2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Brno, Czech Republic August 17, 2007 Free Practice One & Two Combined Results: 1. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:58.362 2. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:58.568 3. John HOPKINS (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:58.868 4. Loris CAPIROSSI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:58.969 5. Randy DE PUNIET (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:59.064 6. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:59.176 7. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:59.266 8. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:59.466 9. Makoto TAMADA (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:59.494 10. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:59.508 11. Alex BARROS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:59.738 12. Carlos CHECA (Honda), Michelin, 1:59.857 13. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 2:00.001 14. Toni ELIAS (Honda), Bridgestone, 2:00.271 15. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 2:00.398 16. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Michelin, 2:00.793 17. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), Bridgestone, 2:01.318* 18. Kurtis ROBERTS (KR-Honda), 2:01.725 19. Ivan SILVA (Ducati), Bridgestone, 2:01.854 * did not ride in Free Practice Two More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Casey Stoner’s run of free practice and qualifying dominance came to an end today at Brno, and from one of the more unlikely sources: Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3’s Sylvain Guintoli. The Frenchman put an end to a run of 12 sessions (excluding Sunday warm-ups) of Stoner topping the timesheets with a sterling final run of the afternoon, using qualifying tyres to clock a 1’58.362 lap of the Brno circuit. Guintoli had an operation to cure common rider complaint ‘arm pump’ over the summer break, but looked to be back at full strength as he put himself at the head of the MotoGP practice standings for the first time in his career. World Championship leader Stoner showed no sign of rustiness on MotoGP’s return to action, clocking the fastest time in the morning session. The Australian was on sparkling form all day in the Czech Republic, maintaining a consistently fast pace that could prove difficult for the other riders to match this weekend. With neither of his championship rivals Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa in the top five on the opening day, a rapid turnaround will be needed if they are to catch the 21 year old and close the gap in the classification. John Hopkins trailed Guintoli’s time by five tenths in third place on a Suzuki that appears to be well suited to the Brno track, clearly with a mission in mind to erase memories of Laguna Seca. Last year’s race winner and newly announced Suzuki rider for 2008 Loris Capirossi, riding the second Ducati Desmosedici GP7, was joined by Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet and five-time MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi in the top six. Dani Pedrosa was the only other rider within a second of Guintoli’s time, just ahead of Honda factory team-mate and reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden, Makoto Tamada and Chris Vermeulen. Marco Melandri played no part in the afternoon session after damaging his neck, although he is likely to rejoin the proceedings tomorrow. 250cc Aprilia wild card Alex Debon was the fastest 250cc rider of the day, and finds himself on provisional pole in the Czech Republic after a tricky first qualifying session. The Spaniard, confirmed as a full-time factory rider for 2008, went round in a time of 2’03.718 in an afternoon in which most riders only undertook a single figure of laps. A light rain left the majority of the quarter litre field in their garages rather than on track. Andrea Dovizioso was the only other rider to register a time under 2’04, ahead of World Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo in the Spaniard’s first race since announcing his step up to MotoGP for 2008. Mika Kallio, Hector Barbera, Alvaro Bautista, Marco Simoncelli and Julian Simon completed the first two rows, with times sure to drop significantly tomorrow if the weather permits a complete run. 125cc A popular choice for a home victory this weekend, Czech rider Lukas Pesek lies on provisional pole for Sunday’s 125cc race. A lap of 2’08.201 was enough to give Pesek a promising start to the weekend’s proceedings, with championship leader Gabor Talmacsi coming within a tenth of a second of his rival’s time. The provisional front row consists of Pesek, Talmacsi, Mattia Pasini and Hector Faubel; all four race winners in 2007 but only Pesek has failed to take pole position. Sandro Cortese, Tomoyoshi Koyama, Sergio Gadea and Randy Krummenacher also picked up the pace for a provisional start from the second line of attack, with the latter having played a part in the spectacular MotoGP visit to Vienna that brought the main street to a standstill on Wednesday. More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Hopkins on podium pace after first day in Brno Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins recorded the third fastest time during today’s free practice session for Sunday’s Czech Grand Prix in Brno. Hopkins (1’58.868, 47 laps) showed his intentions from the start this morning, clocking the second fastest time in the hour-long session just behind championship leader Casey Stoner. Hopkins was one of only four riders to lap the 5.4km Czech track in less than 1 minute 59 seconds a feat that the Anglo-American managed to repeat twice in the afternoon session. He still believes there is more to come from the bike and will be working with his crew tonight to find those extra tenths that he is looking for. Chris Vermeulen (P10, 1’59.508, 44 laps) made impressive progress throughout the day and put together some consistent runs that show great promise for Sunday’s 22-lap race. Fresh from his podium last time out in America, Vermeulen wasted no time getting on the pace and was up with the front runners all day. He worked hard with his crew to get the best settings from his Suzuki GSV-R and Bridgestone tyre combination, and is confident that he too will improve further tomorrow. Today’s practice was held in dry but overcast conditions with the air temperature reaching a high of 23°C, and track temperatures getting up to 32°C. The quickest time was set by Sylvain Guintloli on his satellite-team Yamaha, using a qualifying tyre. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session on Saturday morning followed by qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). John Hopkins: “Today went really well and it was great to get back on the bike after the break. I’ve been looking forward to getting back to a race weekend since before the race was even over at Laguna last month! It felt good out there today and I really enjoy Brno. This is the track that I have been riding a Grand Prix bike on the longest as I tested here when I was 16 so I know it pretty well. We’ve worked hard today, and my Crew Chief Stuart Shenton gave me a really good set-up right from the start so all I had to do was ride the thing! We’ve worked with Bridgestone to get the best tyres for Sunday and the only other thing has just been little changes here and there to get the bike right. We’ve got a few ideas for tomorrow and I’m sure they will make a difference, but for now we are happy where we are and looking forward to the race.” Chris Vermeulen: “Brno is a track that I don’t have a lot of experience at, but I really enjoyed it last year and I felt comfortable out there straight from the start today. My confidence is still really high from Laguna and the guys gave me a good bike from the start. We’ve only had to make a few small changes and I can do the lap-times consistently. We still need to get an extra half-a-second or more to be right up there, but I am sure we will be able to find that tomorrow and in Sunday’s race.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It’s been a very positive first day back at work after the summer break for both team and riders. John found his rhythm very quickly and this afternoon did a 1’58.8 on his 20th lap, which is really encouraging for a good result on Sunday. There are still some improvements to be found in the bike and the guys will be looking at that this evening. “Brno has never been Chris’s favourite track, but he has approached it today with a lot of aggression and a lot of effort and the gap to the podium runners is not big at all. There are some specific changes that his team know can be made to improve the bike, and some areas of the track that Chris knows he can pick up time himself. “It will be an interesting race on Sunday and the Rizla Suzuki team has made a good start to its preparations, and with the excellent news today that Suzuki is continuing with the relationship with Rizla for another year we will all be trying our hardest come Sunday to make it a double celebration!” More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: The hard work begins for the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team at Brno Today Shinya Nakano and his KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team began the hard work needed to analyse their updated Honda RCV212V machines during the first practice sessions for this weekend’s Brno MotoGP race. With new parts now online for the Team’s 800cc MotoGP bikes, it proved to be a busy day to prepare both machines for today’s two practice sessions. Shinya says that the updated Honda RCV shows more potential than the standard machine he’s been campaigning so far this year, but now both Team and rider have to find a good base setting to realise that potential in time for Sunday’s race. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “We need more time with these bikes to understand the characteristics of the new machines and the Team need to work more on the set-up of the bikes as the two hours today isn’t enough to understand fully the improvement that these new parts provide. At the moment it may not look as though things have changed from the times and Shinya still is unable to push hard, but it is early days with the new machine and we have to change the settings so that Shinya can make the step forward in lap-times. The good thing is that the overall impression is good, but it will take time to get the best from this new technical package. Tyre choice will be critical, as similar to Laguna we are seeing weather conditions which aren’t as warm as we expected, so it’s important that we find a good tyre for the race on Sunday.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (41 laps 2′ 00.793″) “The Team has been so very busy today preparing the new bikes. My first impressions are very good: we now have a bike that’s smoother under both acceleration and braking. Unfortunately, after some laps with the good feeling the front-end chattering returned. We’ve already begun to fix the problem but so far we haven’t found the solution. We will be trying lots of different things as this is effectively a new bike and its character is quite different, but today was important as we have now got a lot of data. This machine has much more potential than the standard bike so we have to take things step-by-step.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “We have had a very busy day today. Eventually we decided to make two new machines with the new parts, instead of back-to-back testing the old and new bikes. We did this as we realised the potential for the updated bike was greater than the standard machine. Because of this, we have been extremely busy as we start to understand this new Honda RCV212V and as we work to find the best setting for the new machines. Shinya’s first comment is that the total character of the bike is smoother than before and that it feels easier to ride, but that the balance between front and rear still isn’t perfect, so we will be working on the suspension tomorrow. Front suspension adjustments will be important, as it’s still not so easy for Shinya to enter the corners as fast as he would like. The new machine gives us more adjustment and we understand that it has much more potential. Today, like Laguna Seca, the temperatures are lower than normally expected here for the time of year, but it is expected to be hotter tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Satisfying start to Bridgestone’s Czech challenge Round 12 Czech Republic – Free Practice Automotodrom Brno, Brno, Czech Republic Friday 17 August 2007 Fresh from the traditional summer break, Bridgestone-shod riders were quickly back on the race pace during the opening two free practice sessions in preparation for this weekend’s Czech Republic Grand Prix in Brno with Ducati’s championship-leading rider Casey Stoner showing impressive form. The Australian only relinquished his control of today’s classification to a last-gasp one-lap flier from Tech 3 Yamaha’s French rider Sylvain Guintoli. In race trim, Stoner is in good company at the head of the list with fellow Bridgestone-shod rider John Hopkins taking an overall third place and his team-mate Loris Capirossi, winner of last year’s Czech Republic GP, in fourth place, the only other man to lap under 1m59s. Stoner set an impressive seven laps underneath the 1m59s mark in this afternoon’s session. His ultimate best time of 1m58.568s was just 0.4s shy of the record Brno race lap set by Capirossi on his way to victory on Bridgestone tyres last season. Proving the competitiveness of the field, Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet made it four Bridgestone-shod riders from three different manufacturers in the top five this afternoon. Tyre Talk with Junichi Kawajiri Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development Did Bridgestone have a welcome return to track action in Brno today? “After such a long break, it is good to be back in action here in Brno, the scene of one of our four victories last season. We have had a relatively trouble-free opening day, which has helped us get back into a good working rhythm, and so far the lap times set by our teams and riders appear to be already at a competitive level. We had a little light rain overnight and it has been cooler today compared to the hot temperatures we had yesterday, but I would say that the track is showing similar characteristics to what we experienced last season.” What work has been carried out today? “Brno is a very technical circuit which places a great importance on the set-up of the bike, so it has been important to give our teams a tyre that works well from the start, to maximise their time to work on the bike. We did some initial tyre compound evaluation which has given us a good direction for tomorrow when we will carry out longer runs to assess the durability. Our tyres have performed well over the shorter runs that we have done in today’s cooler conditions, but if the temperature changes a lot, we will have to see how the performance of the tyre changes. Overall though, it has been a satisfactory start to the weekend.” Bridgestone Combined Free Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P2 Casey Stoner Ducati 1m58.881s (1) 1m58.568s (2) +0.206s P3 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m59.543s (2) 1m58.868s (3) +0.506s P4 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m59.765s (3) 1m58.969s (4) +0.607s P5 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 2m00.399s (9) 1m59.064s (5) +0.702s P10 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 2m00.398s (8) 1m59.508s (10) +1.146s P11 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 2m00.988s (13) 1m59.738s (11) +1.376s P14 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 2m00.678s (10) 2m00.271s (14) +1.909s P15 Anthony West Kawasaki 2m01.003s (14) 2m00.398s (15) +2.036s P17 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 2m01.318s (15) No Time +2.956s P19 Ivan Silva Pramac d’Antin 2m03.619s (18) 2m01.854s (18) +3.492s Weather: Session 1 Dry track – Air 19°C, Track 22°C, Humidity 75% (taken from official MotoGP timesheet) Session 2 Dry track Air 23°C, Track 29°C, Humidity 44% (taken from official MotoGP timesheet) More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI AND EDWARDS SIXTH AND THIRTEENTH AS ACTION RE-STARTS IN BRNO The twelfth round of the MotoGP World Championship got underway at Brno in the Czech Republic today, with Fiat Yamaha Riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards finishing the day in sixth and thirteenth positions after two free practice sessions. With scorching sunshine having welcomed the paddock back from the summer break yesterday, an overnight rainstorm dropped the temperature to a more comfortable 23 degrees for today’s on-track action. The Yamaha duo got the weekend off to a solid start in the morning, finishing the first free practice in fourth and fifth positions. The afternoon then saw the riders concentrating on refining set-up and making headway towards their final tyre choices and Rossi was able to make an improvement of almost one second on his time from this morning, which was good enough for sixth place overall. Edwards meanwhile ran into some problems and had to settle for thirteenth, with the top spot filled today by Yamaha Tech 3 rider Sylvain Guintoli. Valentino Rossi Position: 6th Time: 1’59.176 Laps: 42 “Today has gone more or less okay for the first day and, as is usual on a Friday, we spent most of the day working on the set-up of our M1. This morning was okay and then this afternoon we made some more progress and we found out some interesting things, which we hope will help us tomorrow and on Sunday. Despite this we still have quite a lot to improve on; we can and must be faster! “As for the tyres, the front tyre seems to be working quite well here but we have some problems at the moment with the rear, especially in acceleration. After a few laps the grip is less and then when you open the gas the bike is sliding quite a lot. This was the main problem we were trying to fix throughout the day, and one of the things we did was to make a small change to the parameters of the traction control. This seemed to help and in the last ten minutes this afternoon we felt some improvement and the situation was better. Regarding the set-up, we have also worked on the mapping and engine braking; I still have a couple of corners where the engine braking needs to be improved in order to give me enough confidence when I’m coming into the corner. “We had some new things to try out today, including a new fairing which is an evolution of the one that I used in Mugello. It has definitely helped us a bit, although the advantage it gives us is only small. We’ve tried pretty much all the new items we have here and tomorrow we will have more time to continue in this way to work out what will help us on Sunday. We will also concentrate on improving the durability of our race tyres with Michelin, because, as usual, this is going to be very important on Sunday. I hope that the weather will be good tomorrow because at the moment the track is quite slippery and in places it’s tricky to ride.” Colin Edwards Position: 13th Time: 2’00.001 Laps: 44 “My main problem today was basically that I didn’t have much grip. We’ve tested pretty much all the tyres we have available to us but we haven’t yet been able to find a solution that enables me to ride the bike how I want to. At the moment we don’t have one that I feel would work for the race, so we need to concentrate on fixing this problem tomorrow. The plan now is to take the one that’s working best and turn the bike around to find a compromise that gives us enough traction. I improved a tiny bit this afternoon but everyone else improved a lot more! It’s frustrating but I have faith in the team and I am sure we will come up with something tomorrow.” Davide Brivio Fiat Yamaha Team Director “As is usual for a Friday, we have some things to work on! We tried some new material with Valentino this morning and now we are trying to improve the set-up further to put ourselves in the best possible shape for Sunday. Also with Colin we have some work to do in order to find a solution to allow the tyres to work at their best for him. Now we need to work very hard in the two sessions tomorrow and use the time to evaluate the new things we’ve got here, to decide if they will give us an advantage in the race.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: CZECH GRAND PRIX WEEKEND BEGINS FOR THE REPSOL HONDA TEAM AT BRNO After a 26-day summer break from MotoGP action the first two one-hour sessions of free practice for the Grand Prix of the Czech Republic took place on Friday at the formidable Brno circuit. Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden finished the day in seventh and eighth places as they began the meticulous process of dialling in their 800cc RC212V machines to the demands of the undulating 5.403km (3.357-mile) track. Both factory Honda riders made significant progress from morning to afternoon as they got their first taste of the 800cc racebike at this demanding venue. Pedrosa, using the latest updates to the RC212V’s engine, improved his time by one second in the afternoon session to record the seventh fastest lap with a time of 1m 59.266s, which was just 0.6s down on his fastest race lap of last year, set on the 990cc RC211V. The 21-year-old Spaniard will be looking to make it six podium finishes from six visits to Brno on Sunday, with the top step his ultimate target. Reigning World Champion Nicky Hayden today evaluated a modified chassis in combination with the updated RC212V engine and shaved nearly a second off his morning time to set a mark of 1m 59.466s, just 0.2s behind Pedrosa’s best. The 26-year-old American will also have his sights set on a strong finish this weekend to add to the two podiums he achieved in Assen and Germany, prior to the U.S. Grand Prix. The fastest time today was set by Sylvain Guintoli using a qualifying tyre, followed by Casey Stoner in second place and John Hopkins in third. Tomorrow morning sees a further hour of free practice ahead of qualifying in the afternoon. Round 12 of the 18-race 2007 MotoGP season begins at 14.00hrs local time on Sunday following a 25-minute warm-up in the morning. Dani Pedrosa 7th 1m 59.266s “This was a pretty normal Friday practice for us working through the usual set-up and tyre choice possibilities. We improved the time from the morning to the afternoon by quite a lot which is positive, and I hope there’s more to come tomorrow. The weather conditions weren’t quite as we thought they would be we’d expected it to be warmer so this meant the grip wasn’t at the level we anticipated. Tomorrow we’ll have to see if the temperature rises and work through the rest of our options for tyres and machine settings. You notice the difference on the 800cc machine here, compared with last year’s 990s. You feel the difference in power, especially on the straights coming up the hill, but the lap times still look quick.” Nicky Hayden 8th 1m 59.466s “Brno’s a good track to get back into the rhythm after the summer break. We found a lot of time between the morning and the afternoon and I was able to go quite quickly straight away this afternoon. We still haven’t quite got the pace we’d hoped for though, and obviously everybody else went quicker too as the track dried up and the conditions improved. We have a few new things that we’re trying this weekend and so far we’ve yet to take a big step forward, but we’ll definitely put our heads together tonight and see if we can move up. Obviously the tyres are a big factor and I have a few more options there that I haven’t tried yet so we’ll see how they look tomorrow.” Makoto Tanaka – Team Manager “We were lucky with the weather today because there was rain forecast but it didn’t arrive until after the second MotoGP practice. Nicky is riding with the latest engine and a modified chassis here. We need to further improve the set-up and balance of his machine but the pace is not too bad and his time is very close to Dani’s. Dani’s RC212V also has the latest engine and exhaust system and he’ll continue set-up work tomorrow. It looks like our rivals are very strong again here so we need to work very hard tonight and tomorrow to narrow the gap.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: STONER SECOND & CAPIROSSI FOURTH – DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM MAKES FAST START AT BRNO Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner dominated both practice sessions at Brno today, only bettered by Guintoli using qualifying tyres at the very end of this afternoon’s outing. As usual, Stoner and Loris Capirossi only used race tyres on the first day of practice, Stoner comfortably fastest on race tyres and the impressive Capirossi just four tenths slower than his team-mate, was baulked by a slower rider on his fastest lap. Both riders were delighted to be back in action after the sport’s traditional summer break that followed last month’s US GP, won in masterful style by Stoner who currently leads the World Championship by 44 points. CASEY STONER, 2nd fastest, 1m 58.568s “I’m very happy to be back on the bike, it felt a little bit alien this morning because it feels like a long time since we were racing, but we’ve managed to get used to it pretty quick. The track, the tyres, the bike, everything seems to be working pretty well for me, I’m just happy to be back out there and we seem to be quite competitive again. This track is still a lot of fun to ride but now there seems to be a lot of areas that want to have you out of the seat, the surface isn’t giving a really good feeling at the moment. We need a little bit more traction at those points where we’re slipping and sliding. We also need to make a little improvement to the way the bike turns on the exit of the corners because we’re losing a bit there.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 4th fastest, 1m 58.969s “I’m very happy because we’ve worked effectively since this morning. This afternoon we made a few little changes which worked well, so I could do a lot of laps around 1m 59.5s. I did my best lap on my final lap even though I was stuck behind Nakano who was slower than me, so I think I could have gone even faster. We have some other set-up ideas to try tomorrow and another tyre to test, the tyre that Casey thinks is the best of the three tyres we have here and which I’ve yet to try. It looks like this could be a positive weekend. We are using the standard spec engine, because you need a lot of power here, and the chassis set-up we used at the Sachsenring which gives me a very good feeling. The atmosphere in the pits is very good, we are very focused and we are concentrating very hard to make sure we enjoy a very positive final part of the season. I’m pretty happy”. More, from a press release issued by Gresini Racing Honda: TONI ELIAS BACK ON TRACK AT BRNO JUST 51 DAYS AFTER ASSEN CRASH Just 51 days after his crash at Assen, where he broke his left femur, Gresini Honda rider Toni Elias returned to the track today at Brno to take part in the first practice sessions for the Czech Republic Grand Prix. After missing races at Sachsenring and Laguna Seca, Elias was able to complete 16 laps this morning and 19 this afternoon, when he lapped fourteenth fastest. The demanding Brno circuit, characterised by quick direction changes, proved to be a tough test for Marco Melandri, who himself is recovering from an ankle fracture sustained during practice at the USGP. Marco Melandri took things easy in the morning, covering just 18 laps, but suffered severe pain in the neck and his left shoulder when exiting a left-hand corner and was forced to return to the box. After a visit to the Clinica Mobile his condition improved but he was unable to ride in the afternoon. TONI ELIAS (14th, 2’00″271): “I’m really happy to be back on track and back with the team. When I crashed I immediately set Brno as my objective and I’ve worked hard since then, 7-8 hours a day, to make sure I was ready. I’m obviously not at 100%, probably only 60%, but I’m really motivated. This is a kind of test for me and I rode in the morning and afternoon without really pushing. It went better than I expected. This is a physically demanding circuit because there are so many changes in direction. My leg is really sore but I’m riding with a speical protector which is elastic on the inside and carbon on the outside. I’m also adapting to the changes to the bike – we’ve got a new frame, new exhaust and some engine updates. I’m looking forward to the rest of the weekend now. I’ve won my first battle, which was to get back on the bike here at Brno.” MARCO MELANDRI: “I felt confident when I went out on the bike this morning. The foot was sore, especially in the left-handers, but I rode carefully. Then I suddenly felt a shooting pain in my neck and left shoulder and lost all the strength in my arm and hand. I had to come into the pits and I went straight to the clinic. Thanks to the doctors the situation is better although I couldn’t ride in the afternoon. Hopefully I’ll be ok tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki: KAWASAKI BACK IN ACTION AT BRNO The action began today at the Brno Circuit in the Czech Republic for this weekend’s Grand Prix and the Kawasaki Racing Team looked strong from the outset. Number 14 rider, Randy de Puniet, had an especially good day, coming in fifth fastest on combined times after the two free practice sessions. He performed particularly well in the second session, holding his own at or near the top of the time sheets for much of the hour, including holding off Casey Stoner and John Hopkins for a number of laps. Eventually, he came home behind them, Loris Capirossi and eventual fastest man, and the first rider to use a qualifying tyre, Sylvain Guintoli. During the traditional summer break after the US round at Laguna Seca, de Puniet trained hard and, as a result, is fighting fit and it shows. After being unable to work out to the maximum due to injuries earlier in the season, the 26-year-old Frenchman can now dedicate his time to maintaining ultimate fitness and he has returned to Brno in great condition, with a renewed determination to ride the 800cc Ninja ZX-RR to its full potential. And it certainly looked that way today. Anthony West also looked sharp, occupying the top ten for much of the first hour-long session before slipping back as many of the rest of the field picked up their pace at the last minute. The afternoon practice proved harder work, however, as he struggled to find a good rhythm and set up, having particular problems finding grip on the cold Brno track surface. The Australian, who was 26 last month, has also been in training and, like his team mate, is showing continued improvements in both his physical health and mental approach to his racing. West has adopted a rigorous and unforgiving fitness regime and is already reaping the benefits of feeling stronger on the bike. Furthermore, with the official team colour back to the traditional Kawasaki lime green, the manufacturer has reaffirmed its strong presence in the paddock after fans asked for the return of the brand-defining livery. Despite being overcast today, the forecast is good for the weekend and, as always, many thousands of fans are expected to watch from the hills and grandstands surrounding the picturesque, 5.4km track. Randy De Puniet #14 – 5th – Best Lap 1’59.064 “I’m very happy to be here and on the bike after the long break. This morning was strange because some parts of the track were wet and some were dry but this afternoon the track was good and the temperature wasn’t so high. We worked mainly on the tyres and suspension and, generally, I’m happy with my bike. I did a long run of maybe eight or nine laps, and my times were consistent and fast, but we need to improve things a little bit. I’m sure we will find some solutions this evening on how to get my lap times even better and maintain this standard during the practice tomorrow.” Anthony West #13 – 15th – Best Lap 2’00.398 “I haven’t managed to find a good feeling on the bike today, for a number of reasons. The track temperature today was not really what we were expecting it to be at Brno in August, and this meant we’ve had some rear traction problems that will hopefully disappear once the track warms up tomorrow. We’ve made some improvements to the set-up of the bike during the two hours of practice, and in the final ten minutes the feeling was definitely better, although we still have some work to do. Overall it was difficult to go fast today, but I’m confident that we’ll be able to improve tomorrow. We need to continue refining our set-up and I need to perfect my lines around certain parts of the track, if we can achieve this then I know we can finish higher up the order than we were today.” Yoshimoto Matsuda Kawasaki MotoGP Project Leader “Our development programme has continued during the winter break, with the result that we now have more usable revs, which obviously means more top end power, for this race. Also, the clutch we are using this weekend is a new development, as is the chassis, both of which Randy used to good effect today after finding a good set-up on the bike. Anthony looks to have struggled a little today, but this is a new track for him on the MotoGP bike, and we know how to improve his set-up for tomorrow, so I think we will see an improvement from him. Today was a good start, not just to the Brno race, but also to the second part of the season.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac d’Antin Ducati: FREE PRACTICE SESSION FOR THE MOTOGP RIDERS IN BRNO The Pramac d’Antin team began its preparations for Sunday’s Czech Republic GP in Brno today as the MotoGP World Championship resumed action after the summer break. The team is defending its colours this weekend with lead rider Alex Barros and Spanish reserve rider Ivan Silva, who is replacing the injured Alex Hofmann. Today’s work was focussed on setting up the Ducati Desmosedici with the Bridgestone tyres around the technically demanding Brno track in advance of Sunday’s 22-lap race in which the Italo-Spanish team is determined to recover some points missed in the previous races. Alex Barros (1:59.738 18 laps): After the summer break, we started to work again today and I can finally say that I have completely recovered from my hand injury. This morning we started convinced to obtain a good lap time but we met some difficulties with grip levels. It is nothing particularly worrying, since we are still only at the first day and we have time and determination to recover. Already in the afternoon, during the second free practice session, I was able to improve my race pace and lower my lap time; this means that we are heading in the right direction and we must continue in this way. Today we focussed mainly on bike set-up and tomorrow we will look at testing and choosing our Bridgestone race tyres. Ivan Silva (2:01.854 20 laps): I have already run at this track in MotoGP when I substituted for Alex Hofmann at Pramac d’Antin last year, but the bike was different, so I needed some time today to find the right feeling with the Desmosedici; Anyway I’m quite confident because during the afternoon practice, also thanks to the advice of my mechanics, I was able to lower my lap time by two seconds. I want to achieve a good lap time and tomorrow I hope to be faster. Above all, my aim is simply not to finish in last position on the classification More, from a press release issued by Repsol: POSITIVE FIRST CONTACT WITH THE CZECH TRACK FOR ALL REPSOL RIDERS Dani Pedrosa seventh and Nicky Hayden eighth on a cold day in Brno. Julián Simón eighth in a timed session interrupted by rain The World Motorcycling Championship is back in business and preparing its eleventh round of the 2007 season, today saw the first day’s training. In the top category the first free training session was dominated by the young Australian Casey Stoner, the current championship leader, who was followed by Hopkins and Capirossi. Pedrosa set the sixth best time and his team mate Nicky Hayden the seventh best. In the afternoon, in the second free session, the two Repsol Honda Team riders stayed among the leaders, occupying seventh and eighth places, Dani Pedrosa ahead of the American. The fastest was a surprising Sylvain Guintoli. In 250cc the Repsol riders and the rest of the participants were affected by rain just after the timed session started and this reduced the useful time out on the track. Julián Simón had been improving as the day went by, above all thanks to the modifications that let him feel more comfortable, compared to the training session in the morning and the sessions before the German GP. His companion Shuhei Aoyama did not have time to find any modifications, because in the morning he was testing two different things on the two bikes. One was prepared with last year’s set up and the other with this year’s. At the end of the session, Aoyama felt more comfortable with this year’s settings, so he was able to rule some things out and see the way forward more clearly. In the afternoon he began breaking in a new engine, and when he was about to up the tempo rain began to fall so he had to stop work. In the smallest category the young Repsol riders Bradley Smith and Esteve Rabat finished in the middle of the classification after returning to work. In the morning, Rabat set the eleventh best time and Smith the seventeenth. In the afternoon their times they were closer to the leaders, Rabat finishing thirteenth and Smith fourteenth. MotoGP Nicky Hayden — 1:59.466 secs. 48 laps, 259km “Brno is a good circuit to pick up the pace after the summer break. We made up a lot of time in the afternoon compared to the morning, and I was able to quite fast in the second training session. We still have not reached the pace that we expected and obviously all the others went faster when the track dried out and the conditions improved. We have some new things that we are trying this weekend and for the time being we have some room for improvement, but without a doubt we will concentrate our thoughts tonight and we will see what we can improve. Obviously the tyres are a very important factor and we have a few more options that we have not tried yet, so tomorrow we will see how they work.” Dani Pedrosa — 1:59.266 secs. 46 laps, 249km. “This was a normal Friday’s training session for us, working on the usual set ups and the possible tyre selection. We improved the morning’s times quite a bit in the afternoon, which is positive, and I hope we can get better tomorrow. The weather conditions were not as good as we expected we thought it would be a little warmer which means that the adherence was not at the level we had hoped for. Tomorrow we will see whether the temperature rises and we will work with the rest of the tyre options and set ups on the bike. Here we have noticed the differences between the 800cc bike and the 900cc. You feel the difference in the power, especially on the straight that climbs the slope, but the lap times are still fast though.” 250cc Julián Simón — 2:05.300 secs. 26 laps, 140km. “The truth is that the sessions have not been very productive because with 30 minutes left it began to rain. I was a bit lucky because I was able to go fast on some laps and I finished in eighth position. The important thing is, apart from the position, is that we have improved compared to the training we did here six weeks ago. We have made some modifications and I felt a little more comfortable this morning. Looking forward to tomorrow we have to improve some more, above all the engine. I am more or less pleased with the work that we have done today; a pity that it rained this afternoon but tomorrow we will work some more.” Shuhei Aoyama — 2:06.182 secs. 33 laps, 178km. “This morning I did not do too badly, but this afternoon we were not able to do too much. At the beginning I had to break the engine in, since we mounted a new one and I could not go very fast. When we finished that it began to rain, so I was not able to set a good time. I tried but it carried on raining a little and there was not much to do. Anyway the training we did earlier in the season at the Sachsenring was positive, and today the sensations were not bad at all, so we will see what happens tomorrow.” 125cc Bradley Smith — 2:10.291 secs. 30 laps 162km. “Today was not easy at all. Getting on the bike this morning was a little strange and it took me a little time to feel right and to be back riding. Moreover, at the beginning the track was wet and I could not go really fast. This afternoon I improved a little, even my position, but not enough and I am still way behind the leaders. I have some problems with the bike that I hope will be fixed for tomorrow. We will have to take a look at the data and analyse them in depth and wait for things to get back to normal tomorrow.” Esteve Rabat — 2:10.258 secs. 31 laps 167km. “This morning was very difficult, but in the afternoon it was even more so. We had a lot of problems and after the holidays we are all getting back to the routine bit by bit, me above all. Tomorrow we will try to improve and do things better, because I need to rediscover my pace and pick the good lines. There are some automatic techniques which take some time to recover and after not riding for some time you lose them and I feel a little strange, but little by little I am getting better.” Official results MotoGP 1. Sylvain GUINTOLI (YAMAHA) 1’58.362 2. Casey STONER (DUCATI) 1’58.568 3. John HOPKINS (SUZUKI) 1’58.868 4. Loris CAPIROSSI (DUCATI) 1’58.969 5. Randy DE PUNIET (KAWASAKI) 1’59.064 7. Dani PEDROSA (REPSOL HONDA) 1’59.266 8. Nicky HAYDEN (REPSOL HONDA) 1’59.466 250cc 1. Alex DEBÓN (APRILIA) 2’03.718 2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (HONDA) 2’03.819 3. Jorge LORENZO (APRILIA) 2’04.272 4. Mika KALLIO (KTM) 2’0’4.500 5. Héctor BARBERÁ (APRILIA) 2’04.722 8. Julián SIMÓN (REPSOL HONDA) 2’05.300 14. Shuhei AOYAMA (REPSOL HONDA) 2’06.182 125cc 1. Lukas PESEK (DERBI) 2’08.201 2. Gabor TALMACSI (APRILIA) 2’08.283 3. Mattia PASINI (APRILIA) 2’08.379 4. Héctor FAUBEL (APRILIA) 2’08.425 5. Sandro CORTESE (APRILIA) 2’08.658 13. Esteve RABAT (REPSOL HONDA) 2’10.258 14. Bradley Smith (REPSOL HONDA) 2’10.291