New South Wales rider Andrew Pitt made the most of his seven years of circuit knowledge in the first day of practice for Sunday’s Australian GP. In only his second race on the brand new Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR 990cc MotoGP prototype, he slashed 1.2 seconds off his time from morning to afternoon to record his fastest-ever lap of the Phillip Island south of Melbourne.

It was good enough to place him 15th on a grid full of seasoned rivals, and claim a provisional fourth-row start for Sunday’s race.

Intimate prior circuit knowledge was a boon to the 2001 World 600 Supersport champion, giving him one less thing to learn after being drafted in to take over the new GP prototype at short notice, for the Malaysian GP last Sunday.

As well as simply getting used to the slick tyres, carbon brakes and vaulting power output of the new fuel-injected racer, Pitt has the task of giving factory race-department engineers feedback about the new machine, which was run in final racing form for the first time in September.

The Kawasaki was due to be ridden for race-track shakedown tests by factory tester Akira Yanagawa, who had already completed a season of racing and testing on the earlier version of the machine, with the new engine fitted with carburettors and running in the World Superbike chassis. Yanagawa was injured in a race-day crash at the Pacific GP at Motegi, and Pitt was brought in as a last-minute replacement.

Andrew Pitt – 15th in 1’34.415
"We all struggled a bit with the wind, but other than that, it was a good first day. We tried three different chassis settings, and the last one ended up to be the most rideable of all. We are basically trying to get as much weight on the front as possible and to get stability under brakes into the corners. I then did a fast lap on soft tyres, and when I went out with my second set of soft tyres, I went faster again. I even caught up with Tohru Ukawa which surprised me a bit. I was also surprised to see how consistently I was able to keep my pace on normal race tyres, which is promising, too. Tomorrow, I’ll try everything to go faster again – that’s what we’re here for!"

Harald Eckl - Team Manager:
"Andrew doesn’t have the disadvantage of his first MotoGP race in Sepang last week, where his first task was to learn his way around the race track. This allows him to work more on the set-up of the bike and on his riding style. It was only his fourth day on the bike today, and so far, his lines are still a bit too round around the corners, and he’s still trying to adapt to the riding style with the rear wheel sliding on the corner exits. As far as the set-up of the bike goes, the wind certainly confuses things a bit and requires extra stability with extra weight on the front. At this early stage of development, it’s very valuable for us to experience and analyse different circumstances."