2007 FIM MotoGP World Championship Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca Monterey, California Provisional Combined Practice Results: 1. Casey Stoner (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:22.997 2. Marco Melandri (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:23.177 3. John Hopkins (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:23.452 4. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:23.535 5. Dani Pedrosa (Honda), Michelin, 1:23.548 6. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), Michelin, 1:23.550 7. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), Bridgestone, 1:23.576 8. Nicky Hayden (Honda), Michelin, 1:23.768 9. Loris Capirossi (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:23.912 10. Makoto Tamada (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:23.965 11. Carlos Checa (Honda), Michelin, 1:23.998 12. Randy De Puniet (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:24.043, crash 13. Anthony West (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:24.077 14. Sylvain Guintoli (Yamaha), Dunlop, 1:24.173 15. Roger Hayden (Kawasaki), Bridgestone, 1:24.325 16. Alex Barros (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:24.457 17. Kurtis Roberts (KR-Honda), Michelin, 1:24.666 18. Shinya Nakano (Honda), Michelin, 1:24.850 19. Miguel Duhamel (Honda), Bridgestone, 1:25.550 20. Chaz Davies (Ducati), Bridgestone, 1:26.459* *Replacing injured Alex Hofmann More, from a press release issued by Gresini Racing Honda less than four minutes after the end of the session: MELANDRI STRAIGHT ON THE PACE AT LAGUNA SECA Free practice The first day of free practice took place today at the Laguna Seca circuit, host of the US Grand Prix this weekend – the eleventh round of the MotoGP World Championship. The spectacular American circuit, famous for its “Corkscrew” corner – an exciting downhill chicane that puts the riders skill and courage to the ultimate test – has been completely resurfaced. Marco Melandri has continued with his recent good form, having arrived at Laguna Seca in good spirits after his excellent race at Sachsenring. Marco instantly found a good feeling with the bike and is already looking forward to the race. The Gresini Honda rider is a huge fan of the American event and, like last year, has chosen a stars and stripes design for his helmet to celebrate the occasion. It was a positive first day, also, for Miguel Duhamel, who replaces Toni Elias at this race. Duhamel, who probably knows Laguna Seca better than anybody, was hugely impressed by the performance of the RC212V. For this round both Marco Melandri and Miguel Duhamel’s bikes are decorated in the colours of Hannspree, the Taiwanese market leader in television and LCD Monitor production. The company have sponsored Gresini Honda already this season all over the world. MARCO MELANDRI (2nd, 1’23″597): “We’ve made a good start to the weekend, I’m happy. The bike is responding well and thanks to the new exhaust pipe the engine performance is much sweeter and I can ride it as I like around here. I’m also satisfied with the tyres. I’m feeling highly motivated for the challenge ahead and I’m determined to finish with a top result. I like this track – I was third here last year and after such a good ride in Germany I’m ready to fight for the podium again.” MIGUEL DUHAMEL (16th, 1’25″550) : “My first impressions of the RC212V are very positive. This is a really nice experience for me. There’s a lot to learn but we’re making progress, improving with every outing and I’m enthusiastic. The team are doing a great job.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: EDWARDS AND ROSSI FOURTH AND SIXTH AS ACTION COMMENCES IN CALIFORNIA Fiat Yamaha Team riders Colin Edwards and Valentino Rossi got off to a solid start today at the US Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, finishing the day fourth and sixth in the combined standings. With the track newly resurfaced and the temperatures sitting comfortably in the high twenties, riding conditions were vastly improved from this time last year and times were fast from the start. Edwards, who is running a one-off ‘Texas Tornado’ livery for his home GP, and Rossi were quick to get down to business this morning during a first session that was red flagged for ten minutes after a crash involving Alex Hofmann and Sylvain Guintoli. The Yamaha pair finished the morning third and fifth fastest respectively and were both positive about the improved track conditions and the initial performance of their 800cc M1s. This afternoon saw more of the same as they continued to work on set-up and tyres, which are likely to be a crucial factor during Sunday’s 32-lap race. Casey Stoner set the fastest lap of the day in a time of 1’22.997 with Edwards and Rossi 0.538 and 0.551 seconds off the Australian’s time. Colin Edwards Position: 4th Time: 1’23.535 Laps: 61 “Not too bad for the first day. This morning felt quite good and actually the track didn’t change too much throughout the day so we pretty much just kept going in the same way this afternoon. We’ve been playing about with the settings and I am feeling quite comfortable but could definitely be more so. Tyre-wise we’ve got some more work to do before we’re in a position to make a decision about race tyres, so we’ll be concentrating on that tomorrow morning. Stoner and Melandri are looking pretty strong so we need to close the gap to them tomorrow. It’s fun being back out on this track again and the 800 feels good around here. The track surface is fantastic compared to last year; there are still a few too many bumps around turn nine but otherwise it’s pretty smooth.” Valentino Rossi Position: 6th Time: 1’23.550 Laps: 64 “My first impressions after today are quite good. The new surface is much, much better; quite smooth with only a few bumps and it seems almost like a different track! I’m very happy about this because last year it was really a nightmare and almost impossible to ride. Now we can have fun! I think the new 800s are better for this; you can use all of the track and the best lines. Today we’ve been quite fast from the start and our bike seems to be working well here. It seems that we have a good selection of tyres, we started with something quite soft and we’ll need something a little bit harder for the race, but anyway I think the situation so far is quite good. It’s a tricky track but I enjoyed today a lot. It’s always great fun to race here, the fans are great and the weather is good! We have some more work to do tomorrow of course and we need to improve our pace in comparison to the leaders, but we have made a good start.” Davide Brivio Fiat Yamaha Team Director “Overall a positive first day for us. Both Colin and Valentino are able to run at the front quite comfortably and the bike seems to be working quite well around this track. We need to improve our pace a little bit more and work on choosing the tyres for the race, as this is going to be a key factor on Sunday. We’ve got some more tyres to test tomorrow before we can make a final decision about this. Anyway, we’re quite close to the top so now we’ll keep working in the same direction and hopefully be right at the top tomorrow!” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Encouraging opening day for Bridgestone in USA Round 11 USA – Free Practice Laguna Seca Circuit, California, USA Friday 20 July 2007 Bridgestone Motorsport got its US Grand Prix weekend underway in positive style at the Laguna Seca circuit in California today with three riders using Bridgestone tyres occupying the first three places of the combined free practice standings. Championship leader Casey Stoner was the only man to lap under 1m23s to claim the fastest time of the day aboard his Ducati. His best lap time (1m22.997s) represented a 0.3s improvement over the current circuit record lap (1m23.333s) set in 2006. Honda Gresini’s Marco Melandri ended the opening day in an encouraging second place just 0.18s off Stoner’s pace, while California-born Suzuki rider John Hopkins enjoyed a positive opening day in preparation for his home grand prix, rounding out the top three. Meanwhile, three riders have enjoyed their first taste of Bridgestone’s MotoGP tyres in today’s free practice sessions. American Roger Lee Hayden is making a wildcard appearance for Kawasaki, Canadian Miguel Duhamel is standing in for injured Toni Elias at the Honda Gresini team, while British rider Chaz Davies is replacing Pramac d’Antin’s Alex Hofmann who has been ruled out of the US Grand Prix after sustaining injuries in a morning practice collision. Tyre Talk with Junichi Kawajiri Bridgestone Motorsport Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development What has been the programme for today’s free practice sessions? “We have worked on several different things today to carry out an initial evaluation of our tyre specifications for this weekend’s race. It has been quite an encouraging day and some of our riders have been able to conduct comfortable mid-range runs with the same tyre, equivalent to around half a race distance. Tomorrow morning we will go for longer runs with the selected tyre to understand better the tyre behaviour in race trim.” Laguna Seca has been resurfaced since last year’s US Grand Prix, how have the track characteristics changed? “The new asphalt at Laguna Seca has resulted in a smoother surface, but it is also particularly oily. The track is also dusty which makes it difficult for the riders to find front and rear grip. We are likely to face this situation all weekend because we are in a particularly remote location and the slightest gust of wind always carries the dust back on to the track. We are hopeful that our range of tyres will continue to show the level of competitive performance that we have seen with our teams in today’s two sessions.” Bridgestone Combined Free Practice Session Results Pos Rider Team Session 1 (pos) Session 2 (pos) Gap P1 Casey Stoner Ducati 1m23.410s (1) 1m22.997s (1) Fastest P2 Marco Melandri Honda Gresini 1m23.597s (2) 1m23.177s (2) +0.180s P3 John Hopkins Suzuki 1m23.753s (4) 1m23.452s (3) +0.455s P6 Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m23.962s (6) 1m23.576s (6) +0.579s P9 Loris Capirossi Ducati 1m24.786s (12) 1m23.912s (9) +0.915s P12 Randy de Puniet Kawasaki 1m24.311s (7) 1m24.043s (12) +1.046s P13 Anthony West Kawasaki 1m25.570s (17) 1m24.077s (13) +1.080s P15 Roger Lee Hayden Kawasaki 1m24.584s (11) 1m24.325s (15) +1.328s P16 Alex Barros Pramac d’Antin 1m24.552s (9) 1m24.457s (16) +1.460s P19 Miguel Duhamel Honda Gresini 1m25.550s (16) 1m25.726s (19) +2.553s P20 Chaz Davies Pramac d’Antin Did not take part 1m26.459s (20) +3.462s P21 Alex Hofmann Pramac d’Antin 1m27.751s (20) Did not take part +4.754s Weather: Session 1 Dry track – Air 24°C, Track 32°C, Humidity 36% (taken from official MotoGP timesheet) Session 2 Dry track Air 27°C, Track 42°C, Humidity 34% (taken from official MotoGP timesheet) More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Rizla Suzuki MotoGP on the pace Stateside Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen finished in third and seventh places respectively on the first day of practice for Sunday’s American Grand Prix. Hopkins was one of the hardest working riders on the track today as he completed 66 laps of the 3.6km Laguna Seca circuit in California. He set his fastest time of 1’23.452 during the afternoon session as track temperatures reached 58°C, the American-born Suzuki star looked comfortable on his GSV-R as he made his home debut on an 800cc MotoGP machine. Hopkins worked all day to get the correct set-up for his bike and search for the optimum combination of tyres for Sunday’s 32-lap race, and believes that the best is still to come from him and the machine. Vermeulen clocked a quickest time of 1’23.576 from his 59 laps, just over a half-of-a-second behind the fastest time set by championship leader Casey Stoner. Vermeulen suffered with some arm-pump in the morning session, but worked hard with his crew to find the set-up to overcome this later in the day. He too spent much of the day searching the best tyre pairing for Sunday’s race. Today’s practice was held in warm, sunny, but breezy conditions with air temperatures reaching 27°C. Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will have one more practice session tomorrow morning followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Round 11 of the MotoGP World Championship gets underway at 14.00hrs local time (21.00GMT) on Sunday 22nd July. John Hopkins: “It feels good to be Stateside and it’s been a pretty good day all round. The track owners and the asphalt layers have done a great job this year and the track is a lot better than it was the last time we were here. Some of the bumps have gone and the surface isn’t breaking up anywhere so well done to them on that! Basically we got pretty lucky coming into this weekend because the set-up we had for the bike wasn’t too far off. The crew did a great job to get it like that so we were able to start testing tyres straight away. Everything seems pretty sweet right now, I know there are a couple of places that I need to improve my lines and we need to get a bit more consistency. We need a couple more tenths and then we’ll be right there. We’ll all be working hard to get that and I’m sure that come tomorrow we’ll come out and qualify great!” Chris Vermeulen: “It’s great to be back here as it’s a circuit I really enjoy. This morning with the cooler air temperatures we had some problems with the brakes – as I couldn’t keep the heat in them – but the guys worked very well on that and sorted it all out. The bike set-up and the tyres from Bridgestone are all working well, and it doesn’t seem to matter what tyres we put in they all work as well as each other! We will have to do some more tyre testing tomorrow to see which ones will have the best durability for the race. We made a lot of improvements today and if we can keep going in that direction I think we can hopefully qualify up the front tomorrow!” Paul Denning Team Manager: “The conditions here at Laguna Seca have been a lot more favourable than they were last year when the track started to break up. It appears that the new surface is a lot better and although it was a bit greasy in places early on it seems to be suiting the new 800s well. John and Chris both did a great job today and the their positions reflect the hard work that they both put in. “Both the guys have got quicker as the day progressed and I am sure the improvements will continue tomorrow and we will see Chris and John battling for high qualification positions on Saturday afternoon, and hopefully for podiums come race time!” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Stoner unstoppable on day of surprises at Laguna Seca Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix – Friday 20th July Report Day 1 motogp As he did one week ago at Sachsenring, Casey Stoner burst out of the blocks in the opening free practice sessions for the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix. The Australian, who whatever happens this weekend will enjoy his summer break as the MotoGP World Championship leader, clocked a fastest time of 1’22.997 at the newly resurfaced track, nearly a third of a second quicker than Dani Pedrosa’s circuit best from 2006. Stoner had problems last year when preparing for the Sunday race, coming unstuck on a couple of occasions as he got to grips with the tricky American circuit. It was a more assured Ducati factory rider who took to the track today, clocking consistently fast times onboard his Desmosedici GP7. Another rider to show his cards early at Laguna Seca was Marco Melandri, sporting a special American-themed helmet for one of his favourite Grands Prix. Less than two tenths slower than Stoner, the unpredictable Italian has been as steady as they come thus far in practice for Sunday’s race. An all-Bridgestone top three was completed by local rider John Hopkins, who will have abundant support from the American crowd over the next few days. Countryman Colin Edwards will want to return to his 2005 podium form at Laguna Seca after problems last season, and made a promising start to proceedings today in fourth. Race winner in Germany Dani Pedrosa was close behind, as were World Championship challenger Valentino Rossi, 2006 poleman Chris Vermeulen and twice Laguna victor Nicky Hayden. Looking to complete a hat-trick of U.S. triumphs, the reigning MotoGP World Champion has picked up his form in recent weeks, although has emphasised that an improvement in practice times is necessary. The top ten was completed by Loris Capirossi, a previous winner stateside with a 250cc triumph to his name, and the Dunlop qualifying tyre-shod Makoto Tamada. Three riders made their MotoGP 800cc debut today, with one highly unexpected addition to the field being announced just ten minutes before the second practice session. With Alex Hofmann being examined in a San Francisco hospital after breaking a metacarpal in a morning crash with Sylvain Guintoli, former 250cc rider and current AMA Supersport competitor Chaz Davies was approached to step in for the injured German in the Pramac d’Antin Ducati team. The Briton had a respectable showing in his first ride onboard the Desmosedici GP7, just over three seconds off friend and fastest rider Casey Stoner’s time on his maiden outing. The other two debutants on-track today were Nicky Hayden’s younger brother Roger Lee, competing for Kawasaki in a third rider wild card spot, and experienced Canadian Miguel Duhamel. The latter stands in for Toni Elias at a track he knows very well indeed. A selection of American legends from years past also made an appearance today, taking part in a special press conference for the gathered media. Wayne Rainey, Eddie Lawson, Kevin Schwantz, Kenny Roberts Sr and Freddie Spencer fielded questions about their time in the World Championship, and passed comment on the current state of MotoGP. More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: SUPERB STONER FASTEST AT LAGUNA,CAPIROSSI FINDS A GOOD DIRECTION World Championship leader Casey Stoner continued his impressive performance at sun-baked Laguna Seca this afternoon, upping the pace aboard his Ducati Desmosedici GP7 to lap three tenths inside the lap record and once again set the practice pace. Team-mate Loris Capirossi meanwhile continued working on the set-up of his GP7 and is confident of a good race pace on Sunday. CASEY STONER, fastest, 1m 22.997s “It’s not too bad so far – we tried a different rear this afternoon and we’ve already done over race distance on the front. The new surface is better than last year out of the Corkscrew but it’s worse everywhere else, but it’s the same for everyone so we’ve just got to make the best of it.” LORIS CAPIROSSI, 9th fastest, 1m 23.912s “This afternoon we tried two very different set-ups, one like we used at the Sachsenring, the other like we used before Germany. The Sachsenring set-up works better here, so we are focusing on that and working at improving my feeling. If we can keep going in this direction tomorrow, I am confident I can have a good race on Sunday.” More, from a press release issued by Konica Minolta Honda: KONICA MINOLTA Honda makes a cautious start at Laguna Seca Shinya Nakano and his KONICA MINOLTA Honda made a cautious start in today’s first practice session for Sunday’s US MotoGP race. Lower temperatures than expected along with windy conditions and alternating grip levels meant that the 29-year-old Japanese rider is looking for improvements in time for tomorrow’s hour-long qualifying session around the challenging 2.24 mile-long Laguna Seca circuit. Tomorrow the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team will make further changes to the suspension and gearing set-up of their Honda RC212V MotoGP machine to give Shinya the best technical package so the former 250cc World Championship runner-up can be further up the order in time for Sunday’s race. Gianluca Montiron Team Manager KONICA MINOLTA Honda “Today’s result is not so impressive, but we will improve tomorrow. During the first practice session our situation was better, but this afternoon as others improved we weren’t able to move forward as much. At the moment we have the standard Honda machine while our competitors move forward and receive something new. We were perhaps a little too conservative with our approach in practice today, so the Team as a whole has to help Shinya get his rhythm and achieve his best lap time a little more quickly. The temperature is the same for everybody so this is something we simply have to deal with. I think tomorrow it’s not just about the qualifying session but also to give Shinya the best machine possible for the race: this is the most important point. Tomorrow we will dedicate at least last half an hour to help Shinya make the best lap time and today we know that some of our competitors tested some soft tyres, hence they made a better lap time than us.” Shinya Nakano Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (60 laps 1′ 24.850″) “I’m so disappointed with the overall result today but not so worried when I think that today is essentially set-up day and I think perhaps in the afternoon we went in a bit of a wrong direction with settings so we couldn’t improve so much. The track this year is a bit better that last year and a little less bumpy, but conditions are still so-so: it’s quite windy and the track is dirty in places so grip levels are different. Of course, it’s the same for us all. I think tomorrow should still be OK. We need to find some gearbox settings tomorrow to improve things, so that is one of the things we shall be working on.” Giulio Bernardelle Technical Director, KONICA MINOLTA Honda “The overall temperatures are much colder than expected. The sun is shining but there’s a lot of wind, which means the overall temperature is so low, much lower than Germany and much lower than we experienced here last year. We were expecting to have higher temperatures and some sectors seem to have different track temperatures. All our competitors have to deal with the same problem, but basically we have to find more grip on both the front and rear of the bike. We are playing with gearbox settings as well at the moment to find the optimum for this track. This afternoon we changed 2nd and 3rd gears so we will discuss with Shinya what is the best solution.” More, from a press release issued by Kawasaki Racing Team: KAWASAKI SQUAD OUT IN FORCE AT LAGUNA The Red Bull US Grand Prix practice sessions began today, in preparation for Sunday’s race: the 11th round of the 2007 MotoGP world championship. With Kawasaki running three bikes at the event, Randy de Puniet and Anthony West were joined by wildcard AMA Superbike and Supersport regular, Roger Lee Hayden, on the 3.61km, Laguna Seca circuit and it was a constructive day for all the crews. On combined times after the day’s two sessions, de Puniet was classified 12th fastest. After clocking the highest top speed of the first practice with a recorded 256.3kmh, the 26-year-old Frenchman fell in the second session after going in to the first corner too quickly. Fortunately, he was unhurt and returned to the pits. Taking out his second bike, he took a while to settle back in to a rhythm but, by the end of the hour, was back, picking up speed and finishing just over a second off leading man of the day, Casey Stoner. Anthony West followed closely behind, coming home 13th quickest on combined times. Today was the first time the 26-year-old Australian had ridden at the Californian track and learning it was his priority. With his laps getting progressively faster throughout the two practice sessions, he made a pretty good job of it. Just 0.034 seconds off team mate, de Puniet, West’s best time was only 1.080 seconds off Stoner. American Hayden, meanwhile, used his superior track knowledge to take the Ninja ZX-RR around the circuit with enthusiasm, regularly running times in the top ten. He ended the day in 15th position after showing the sixth highest speed of the second session: 251.5kmh. Having only ridden the Kawasaki for one day prior to this MotoGP event, Hayden impressed the team and his home fans alike with his performance. Furthermore, the three fastest men of the day run Bridgestone rubber, which will also boost Kawasaki’s confidence for the rest of the event. The weather for both sessions was clear, warm and sunny and there’s more of the same to come during the weekend. Tens of thousands of fans are expected to descend on Laguna as the track celebrates its 50th year and the team hope they’ll have something to celebrate themselves when it comes to qualifying tomorrow and then the race on Sunday. Randy De Puniet #14 12th – Best Lap 1’24.043 “I’m ok but I had a crash at end of the start/finish straight. I went in too fast, locked the front wheel and tried to stop but couldn’t, then crashed close to the wall. It was a bit like the accident last weekend at the Sachsenring. With the second bike we had some problems with rear grip, so we made some adjustments but then it started vibrating as it entered corners. Obviously, we need to fix this because it’s difficult to ride at the moment. My times got better at the end but there’s some work to do yet. At least I’m not injured: I banged my head but I’m ok.” Anthony West #13 13th – Best Lap 1’24.077 “I really struggled to learn the track this morning. At first, I wasn’t sure where the lines were or anything but it got better and it all started to fall in to place in the last ten minutes or so. It seems the more laps I do the faster I get, which is positive. I had wanted to follow somebody around but every time I went out, there didn’t seem to be anybody on the same bit of track! Still, I’m learning it on my own and maybe I’ll be able to see if I can stay with the other guys tomorrow. Every time I get to the Corkscrew I’m holding my breath and worrying if I’m going to make it but it’s exciting, that’s for sure. Anyway, it felt good and, although the set up is not perfect yet, the times were quite consistent in the end and I hope we can continue like that tomorrow.” Roger Hayden #95 15th Best Lap 1’24.325 “Things went pretty well. I’m still learning so much about the bike but managed to go faster every time I went out, which was my aim, so I’m glad about that. All in all, I think the first day went pretty well and we’re just getting some ideas to maybe make the bike a bit better for tomorrow. There’s been a bit of chatter, and a few little things to sort out which may help me go a little faster, but it’s good, getting used to working with the crew: they’re doing a great job and making me feel really welcome. I had a lot of fun out there and I just want to do my own thing. I don’t want to get in anybody’s way.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Ducati: HOFFMAN TAKEN OUT IN CRASH AT LAGUNA SECA GRAND PRIX, DAVIES TO SUBSTITUTE The Red Bull Laguna Seca Grand Prix kicked off at 10AM Friday morning, when the riders took to the track under gorgeous California sunshine and balmy weather conditions so different from the heat wave the year prior. 6 Laps into the first free practice session, Alex Hofmann, still recovering from an injured right hand, was brutally knocked off-track and into his Ducati when Sylvain Guintoli, himself a Laguna Seca and MotoGP rookie, missed his braking marker coming into the infamous Corkscrew, and collided with Hofmann at a high rate of speed. Hofmann was able to stand immediately after the accident, but it was obvious that his left hand had been severely damaged by the charging Yamaha, and he grimaced in pain while his helmet and gloves were removed. Due to Laguna Seca’s lack of frontage roads surrounding the track, the practice was Red-Flagged to clear the track of all riders so that an ambulance could carry Hofmann to the onsite medical center. He was then airlifted to the Surgery Center in San Francisco where he underwent a three-hour surgery to repair damage to all the broken bones in his hand, including a split second metacarpal. The Team was devastated to have lost Alex for the moment, and after travelling all the way to California from Sachsenring, it was decided that a second rider would be fielded. Former 250cc Grand Prix racer, Chaz Davies, was selected and his MotoGP baptism will be a trial of fire. Riding the Laguna raceway for the first time earlier in the morning on a 600, he took to the track in the second free practice session aboard the mighty Ducati Desmosedici GP7, determined to learn more about the bike, the notoriously tricky circuit, and Bridgestone tires. Alex Barros rode, despite being in pain from his crashes in Germany, but was unable to truly lay down the lap times he was looking for. The Brazilian will rest and recover tonight and come back stronger tomorrow. Alex Barros (1:24.457, 24 laps): For me, it wasn’t an easy day. My hand was particularly painful and I wasn’t able to ride well. Today I tried to ride without the aid of anaesthesia, but it was really impossible because I simply had too much pain. I was convinced that my hand was going to be a little better from last weekend, but now I know that I can’t ride like I normally do, and for this reason I didn’t get a good lap time. Overall, I’m satisfied as regard the bike. We found a good set-up and the tires, too, worked very well. I’m confident that if I didn’t have this injury I could achieve a better result. Anyway, tomorrow before the start of the session, I will take an anaesthetic injection so it’s less painful. I’m confident for the race, but we still have big range to improve. Chaz Davies (1:26.459, 26 laps): I don’t know what can I say, I’m simply surprised. I never thought about something like this. Riding with the best bike and tires of this moment, isn’t a possibility that everyone has. I have never ridden both on this track and in MotoGP, but when the Pramac d’Antin Team made me this proposal, I couldn’t refuse, because it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity. There was just a half hour before the afternoon practice when I saw the Team coordinator coming; for a moment I didn’t understand, then, when I thought back to Hofmann’s crash I suddenly understood. I’m very happy for this opportunity, and I would to say thank you to the Pramac d’Antin Team, and also, get well to the Hoff. Luis d’Antin – Team manager: Alex Hofmann’s crash was very bad for us. This was one of Alex’s favourite tracks and he was strongly motivated to ride on Sunday, but unfortunately MotoGP can also be like this. At the beginning we didn’t know the best decision to take, then, we chose Chaz Davies to replace Hofmann on Sunday. For Chaz, it was his first day on this track and in the MotoGP class, too, but in this difficult situation he did relatively well. I’m confident that from now until Sunday, he will continue to improve.