2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Le Mans, France May 18, 2007 Free Practice One & Two Combined Results: 1. Marco MELANDRI (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:35.319 2. Dani PEDROSA (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.467 3. Carlos CHECA (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.498 4. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:35.626 5. John HOPKINS (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:35.746 6. Casey STONER (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:35.759 7. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:35.770 8. Toni ELIAS (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:35.818 9. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda), Michelin, 1:35.908, crash 10. Alex BARROS (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:36.044 11. Loris CAPIROSSI (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:36.139 12. Randy DE PUNIET (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:36.352 13. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:36.491 14. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:36.705 15. Kenny Lee ROBERTS (KR – Honda), Michelin, 1:36.770 16. Makoto TAMADA (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:36.795 17. Shinya NAKANO (Honda), Michelin, 1:36.855 18. Alex HOFMANN (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:37.668, crash 19. Fonsi NIETO (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:38.827 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Melandri sets Le Mans pace on opening day Round 05 – France – Free Practice Le Mans, France Friday 18 May 2007 Bridgestone’s preparations for the fifth round of the 2007 MotoGP championship got underway at the Bugatti circuit in Le Mans today with last year’s race winner Marco Melandri setting the pace on the opening day for the Bridgestone-shod Honda Gresini team. Melandri’s best lap time of 1m35.319s was just three-tenths-of-a-second adrift of the existing circuit record lap set last year by Valentino Rossi and just over a tenth quicker than his nearest challenger today, Honda’s Dani Pedrosa. Chinese GP podium finisher John Hopkins finished in fifth position for Suzuki to lead a group of six Bridgestone-equipped riders in the afternoon session’s top ten, including championship leader Casey Stoner, Melandri’s team-mate Toni Elias, Pramac d’Antin’s Alex Barros, Ducati’s Loris Capirossi and Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet who takes part in his home GP in Le Mans this weekend. Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development What results were obtained from today’s two opening practice sessions for the French GP? “Our initial feelings after today’s practice sessions are quite positive but our programme was not as straight-forward as we had hoped. The track conditions in this morning’s session were not particularly good; the circuit was quite green and slippery which did not permit us to obtain really representative data. This afternoon, the track had improved but a small shower late in the session prevented us from completing the tyre evaluation programme.” What was the planned test programme? “We carried out some runs with our medium and soft specification tyres with all of our teams and can say that the early signs are encouraging. However, we have not been able to gather enough data to be able to select the most suitable tyre for Sunday afternoon. We have a bit more work to do in this area tomorrow morning, but so far the tyre performance has been as expected with soft and medium specs front and rear.” Bridgestone Combined Free Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P1 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 1m36.137s (9) 1m35.319s (1) Fastest P5 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m36.059s (8) 1m35.746s (5) +0.427s P6 Casey Stoner Ducati 1m35.951s (5) 1m35.759s (6) +0.440s P8 Toni Elias Honda Gresini 1m36.009s (6) 1m35.818s (7) +0.499s P10 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 1m36.476s (10) 1m36.044s (8) +0.725s P11 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m36.962s (12) 1m36.139s (9) +0.820s P12 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1m36.830s (11) 1m36.352s (10) +1.033s P13 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m37.246s (15) 1m36.491s (12) +1.172s P18 Alex Hofmann Pramac d’Antin 1m37.668s (17) 1m37.751s (18) +2.349s P19 Fonsi Nieto Kawasaki 1m39.463s (19) 1m38.827s (19) +3.508s Weather: Dry track – Air 15°C, Track 15°C, Humidity 73% (Session 1) Dry track – Air 23°C, Track 24°C, Humidity 32% (Session 2) More, from a press release issued by Chris Vermeulen’s publicist: Chris Vermeulen has made solid progress on the opening day of practice for the French Grand Prix at Le Mans today. In only his second trip to the famed circuit and using a new spec engine the Australian finished the day the 12th quickest rider and only point 4 of a second off the second row of the grid. The twenty four year old is still struggling with a toe injury sustained in practice at the China Grand Prix two weeks ago. “It’s still quiet painful in the boot. I’m using a bigger sized boot this weekend but it’s a little uncomfortable.” he said. Suzuki team physio Dean Miller has been trying different kinds of strapping on the injury, to try and make it as comfortable as possible for the Aussie. A handful of minutes were lost by teams in the afternoon session here today, as a sprinkling of rain came over the track. That meant the Rizla Suzuki team rider had to be satisfied with his earlier effort of 1:36.49. Vermeulen said, “All in all it wasn’t a bad day, we made progress on the morning session and we tried some things this afternoon that gave us good information, so we’ll have a good base for the Saturday sessions.” “I think if we make the same amount of progress tomorrow we’ll be fine. That would set us up well for Sunday’s race. “ The weather forecast for official qualifying tomorrow is mainly fine. More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Plenty more to come from Rizla Suzuki MotoGP at Le Mans Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racer John Hopkins was the fastest rider through the turn one speed-trap, as he powered his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R to fifth quickest during today’s free practice sessions for Sunday’s French Grand Prix. Hopkins (1’35.746, 50 laps) used the first day’s practice to fine tune the handling of his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R in readiness for this weekend’s race and is sure that there is still more to come from both him and the bike. His highest speed of 287.7 through the speed-trap shows that he has the confidence in the GSV-R, as he powers into one of the fastest corners on the MotoGP calendar. Chris Vermeulen (P13, 1’36.491, 44 laps) also used the day to make sure his bike was set-up for the stop-and-go nature of the Le Mans circuit. He made improvements during both sessions and is eager to get on with the job again tomorrow. Although he was in 13th position he is only just over a second from the fastest time of the day, set by Marco Melandri on his Bridgestone-shod Honda. Today’s practice sessions were held in overcast conditions and the end of this afternoon’s period was affected by a small rain shower. With more unsettled weather forecast for the weekend, Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will want to make the most of the final free practice session on Saturday morning, before the important hour-long qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28-lap race gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (12.00hrs GMT). John Hopkins: “It’s definitely been a work day! We’ve gone through a lot of things, trying to improve all the time. The bike wasn’t set-up as well from the start as it was in China, so we have had to work a bit to get the bike how we need it to be. The whole crew have worked hard today and we made big steps forward. We are still looking to make things a bit better and I also have to work on my riding as I have to get a couple of lines sorted. Hopefully we’ll get a good night’s sleep and come out tomorrow and ride as hard as we can!” Chris Vermeulen: “After the poor weather here this week we have been quite lucky today to get almost a full dry day. The last 15 minutes of the second session was a bit wet, which was unfortunate as we were progressing really well with the bike. We’ve made pretty big steps and things are certainly heading in the right direction. We still need to find that bit more, but I’m sure that tomorrow we will get even better!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “It’s been a day of sorting things out for both the riders. Neither John nor Chris were completely happy with the set-up from the start and both of them have worked hard with their crews to get the Rizla Suzukis up to their now expected competitive selves. We know we still have a bit more to do, but we also know what is needed. The whole field is again incredibly close so every tenth or even hundredth of a second that we can find is really going to be vital come tomorrow’s qualifying to make sure that we are in the best grid positions possible for Sunday’s race.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: FRENCH CHALLENGE BEGINS FOR FIAT YAMAHA TEAM IN LE MANS A gruelling run of seven races in ten weeks got underway today at the historic circuit of Le Mans, as the MotoGP paddock returned to Europe for the Grand Prix of France. After the high-speed demands of Turkey and China, the Fiat Yamaha Team spent today looking to adapt the YZR-M1 to the different technical demands of the 4.180km Bugatti circuit, which boasts a longest straight of only 450m. After a rainy set-up day yesterday riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards were relieved as the clouds cleared and the sun came out this morning, enabling them to make the most of the two hours of free practice time. The Yamaha duo got their respective French challenges off to positive starts this morning as Rossi finished the first Free Practice second fastest and Edwards was just 0.3 seconds off his team-mate in seventh. This afternoon however their fortunes differed slightly as Edwards continued to progress and put in some consistent laps to finish the day fourth, but Rossi ran into unexpected problems as he tried to find the right balance for bike and tyres. The Italian was unable to improve his time from this morning and ended the day seventh in the combined standings. The fastest lap of the day was set by last year’s race winner Marco Melandri with a time of 1’35.319, just slower than Rossi’s existing 990cc lap record. Colin Edwards Position: 4th Time: 1’35.626 Laps: 51 “I think we’ve made a good start here today. We made some small adjustments to the bike setting and generally stiffened it up a bit in order to make it a little bit more responsive at this track and it seems to have worked. The bike’s definitely feeling pretty good at the end of day one. The tyre rules are once again making things a little difficult; we’ve found a good tyre which we added onto our selection at the last minute last night and I think I did my best lap on that this afternoon after quite a lot of laps! We’ll check it again tomorrow but if the conditions don’t change then it looks like being the number one choice for my race tyre. I had a bit of a problem this afternoon when a bee somehow flew into my boot! I’d literally just passed the entrance to pit lane when I realised so I had to get round a whole lap with it in there. It stung me a couple of times in my foot but I think I’ll survive…! Anyway, the bike feels good, we’ve made a strong start and hopefully we can carry on like this tomorrow.” Valentino Rossi Position: 7th Time: 1’35.770 Laps: 51 “This morning things were going okay but this afternoon we ran into a few problems and we weren’t able to improve our situation much. The tyre rule isn’t great for us here and we haven’t yet found the right tyre from our selection, however we’ve gathered a lot of data today so hopefully we can make some changes tomorrow to get our package working better. I think that we didn’t find exactly the right direction today with regards to the setting; this is quite a strange track and at the moment I can’t ride the bike how I want to. I have a big score to settle here after what happened last year so we’ve got to keep focused and work at 100% in order to be in the best shape for a battle on Sunday. We need to close the gap to the others tomorrow. Colin is a bit faster than me and he showed the bike is working quite well, so hopefully we can study the data we have and come up with a new direction for tomorrow.” Davide Brivio Fiat Yamaha Team Director “We’ve definitely got some work to do! The situation for Colin is better than for Valentino and he has found a tyre that’s working okay for him, but there’s definitely a little way to go yet for both riders. Valentino was quite fast this morning but then this afternoon things didn’t carry on so well for him and he wasn’t able to improve his time. However we collected a lot of information for both riders and now we will study this together tonight and find some solutions to improve things for tomorrow. We’ll keep going and work hard as usual.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM ON THE PACE AT LE MANS Ducati Marlboro Team men Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi made a promising start to the French GP in gloomy and sometimes damp conditions today. World Championship leader Stoner ended the day sixth fastest, just four tenths off the fastest lap, while team-mate Loris Capirossi was getting up to speed in 11th spot, eight tenths off ‘pole’. Stoner pronounced himself confident, his GP7 already performing well at a circuit that’s so different from Shanghai, where two weeks ago he won his third race of the year. Capirossi found a good set-up direction this afternoon and would have lapped faster if rain hadn’t dampened the track during the final five minutes of the session. CASEY STONER, 6th fastest, 1m35.759s “The track’s not in the best condition but the lap times we are doing are pretty much on a par with the 990s, and considering this is an acceleration track I think the 800s are doing exceptionally well. We expected this circuit to be a little more difficult but our settings seem pretty good at the moment. We’re doing the best job we can to get the bike to hook up out of the turns and Bridgestone are doing an excellent job as well. We already smoothed down the rear suspension because I was having a few pumping problems and we also seem to have solved the braking problems we had this morning. Now we just need to make some little tweaks in the front and get a bit more traction in the rear. I went out at the start of this afternoon’s session with tyres that had already done six or seven laps and I did race distance no problem. If it’s really hot we’ve got another set of harder tyres, but the tyres we’ve got for these conditions are doing race distance absolutely no dramas, so we’re looking pretty safe again.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 11th fastest, 1m 36.139s “We solved the few little problems we had this morning and started this afternoon with a better set-up. We then made a few more minor adjustments during the second session and my last run was quite fast. Unfortunately I was only able to do a couple of laps before it started raining, but we know that we have found the right direction and that’s what matters for the rest of the weekend. We tried just one rear tyre today and we have two more to test, so I think it’s possible we can also improve that part of the bike. Above all we need to improve our settings for the last part of the track because I’m still slow in the final split. Anyway, I feel good and confident enough for the next two days.” More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: KONICA MINOLTA Honda caught out by rain at Le Mans KONICA MINOLTA Honda have made steady progress in today’s practice sessions for Sunday’s race at the legendary Bugatti circuit at Le Mans. Team rider Shinya Nakano spent most of today trying two new front tyres for the race to help improve feedback from the front-end of his Honda RC212V. The 29-year-old Japanese rider was hoping to record a fast lap time at the end of today’s afternoon session, but was caught out by the weather when rain began to fall with just ten minutes of the session remaining. Both Shinya and the Team are now looking forward to tomorrow’s sessions where they hope they can show the improvements in the tyres on the timesheets. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Today the weather conditions were so-so and we tested some new tyres and spent both practice sessions trying to improve the balance of the Honda RC212V. Because of the weather we have to work a little bit more tomorrow and test the different tyres to see what is the best one for Shinya. In both sessions the weather has slowed us down a little, and this afternoon it rained in the last ten minutes of the practice session so for this reason Shinya did not try to push to make a fast lap time. This means it’s important for us tomorrow to learn more about these new tyres and get a good consistent rhythm and race pace. We’re grateful to Michelin as they’re supporting us as much as possible. It’s good to see the top three riders all on Hondas I think things will be better for us here, too.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (50 laps 1′ 36.855″) “The new front tyres seem better, as the contact feeling from the front has improved, which is what I’m looking for. The entry to the corner is better, but I still have same problem with the bike not turning quickly enough and with enough grip. We have some ideas on how to improve this, so we will try some different front and rear suspension settings tomorrow morning. We are a little disappointed as the last ten minutes were going to be important this afternoon and I had fresh tyres on, but we couldn’t try them. I’m hopeful of tomorrow as the other Hondas are going well, so if we can find a good set up I am positive for a good grid position.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “We didn’t have two whole practice sessions thanks to the weather this morning and losing the last ten minutes of the afternoon session, but both new front tyres from Michelin seem to work a little better so tomorrow we’re hopeful. Shinya seems to be having some problems in the middle of the circuit where there’s a combination of corners after the main straight. We think he’s losing a little speed in the middle of the corners there, so tonight we will look at the data and try to see if we can improve things for him a little in this area. A good point is that he’s feeling more positive with the front tyre. Michelin have tried to give the front a different contact patch, combined with a change in the rigidity of the tyre sidewall. It’s good that they are helping us so much here and it’s also positive to see three Hondas in the top five. We will work hard tomorrow to be further up the grid for Sunday’s race.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: The opening day of practice for the Alice Grand Prix de France saw thrills and spills in abundance at the historic Le Mans circuit, under unpredictable clouds that only produced a light drizzle over the course of the six sessions. In MotoGP, Marco Melandri showed the kind of speed that won him last year’s race in France, putting himself at the top of the timesheets in an action-packed first outing for the 800cc bikes at Le Mans. The Italian clocked a time of 1’35.319 in the second session, at track which he indicated yesterday would perhaps be better for him than the previous four on the MotoGP calendar. Melandri was nearly one and a half seconds off the 990cc circuit best time set by Dani Pedrosa last year, and it was the Spanish rider who trailed him on the maiden appearance with the new reduced cylinder capacity bikes. An encouraging day for Honda who had four riders in the top five in last years race- was completed by Carlos Checa’s appearance in the fastest three. The Honda trio headed Yamaha’s Colin Edwards, Suzuki’s John Hopkins and current World Championship leader Casey Stoner riding for Ducati. Stoner turned the tables on Toni Elias, who he has spoken out about in recent weeks as a result of the Spaniard’s following him in practice sessions. The Australian rode close behind the Gresini Honda rider, but eventually ended up running off-track due to Elias’ going wide. Elias himself was eighth fastest, less than half a second slower than his team-mate at the head of the field. Five time World Champion Valentino Rossi was seventh quickest, and was unable to better his times in the final five minutes as the red and white flag came out to signal light precipitation. World Champion Nicky Hayden also went onto gravel twice at the end of the start/finish straight, adjusting to the new lines required on the 800cc bikes at Le Mans. The first incident was a lowside crash, whilst the second he ran off track on the RC212V. A late surge took him into the top ten, ahead of Alex Barros. 250cc Mika Kallio put himself in the driving seat for a maiden 250cc pole by taking the provisional place in the afternoon session. The Finn left it late in an exciting opening qualifying opportunity to put in his fastest lap, a 1’38.982 that left him as the only rider to break the 1’39 mark. Although Jorge Lorenzo was unable to stamp his authority in second, he experienced an incredible session onboard the factory Aprilia. The Spaniard had a huge highside at the midway point in the session, and underwent a quick check on his ankles in the garage before replacing his boots and getting back on the bike. He subsequently clocked what was at the time the fastest lap of the day in the quarter litre class, and remained in the battle up until Kallio’s final burst, just under nine hundredths of a second slower than the KTM rider. Hector Barbera was third quickest ahead of twice 125cc winner at Le Mans Thomas Luthi, and was embroiled in an on-track argument with old adversary Alex de Angelis. Fiery latin tempers flared on both sides, with De Angelis returning to his garage to cool down. The last time that the two collided with such force, literally, was in a spectacular crash at last year’s race in Turkey, and it is hoped that a repeat of such action isn’t repeated in the heat of the moment at Le Mans. Andrea Dovizioso and Julian Simon line up on the provisional second row alongside De Angelis, who was just quicker than team-mate and 125cc World Champion Alvaro Bautista. 125cc Gabor Talmacsi took provisional pole for the 125cc Alice Grand Prix de France with a lap of 1’44.408 at Le Mans. Having lost his championship lead two weeks ago courtesy of a Lukas Pesek victory in Shanghai, the Hungarian will be wanting to get back on top at the World Championship’s return to Europe. Mattia Pasini was close behind Talmacsi on the timesheets, as he chases another pole position on his Polaris World Aprilia. One of the standout performers of the day was 2006 Rookie of the Year Bradley Smith, who led the way in the opening session and continued to go well en route to a provisional front row place. Hector Faubel, championship leader Pesek and Simone Corsi completed the top six, ahead of Tomoyoshi Koyama, home rider Mike di Meglio, Michael Ranseder and Sergio Gadea. The opening qualifying session was effectively called to a halt with three minutes to go, as a result of four unrelated crashes on the same corner. Pol Espargaro slid off-track whilst in pursuit of third placed Smith, and just seconds later wild card rider Valentin Debise and Esteve Rabat were in the gravel. The latter was watched in the Repsol Honda garage by mentor Alberto Puig, who suffered a serious accident at the very same corner back in 1994. More, from a press release issued by Gresini Racing Honda: MELANDRI SETS THE EARLY PACE AT LE MANS Marco clocks the fastest time with Toni just 0.499 secs behind Team Honda Gresini made an ideal start to proceedings in the Grand Prix of France at the legendary circuit of Le Mans, host this weekend to the fifth round of the 2007 MotoGP World Championship. Marco Melandri, winner of this very race last season, started in perfect fashion and after lapping well in the morning free practice he went on to clock the fastest time overall in the afternoon. The Italian was delighted with the performance of his bike, in particular the handling, and is confident about his chances in Sunday’s race. It was also a good day for Toni Elias, who was less than half a second behind the pace of his team-mate in seventh place. The Spaniard is happy with the base setting the team have found today and is looking forward to improving his performance tomorrow. The weather forecast is typically unpredictable here and a few raindrops fell throughout today, making for changeable track conditions. MARCO MELANDRI (1st, 1’35″319): “I’m satisfied with this result. The team prepared a good base setting for the bike and my feeling has been really positive right from this morning. We’ve improved the feeling with the front, thanks to the work we’ve done with the forks and the new front tyre Bridegestone have brought here. The handling of the bike is superb and that is important at a circuit with so much hard braking. I’m very happy with the tyres. Tomorrow I’ll try and improve our performance on a qualifying tyre because my target is to qualify on the front two rows and fight for the podium.” TONI ELIAS (7th,1’35″818): “I’m happy with the job we’ve done today at a circuit where we had so many problems last year. Seventh place is a good result considering how close we are to the front. There is room to improve so we’ll keep working hard tomorrow. The tyres are working really well.” FAUSTO GRESINI: “I’m happy for Marco, this first place is important for his morale and I hope it’s a good sign for the rest of the weekend. From the free practice this morning Marco’s been able to make the most of all his potential and that of the bike. Toni is also doing a great job. Our objective is to continue improving and fight for the top positions.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: STEADY AWAY FOR DE PUNIET AND NIETO AT LE MANS Kawasaki’s Randy de Puniet, kicked off the weekend of his home Grand Prix with some healthy lap times at Le Mans. The 26-year-old, riding the Ninja ZX-RR, finished today’s two, hour-long practice sessions in 12th place on combined times. While he was one of the fastest through the speed trap today, that wasn’t Randy’s primary concern at the Bugatti Circuit, as he used both sessions to concentrate on refining machine set up. Having used just one set of tyres for the whole of the morning session, he clocked his fastest time on his last lap, giving him huge confidence in the longevity of the Bridgestones’ grip. Similarly, in the afternoon practice, he switched to a new rear tyre just before the end of the session but patches of rain on his out lap brought him in early and he called it a day. He and the team remain in no doubt that there’s plenty of progress to come in qualifying practice tomorrow afternoon. Meanwhile, Fonsi Nieto, Randy’s teammate for the weekend, put in a solid performance on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR. The Spaniard, standing in for the injured Olivier Jacque, clocked 1’39.463 on his first outing on a MotoGP machine. Nieto took his time in the early session, getting used to the bike and tyres before stiffening up the rear suspension in the afternoon, after which there was a significant improvement. He then went on familiarising himself with the power delivery and handling of the Ninja ZX-RR and the characteristics of the Bridgestone tyres. Nieto was also surprised at quite how light a MotoGP bike is, compared to his more familiar World Superbike machine, and proved cautious into corners and slightly uneasy on the brakes. He was caught out, early on, forgetting carbon brakes need time to reach their optimal operating temperature and briefly left the track at the ultra-fast turn one. In the afternoon, Nieto improved his time to 1’38.837 with a top speed of 252.1 km/h. The erstwhile 250cc world championship rider, running number 11, has a healthy history at Le Mans and his feedback to crew chief, Fiorenzo Fanali, has been both coherent and accurate. Therefore, Fonsi, his crew and the team are confident he will close the gap further on the series regulars over the weekend. Randy de Puniet Position:12th – Best Lap: 1’36.352 “The first day in Le Mans hasn’t been easy as we’ve struggled a lot with the rear. It moves a lot, exiting corners and it was difficult to change direction. I can’t say I’m unhappy, though I’m not confident. My confidence in the bike set up improved into the afternoon session but we need to keep progressing tomorrow, mainly in T4 where I’ve been losing a lot of time. However, I’m really happy with the race tyres. I spent the whole session this morning with the same set and I did my best lap time in my last lap. I used a new set of the same spec in the afternoon and the conclusion was the same. The performance and consistency are very good; very positive for the race. The weather wasn’t wonderful but the forecasters predict good conditions for tomorrow. We all hope they aren’t wrong!” Fonsi Nieto Position: 19th – Best Lap: 1’38.827 “This morning, I was so excited to get on the Kawasaki MotoGP bike for the first time. The experience of riding the 800cc Ninja ZX-RR has been amazing and I’ve had a lot of fun, although we still have a lot of work to do tomorrow. Following the team’s advice, I decided to take it easy as everything was new to me. I just wanted to get used to the bike and the tyres without rushing, to avoid making any mistakes. The biggest differences and challenges for me today have been the difference in weight, the carbon brakes and the tyres. I don’t have all the confidence necessary to change direction, I need to improve my braking to maintain a good corner speed and also to gain some confidence in the front tyre as well. The weather conditions didn’t help us much and, consequently, my lap times have been quite slow but there is plenty of room for improvement tomorrow. The team, and particularly having Fiorenzo Fanali by my side, helps me a lot and I’m sure tomorrow will be much better.” Naoya Kaneko Kawasaki Technical Manager “To be honest, we expected a little bit more from these first sessions at Le Mans, although the weather made everything more difficult for our riders and the track surface was not in the best condition. But at least we were able to collect some data for dry conditions and Randy seems to be happy with the race tyres. He now needs to find a good “feeling” in the bike and tomorrow we will work on the suspension and chassis set up in order to achieve this. Fonsi is going step by step. Today was his first day and we will see how he progresses tomorrow on our machine. We know there are some points we need to address but we still have another day of practice before the race.”