FIM MotoGP World Championship Estoril, Portugal October 13, 2006 Second Practice Results: 1. Casey STONER (Hon RC211V), 1:38.218, Michelin 2. Nicky HAYDEN (Hon RC211V), 1:38.268, Michelin 3. Kenny Lee ROBERTS (Hon KR211V), 1:38.337, Michelin 4. Carlos CHECA (Yam YZR-M1), 1:38.503, Dunlop 5. Dani PEDROSA (Hon RC211V), 1:38.586, Michelin 6. Colin EDWARDS (Yam YZR-M1), 1:38.779, Michelin 7. Sete GIBERNAU (Duc GP06), 1:38.815, Bridgestone 8. Valentino ROSSI (Yam YZR-M1), 1:38.826, Michelin 9. John HOPKINS (Suz GSV-R), 1:39.007, Bridgestone 10. Shinya NAKANO (Kaw ZX-RR), 1:39.161, Bridgestone 11. Toni ELIAS (Hon RC211V), 1:39.217, Michelin 12. Chris VERMEULEN (Suz GSV-R), 1:39.907, Bridgestone 13. Loris CAPIROSSI (Duc GP06), 1:40.006, Bridgestone 14. Randy DE PUNIET (Kaw ZX-RR), 1:40.096, Bridgestone 15. Makoto TAMADA (Hon RC211V), 1:40.214, Michelin 16. James ELLISON (Yam YZR-M1), 1:40.661, Dunlop 17. Alex HOFMANN (Duc GP05), 1:41.146, Dunlop 18. Garry McCOY (Ilmor X3), 1:42.096, Michelin 19. Jose Luis CARDOSO (Duc GP05), 1:42.319, Dunlop 20. Marco MELANDRI (Hon RC211V), 2:14.734, Michelin Friday’s Best Combined Practice Times: 1. Stoner, 1:38.218 2. Hayden, 1:38.268 3. Roberts, 1:38.337 4. Checa, 1:38.503 5. Pedrosa, 1:38.586 6. Edwards, 1:38.779 7. Gibernau, 1:38.815 8. Rossi, 1:38.826 9. Hopkins, 1:39.007 10. Nakano, 1:39.161 11. Elias, 1:39.217 12. Capirossi, 1:39.637 13. Vermeulen, 1:39.907 14. De Puniet, 1:40.096 15. Tamada, 1:40.214 16. Melandri, 1:40.504 17. Ellison, 1:40.661 18. Hofmann, 1:41.146 19. McCoy, 1:42.096 20. Cardoso, 1:42.319 More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Stoner steals the headlines on day one in Portugal As the MotoGP riders took to the track at Estoril this morning for the penultimate set of free practice sessions this season, the hype surrounding Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi’s championship fight was at a frenzy. However, it was the young winner of last year’s 250cc race who showed that, with the phenomenal level of talent in MotoGP, a straight battle can never be guaranteed. Things appeared to be going as per the script when Valentino Rossi topped the leaderboard this morning in the opening session, at a track where he is a firm favourite and a four-time winner in MotoGP. Times were slow for all riders as they adjusted to the new asphalt on parts of the track, although by the second session they were soon notching up the expected speeds. However eventually it was Stoner who completed day one of practices for the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal at the top of the timesheets, after putting in the fastest lap of the day in the final session. The Australian’s 1’38.218 lap put him ahead of championship leader Nicky Hayden, who would benefit from a front row start as he looks to seal his first World Championship. Impressive rides from both Kenny Roberts Jr. and Carlos Checa brought them behind the two Honda riders. Dani Pedrosa, Colin Edwards and Sete Gibernau all improved on their morning times to put themselves ahead of Rossi, who dropped down the combined classification into eighth position. John Hopkins and Shinya Nakano were the other riders in the top ten, whilst Marco Melandri suffered an early crash and was taken to the medical centre. The Fortuna Honda rider was treated for a contusion of the left knee and given a precautionary scan at a local hospital, although he should be ready to take to the track tomorrow for the opening practice. The Ilmor team were hoping to kick off their MotoGP challenge with a bang, and Garry McCoy fulfilled their wishes as he impressed on their first outing in the series. Despite being around 25km/h down on the straights the Australian and his new 800cc machine finished the day in 19th spot ahead of MotoGP regular Jose Luis Cardoso on the Ducati. KTM rider Hiroshi Aoyama put himself on provisional pole for Sunday’s 250cc race in Estoril after a delayed session due to track repairs, putting in a best time of 1’42.282. Early on, a metal grille on the kerb became exposed, with several riders keeping their bikes upright despite taking evasive action. After the red flag was shown, there was a 15-minute wait before the eventual restart. Aprilia duo Jorge Lorenzo and Hector Barbera, the latter fastest this morning, completed the top three. Fourth fastest was Alex de Angelis, ahead of Cardion AB’s Jakub Smrz. Roberto Locatelli also finished ahead of the fastest Honda rider, Andrea Dovizioso, who today announced his continuation with his Humangest team for the 2007 season backed by Honda. Marco Simoncelli, Yuki Takahashi and Aleix Espargaro rounded off the fastest ten of the day in the quarter-litre category. New World Champion Alvaro Bautista took provisional pole for the 125cc race this afternoon, with a fastest time of 1’46.493. Riding in a new ‘Spanish-flag’ livery, Bautista also went quickest in this morning’s session, but had a few problems during the early part of the second session and was forced to stay in his pit garage for nearly ten minutes. Mika Kallio came in second, little over a tenth behind Bautista, whilst Mattia Pasini and Gabor Talmacsi completed the provisional front row. Lukas Pesek was fifth, followed by Julian Simon, Hector Faubel and Fabrizio Lai. Tomoyoshi Koyama and Lorenzo Zanetti completed the top ten. Mateo Tunez suffered a hard crash during the second session as he collided with substitute rider Dominique Aergeter, with Mike di Meglio and Sergio Gadea escaping with light crashes in separate incidents. More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing: TRACK CONDITIONS PROVE DIFFICULT FOR KAWASAKI PAIRING A dusty track surface, and the resulting lack of grip, left Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano and Randy de Puniet down in tenth and fourteenth place respectively after today’s opening day of practice at Estoril. While resurfacing work ahead of this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix has improved the notoriously bumpy Estoril circuit, the problem of windblown dust on the track surface remains, with both Kawasaki riders reporting a lack of rear grip throughout both of today’s hour-long practice sessions. Despite the problems, Nakano remains confident that the base set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR will allow him to improve on both his lap time and his position tomorrow, once more laps on the circuit have started to clean off the surface. The dusty conditions also made evaluating revised suspension components difficult for the 29-year-old Kawasaki rider. Nakano did notice some improvement in the stability of his Ninja ZX-RR under heavy braking, which is important at Estoril, but he also feels there is more work to be done to improve the way the bike tracks through the faster turns. Randy de Puniet was also left looking for a solution to his rear grip problems after today’s opening two practice sessions. The 25-year-old Frenchman was struggling for grip from the start this morning, with the rear of his Ninja ZX-RR spinning up under acceleration, losing him valuable time on every lap. Changes to the set-up of de Puniet’s Ninja ZX-RR were made during both practice sessions to try and increase rear traction, but no significant improvement was forthcoming and, together with his crew, the Kawasaki pilot will need to look to the data for a solution ahead of tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions. Shinya Nakano: 10th – 1’39.161 “Track conditions were far from ideal today. The resurfacing work means there are fewer bumps than before, but the track is still very dusty, and this made it difficult to find the grip we need to assess our tyre options for Sunday’s race. The lack of grip also makes it a little difficult to evaluate fully the revised suspension components we are running on my Ninja ZX-RR this weekend. Already I can feel an improvement in the stability of the bike under heavy braking – of which there is a lot here – we still need to refine the set-up further for the fast corners, as it was a struggle to get the bike turned at speed today. We know we have a good base setting, so I’m not so worried about my lap times today; when the track surface cleans off a little more tomorrow then I’m confident that the lap times will come.” Randy de Puniet: 14th – 1’40.096 “Today was not so good for us. This morning we were struggling for rear grip, and the changes we made to our set-up for this afternoon’s session didn’t give us the improvement we were expecting. For sure, the track surface is still very dusty, but out of the turns the power seems to be coming in a little too hard, and the lack of grip means the rear is spinning up almost immediately. I know it’s possible for me to go at least one second faster if I can get the rear to hook up out of the corners, so we need to come up with a solution for this problem ahead of tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions. The track surface will also improve the more laps we do tomorrow, and this should, hopefully, make things a little easier for us.” Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager “While track conditions were obviously difficult today, it was the same for everyone, and we can see that some of our competitors are finding more grip than we are. Tomorrow we will try some changes to the suspension settings on both bikes, as well as different tyres from Bridgestone. With these changes I think it’s possible to improve rear traction for both Shinya and Randy, and to close the gap on the riders who are at the top of the timesheet after today’s opening two practice sessions.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Marlboro: DUCATI MARLBORO MEN LOOKING FOR MORE SPEED Ducati Marlboro Team riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi began practice for the penultimate GP of the year at the revised Estoril circuit this morning, ending the day seventh and 12th quickest. In warm, windy conditions Gibernau was just 0.5 seconds off ‘pole’ and believes he can go quicker tomorrow if he can find more edge grip to improve his corner speed. Capirossi, winner of the Japanese GP three weeks ago, struggled with set-up this afternoon, lapping fractionally slower than he had in the first session but the Italian is confident he can resolve his settings issues and get back on the pace in time for Sunday’s race. Sete Gibernau, Ducati Marlboro Team, 7th fastest, 1m 38.815s “Today wasn’t too bad but we are struggling a bit. My shoulder is hurting again which isn’t good, it didn’t hurt at the last three races but maybe it got sore during those races. Anyway the bike is improving but we are lacking edge grip here. We went through some tyres today, we’re chipping away at the problem and hopefully Bridgestone will help us out tomorrow with some different tyres. I am focusing on their new-profile rear slick here. As soon as I pick up the bike out of the turns I’ve got good traction but we are lacking grip through the corners, and that affects the whole bike, turning and everything. It costs us time everywhere, through the long, final turn and through all the tight turns, where you need edge grip to keep your corner speed.” Loris Capirossi, Ducati Marlboro Team, 12th fastest, 1m 39.637s “After this morning’s first session I thought we would be much faster this afternoon but the changes we made to the set-up evidently didn’t work the way we expected them to work. In fact I couldn’t even match my times from this morning. During the afternoon session we focused on improving the set-up, running with the same tyres without really looking for lap times. I would have been faster with new tyres but I just wanted to fix the bike. Anyway, our package wasn’t competitive today but Sete was pretty fast so I’m sure we’ll be able to fix everything for tomorrow. The modifications they made to the track are okay, with much improved run-off following the chicane and the new tarmac is better too.” Afternoon session temperatures. Ambient: 28 degrees C. Track: 40 degrees C. More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Getting That Friday Feeling Portuguese Grand Prix Free Practice Estoril, Friday 13 October 2006 Bridgestone encountered a difficult opening day of preparation for this weekend’s Portuguese Grand Prix with Sete Gibernau the highest placed of the six Bridgestone-shod riders in seventh place. Gibernau’s best lap of 1m38.815s led a trio of Bridgestone riders in the top ten with Suzuki’s John Hopkins in ninth spot (1m39.007s) and Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano in tenth place (1m39.161s), ensuring a full representation of Bridgestone teams in the top half of the field. Loris Capirossi’s morning practice time of 1m39.637s was his quickest lap of the day and placed him 12th in today’s combined free practice standings. Suzuki’s Chris Vermeulen improved on his morning time by almost two seconds to go 13th fastest on his first trip to Estoril, just a fraction ahead of Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet in 14th. Bridgestone approached today’s practice sessions with the usual target of ascertaining the performance of a selection of tyres from its range as each of its teams concurrently strived to fine-tune the set-up of their bikes around the technical Estoril track. Although the specifications evaluated today did not prove as competitive as desired, Bridgestone has additional tyres to assess in tomorrow’s two sessions as foundations are strengthened for Sunday afternoon’s Portuguese Grand Prix. Shinji Aoki Bridgestone Motorsport – Assistant Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development “It was not such a straight-forward day for us today. The purpose of having these two practice sessions on Friday is to find the best direction for the remainder of the weekend. With each of our teams, we have tested some of our Estoril range and the results would indicate that there is more work to do tomorrow. The circuit has recently been resurfaced in places and it was also quite dusty early on which made the morning session quite inconclusive. This afternoon, we just kept focussed and continued with our initial plan, knowing that we have additional tyres to try out on Saturday. Estoril is a technical circuit, so our teams also have important work on tuning their bike settings, of course together with the tyres. We will continue to work on all of these things tomorrow morning and only then will we have a real indication of our potential in race trim.” Bridgestone Combined Free Practice Session Results Pos Rider Bike Session 1 Session 2 Gap P7 Sete Gibernau Ducati 1m40.824s 1m38.815s +0.597s P9 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m39.654s 1m39.007s +0.789s P10 Shinya Nakano Kawasaki 1m40.759s 1m39.161s +0.943s P12 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m39.637s 1m40.006s +1.419s P13 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m41.808s 1m39.907s +1.689s P14 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1m40.657s 1m40.096s +1.878s Weather: Air 28°C, Track 40°C, Humidity 16% (afternoon session) More, from a press release issued by Camel Yamaha: Grand Prix of Portugal Estoril, Portugal Friday 13th October 2006 SET-UP WORK STARTS FOR CAMEL YAMAHA RIDERS IN ESTORIL Camel Yamaha Team racers Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards began preparations for the Grand Prix of Portugal with an intense day of work on the set-up of their YZR-M1 machines at Estoril today. Dust and dirt lifted by recent modifications at the track made for slippery conditions in the morning, whilst warmer temperatures than those normally experienced here in the afternoon tempted the teams into experimenting with their race setting and made it a challenging day at the office for the riders. Rossi was the fastest rider out of the blocks in the opening session, the Italian’s best time of 1’39.398 leaving him two tenths clear of nearest challenger Loris Capirossi (Ducati), with Edwards less than a second adrift of his team-mate. The American, working off data gathered by Rossi at the recent Motegi test, slashed his times in the afternoon, although the Italian found progress more difficult to come by as he tried a variety of different set-up options ahead of tomorrow’s final free practice and qualifying sessions. The fastest lap of the day was set by Australian rookie Casey Stoner (Honda) with a time of 1’38.218, just 0.050 seconds ahead of series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda). COLIN EDWARDS (6th 1’38.779; 47 laps) “After we made such good progress at Motegi we just brought the same set-up here and pulled the bike off the truck this morning. However this track is quite different to Japan; there every corner is pretty much flat but here there are some banked turns, so we needed some time to understand how the setting from the Motegi test could translate and work for us here. Anyway we’ve definitely made progress throughout the day and we were much faster this afternoon than this morning, so we’re moving in the right direction. We need to sit down and talk about the next steps tonight, then with any luck we can come out fighting tomorrow morning with everything in place.” VALENTINO ROSSI (8th 1’38.826; 43 laps) “Today we’ve tried several different things with our bike, trying to find the best compromise for the track. In the morning we immediately went well and we were fast from the start. Then this afternoon we weren’t able to find the perfect tyre, so we need to do quite a lot more work in this area. Then we lost a bit of time because we had a problem with our first bike and so needed to set the second bike up quickly and so we only had time for three more laps before the session finished. I saw that Nicky was very quick so it’s definitely going to be hard this weekend! Anyway despite these problems it’s been a good start to the day overall and I am quite pleased. We have a lot of work to do tomorrow but I think it’s going to be a good fight!” DAVIDE BRIVIO CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR “That was an interesting day to start off the weekend. Valentino started very well this morning and then in the afternoon we tried a different way with the setting of the bike. It was very interesting and helpful to compare the two sets of information and results hopefully it will enable us to find the best setting tomorrow. Colin was also quite good today; we’re trying to use the good results from the Motegi test to help him find a comfortable setting here. It’s been a good day all round. Hopefully we can continue to make improvements with both Valentino and Colin tomorrow and make sure they are competitive for both the qualifying practice and the race.” More, from a press release issued by Fortuna Honda: DIFFICULT START FOR FORTUNA HONDA RIDERS The first day of action in the penultimate round of the season proved to be a difficult one for the Fortuna Honda riders as the Grand Prix of Portugal got underway at Estoril. A heavy fall at the start of the afternoon session left Marco Melandri out of action and with plenty of set-up work still to do tomorrow. The Team Gresini rider ran wide in turn 9 and crashed, suffering a contusion to his left knee and a light trauma to his head. X-rays carried out immediately in the Clinica Mobile ruled out a fracture but he was taken to hospital for a CAT scan as a precaution. Toni Elias also had a tough time despite the 9th time in the morning. He also suffered the setback of a crash, in turn one, and could only manage the eleventh fastest time although he is confident of improving on that when the practice action resumes tomorrow. TONI ELIAS (11th, 1’39″217): “I’m not happy with this first day. I was hoping to be much higher up the order but the crash in the afternoon cost me a lot of time. It was my mistake – I went to deep and lost the front. I’m disappointed to be down in eleventh place because I like this track and we were unlucky today. Anyway, I’m confident that we can improve tomorrow and if everything goes to plan we can make a major step forward.” MARCO MELANDRI (crash): “It’s a shame about the crash because we were doing a good job. I probably went a bit too deep and ran onto the green painted strip on the outside of the corner, It was a fast crash but it was a hard one and I bashed the inside of my left knee. I’m ok but I feel weak right now. The knee is really painful but thankfully the X-rays haven’t shown up any breaks.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Solid start for Rizla Suzuki MotoGP at Estoril Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen both completed today’s free practice sessions at Estoril in Portugal, pleased with their first day performances but also confident of improvements tomorrow. Hopkins (P9, 1’39.007 51 laps) signalled his desire in this morning’s session by posting three of the five quickest laps and finishing third overall on the leaderboard. He continued to test his Suzuki GSV-R with many different Bridgestone tyre compounds in the afternoon. Hopkins made significant progression towards the end of the day to leave him in a positive mood for the rest of the weekend. Vermeulen is riding at Estoril for the first time and used this morning’s session to acquaint himself with the Portuguese track. He improved dramatically throughout the day and set his fastest time of 1’39.907 on the last the 54 laps that he completed in the two sessions. His 13th place overall gives him a good starting point for tomorrow, as he can now get the bike set up to his liking for the circuit and Sunday’s race. Today’s practice sessions were held in warm sunny conditions with air temperatures reaching 28°C. The fastest time of the day was set by Casey Stoner. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more free practice session on Saturday morning before the highly competitive qualifying session in the afternoon, where riders will be going all out to secure the best starting positions for Sunday’s 28-lap race. The penultimate round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship gets underway at the earlier time of 13.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT) on Sunday 15th October. John Hopkins: “It’s definitely been a pretty decent start to the weekend for us. We’ve got through a lot of stuff and really started to get into some tyre testing today. Unfortunately it was a bit dirty on the track this morning, but it was a lot better this afternoon and we got a lot of laps in. We found something right at the end of this afternoon’s session that helped us to go almost a second a lap quicker and we are really happy about that. We need to improve on that tomorrow and climb higher up in the field!” Chris Vermeulen: “It’s my first time at Estoril and the track was quite slippery this morning. It’s a newly modified track for this year, but that didn’t bother me as I’d never been before anyway! The crew worked really well today they gave me a great bike to start with. I just basically went out and did a lot of laps to try to get into a rhythm and learn the track. I was just trying to go quicker and quicker all the time and my last lap today was my fastest. We have some ideas for tomorrow and with a good night’s sleep I’ll come back and go quicker tomorrow.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “A solid day’s work by all concerned today. Both the riders have done a lot of laps and put many miles on different tyre combinations – in general the team has worked in a progressive and logical way. Chris has done particularly well on his first time at Estoril. It’s encouraging to see his lap time so close to the front group after only two hours on the circuit. “John is looking for all the things you need to go faster a bit more grip, a bit more durability and a bit more turning in the bike. But the guys have enough experience to fine tune things a little bit for tomorrow. We will certainly be looking to improve on our positions in Saturday’s qualifying in order to give us as good a start as possible in the race.”