasons, a number of tracks have fewer problems to deal with than the rest. The Losail circuit in Qatar, located in the middle of a desert and built at the behest of an authoritarian government, is unlikely to be surrounded by expanding populations hungry for space, and even if it were, their complaints would fall on deaf ears. A track like Jerez, in the heart of bike-mad Spain, has more fans living nearby than people who hate racing, and can therefore rely on plenty of local support. Any recent arrivals near the track are most likely moving to be nearer the circuit, and fully aware of the consequences.

There is a slightly more novel reason that Donington Park, the venue for the British MotoGP round, manages to limit complaints about the track. Like Qatar, the track benefits from its location. Unlike Qatar, however, this has less to do with its isolation from the inhabited world, and more to do with being situated next to Nottingham East Midlands Airport. The 50,000 aircraft a year which take off and land at the airport generate plenty of noise and stench of their own, neatly disguising some of the noise of the racetrack, and diverting attention away from the circuit.

But as smart a strategy as this might seem, there are downsides. The fact that many of those 50,000 aircraft are bearing local residents off to exotic and much warmer climes for a much-needed vacation means that those very locals are more likely to turn a blind eye and a deaf ear to the noise emanating from the airport. Whereas a vanishingly small segment of the local population is likely to spend their afternoons at Donington Park, either spectating or taking part in motorized forms of sport. As a result, and rather unjustly, complaints about the airport tend to be tempered by self-interest, and any criticism of the noise and the pollution deflected towards the Donington Park circuit.  

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As Indianapolis is a new track this year, the MotoGP riders will get to test at the track before the actual race takes place in September. The date for this test has been announced as July 1st and 2nd.

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