The result is a truly unique version of the Pirelli Calendar,
made up for the first time of 22 pages. The Calendar closes
with a lively collage of shots "stolen" by the
great photographer in a famous Rio discotheque, during
the party that concluded the shooting.
The
black and white photographs investigate the most mysterious
aspects of the models seeking out the invisible source
of their allure: alongside the already mentioned Naomi
Campbell (Victoria's Secret, America's Next Top Model)
are Filippa Hamilton and Isabeli Fontana (already chosen
by Bruce Weber for the 2003 edition), Adriana Lima (the
current featured model for Victoria's Secret and Maybeline
cosmetics), Diana Dondoe, Erin Wasson, Euguenia Volodina,
Julia Stegner, Liliane Ferrarezi, Marija Vujovic, Michelle
Buswell, "Valentina" and Valeria Bohm.
A
truly an international cast with three Brazilians, two
Americans, one Russian, one Montenegrin, one Romanian,
one Swede and one German, ranging in age from a just turned
17 to the legerndary naomi Campbell in her mid 30's. For
the inside story on the very sexy, and very nude calendar
go to Pirelli
2005.
MotoGP Winter Tests –Valencia, Spain
New
MotoGP Teams Prepare for 2005: Ducks Kick Ass, Little
Nicky Totals His Honda
Ducati
Marlboro's new
rider Carols Checa
sets record pace on
Bridgestone Tires
at
MotoGP Tests
MotoGP
Test Jerez de la Frontera, Spain November 24-26, 2004.
The Ducati
Marlboro Team has successfully wrapped up its third and
final day of testing at the Jerez circuit in Spain. In
collaboration with Bridgestone technicians, Loris Capirossi
and Carlos Checa worked non-stop for three days on the
testing programme aimed at finalizing the new tyres for
next season. Both riders put in numerous sequences of
laps on their Desmosedici machines, and for the first
time also used qualifying rubber.
The
team's new signing from Spain, Carlos Checa, was in great
form today, recording 1m40.065s on qualifying tyres, almost
eight-tenths of a second quicker than this year's pole
mark set by Valentino Rossi (1m40.818s).
Carlos totalled 56 laps and his best time of 1m41.246s
on race tyres clearly demonstrates that he has quickly
adapted to the Italian bike and the Japanese tyres.
Loris
Capirossi lapped on the same pace as Carlos and out of
a total of 67 laps, the Italian set a best time of 1m40.926s
on qualifying tyres and 1m41.392s on race tyres.
"I
am really pleased with these first tests with Bridgestone
tyres" declared Loris. "The feeling with the
front is already good and this afternoon we did a 20-lap
long-run, maintaining a constant pace. For the first time
I also tried the qualifying tyres: for sure these have
a great potential, but I prefer not to take any risks
for the moment. I can't wait to get to Valencia on Monday
to continue testing with the new tyres and developing
our bike".
Today
was also the final day of testing at Jerez for World Superbike
rider Régis Laconi with the development team Desmosedici.
Laconi continued to work with the new electronic components,
the Frenchman completing 56 laps and setting a best time
of 1m41.853s.
"We
are really pleased with the way the tests went" commented
Filippo Preziosi, Ducati Corse Technical Director. "The
weather conditions were favourable and we were able to
get through a lot of work in these three days and obtain
some important results. The basis for the start of our
new partnership with Bridgestone is excellent. Now we
have some good reference data with the new tyres and confirmation
that our bike adapts well to their characteristics. As
always in racing, there is still a lot of work to do but
our morale is high, we are satisfied and this certainly
means we are off to a good start!"
Following
these successful tests at Jerez, the Ducati Marlboro Team
will remain in Spain next week for two more days at Valencia
on Monday 29 and Tuesday 30 November, the final session
of 2004 before the start of the winter testing ban.
Team
Honda has Gibernau Quickest
Over
in the Honda camp,
Day Two of a three-day test
saw Sete Gibernau being the fastest RC211V rider on day
two of Jerez test Warm sunny conditions again prevailed
on day two of the three-day MotoGP test at Jerez, Spain
allowing the Honda teams a full day of testing that ended
at 18.00. The teams dedicated the best part of the day
to tyre testing with Michelin and it was Spaniard Sete
Gibernau (Telefonica
MoviStar Honda) who emerged as the fastest RCV rider on
the day.
Gibernau
worked hard evaluating a range of chassis and suspension
combinations before moving on to tyre testing with Michelin.
His new teammate, Italian Marco Melandri ran an incredible
101 laps of the 4.423km
circuit today basically getting in as many kilometers
as possible on the 5-cyclinder 990cc Honda. The Italian
steadily improved his speed and consistency during his
101 lap stint slightly under his lap time of yesterday.
For
American Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda), fastest Honda on
the opening day, today was one to forget. He crashed at
high speed but escaped unscathed but his RCV was extensively
damaged. The team is investigating the cause of the crash.
The damage badly disrupting his test programme. Extensive
tyre testing scheduled for today was postponed until tomorrow.
Makoto
Tamada (Konica Minolta Honda) covered 77 laps today running
exactly the same time as his best of yesterday, 1m 41.9s.
Tamada worked together with Michelin technicians to on
various tyres sizes and combinations as he adjusts to
the performance of his new tyre supplier.
Sete
Gibernau: 1m 41.036s - 70-laps: "I'm
testing here at Jerez all the material that Honda is bringing
me in
order to understand and evaluate all the material we already
have. My goal in fact is to create the best package that
will be the base for the next season. In particular today
I tested a different chassis and a new front fork. I tried
to do quality laps maintaining a constant pace on 1'41"
in order to understand and evaluate the material we have."
"We
also did some tyre testing. Michelin, in fact has asked
us to test a new front tyre, so I'm very happy because
we are all working hard in the
same direction. Tomorrow I will go on doing more comparative
testing, I have a lot of stuff to test but this is necessary
in order to get the best package."
Marco
Melandri: 1m 42.023s - 101 laps:
"I'm very happy of the work done today, my feeling
with the bike has improved and I felt much more confident.
I have improved my pace and this is the most important
thing. I have a lot of work to do, my lap time is still
not so high but at the moment I want to proceed step by
step. I'm very happy of my new team, there is a very good
atmosphere and we work with motivation, they make me enjoying
riding."
Nicky
Hayden: 1m 42.0s - 62 laps: "This
morning didn't really get going like yesterday. I had
a pretty big crash that really messed the whole day up.
HRC are looking into the causes but it was third gear
and the bike went straight up and down. We've only got
one machine here and the crash really did a number on
the bike and the boys had to change nearly everything!
Physically I was okay in the crash but it shook me up
quite a bit. We managed to get out there again towards
the end of the day and put in quite a few laps but I never
got back in the times that I know I should be doing. I've
had better thanksgiving days in my life before but that's
what you get in the sport. Some days are better than others
and today wasn't one of the good ones."
Makoto
Tamada: 1m 41.9s - 77 laps:
"We made no technical changes to the bike today I
have to learn to
understand the feeling of the Michelin tyres over a distance
so we concentrated on running a lot of kilometres today.
Tomorrow we will try different front suspension settings
with various tyres and hope to get even
better understanding of how the Michelins perform."
Reigning
Champion Rossi, and new team mate Edwards
Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team finishes 2004 with positive
test
Nov
26th: The Gauloises Fortuna Yamaha Team rounded
off its championship-winning 2004 season today with a
third and final day of testing in Sepang. Valentino Rossi
and his 2005 team-mate Colin Edwards enjoyed another hot
and dry day at the Malaysian circuit and now head off
for a well-earned winter break.
World
Champion Valentino Rossi completed 44 laps, once again
spending time refining the set-up of the 2004-spec M1.
He also completed a long distance run on the new 2005-spec
prototype version of the bike. Rossi posted his fastest
time of the three-day test today with a lap of 2’02.35s.
Speaking
after the test, Rossi said, “We’ve been working
on the new bike lots during these three days; it seems
we do more and more testing every year, and start even
earlier! Yamaha has put in a lot of effort to bring this
bike here and enable us to start work on it in the right
direction for next year, so it was very important for
me to be here.
“Not
every part of this prototype bike is new, but Yamaha has
changed a lot. We are aiming for more stability in the
rear end, but we want to keep the sweet handling. We are
also looking for a little more horsepower; as everyone
knows, which is one area we need to improve on. We’re
still not quite there yet, but Yamaha’s engineers
will continue this work during the winter and then I am
sure we will be nearer our goal when we meet again in
January. I’m now looking forward to a long holiday!”
Colin
Edwards rode just 13 laps today on the 2004-spec bike,
finishing his day early having completed the work he set
out to do during the test. He posted a best lap of 2’04.31s.
Team
Director Davide Brivio commented, “We are pleased
with the progress we’ve made during this test. In
January we will start to work more specifically on set-up
of the new bike. We were fortunate to be able to enjoy
good weather during this test; at 6pm today it started
to rain heavily, so we were very lucky!
“The
team has been working very well together during this test.
We are looking forward to continuing the work we have
begun here when we reconvene in January. It has been a
fantastic season for all those involved in the project,
and everyone has worked very hard to make it a success.
Now I hope that they all enjoy a very relaxing holiday,
before we arrive back here in January to continue the
hard work!”
The
team will return to the Sepang circuit to recommence its
winter test schedule on 22 January.
Times:
Valentino Rossi
(Yamaha) 2’02.35 (44 laps)
Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2’04.31
(13 laps)
