MotoGP 2005

Marco Melandri became the fastest man on a motorcycle around the Istanbul Park circuit when the first free practice sessions for the inaugural Turkish Grand Prix took place today. Melandri quickly got to grips with the circuit layout and set the benchmark in the afternoon session, his lap of 1’53.506 some 0.439 seconds too fast for his nearest rival and team-mate Sete Gibernau. Nicky Hayden, who is currently tied on points with Melandri in the chase for the runner-up spot in the championship, was third fastest but he will be concerned by the Italian’s early pace having only managed to get within 1.268 seconds today.

“I liked the track straight away, we found the right way to work from the morning session and I immediately had a good feeling with the bike,” said Melandri. “It felt really natural to ride here because the bike was responding so well; the team have done a wonderful job. I am so happy – the tyres Michelin have brought here are working really well and the lap times are coming without having to push too hard. I want to keep my feet on the ground because no doubt the other top riders will be closer tomorrow but I’m feeling calm. We’ve started on the right foot.”

MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, who sealed the title three races ago in Malaysia, lapped fifth fastest today after a problematic first encounter with the circuit. The Italian ran off track several times throughout the day and almost collided with Olivier Jacque in a frustrating end to the afternoon session. Rossi’s Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards had an even more eventful first day, the American suffering a front-end crash in the opening session before seeing his YZR-M1 machine catch fire in the afternoon due to problems caused by the morning incident.

With Shinya Nakano lapping fourth fastest on the Kawasaki, Carlos Checa showed signs that this could be a good weekend for Bridgestone tyres by clocking the sixth quickest time of the day on the Ducati. The Spaniard’s team-mate Shinichi Ito, riding in place of the injured Loris Capirossi, ended his first day of MotoGP action this season in sixteenth place whilst Chris Vermeulen, who replaces Troy Bayliss at Honda for the second successive race, was two positions ahead of the Japanese veteran in fourteenth.

Sebastián Porto was the quickest 250cc rider at the new circuit, the Argentinean clocking a time of 1’57.408 to overhaul Casey Stoner at the top of the time sheets after the Australian crashed with just minutes remaining of the session. Alex de Angelis also took advantage of Stoner’s misfortune by nudging him out to third place with the second fastest time of the session whilst Andrea Dovizioso completed the provisional front row in fourth place. Dani Pedrosa, who clinched his second successive title in the class at Phillip Island five days ago, qualified on the provisional second row with the seventh quickest time.

Mika Kallio set provisional pole position for the 125cc race after clocking a best time of 2’04.740 with his final lap of the session. The Finnish rider, who trails series leader Thomas Lüthi by 12 points, is joined on the front row by Héctor Faubel, Tomoyoshi Koyama and Gabor Talmacsi, with Lüthi just off the pace in fifth place.

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