MotoGP 2005

The last Grand Prix of the 2006 season got away well for the Camel Honda team today. By the end of the second free practice, Alex Barros was one of only six riders able to get under one minute thirty-four. The experienced Brazilian made the most of the base setting the team found here in winter testing, leaving tomorrow to fine-tune things. Youngster Kiyonari began well in the morning, closing in on the top ten riders as he finished the session in twelfth place, but in the afternoon he was held back by trying a few changes which didn’t pay off as desired. The Japanese rider is confident of improvement in tomorrow’s available two hours.

Sito Pons – Camel Honda
“As a first day of practice things didn’t go too badly today, with Alex showing he had a good pace going and finishing in the top three in the morning and then in the top six in the afternoon when he rode in the 1’33 bracket. The settings he found here with the team in winter tests have worked well and tomorrow he can calmly focus on getting things just right and choosing the right tyres. Ryuichi got away well this morning, but in the afternoon instead of making steps forward as we expected, he found out that the changes they made weren’t giving the required results. Nevertheless the technical briefing he had with the team has helped decide which way they will go tomorrow. I think he can massively improve on today.”

Alex Barros – Camel Honda – 1’33.967 – 6th fastest
“this is a short track and it’s not too quick either, so it doesn’t need a great deal of power, especially in the first three gears. This morning we focused on the electronics to cut a bit of power out of the lower gears and avoid the bike rearing up. We had a good base set-up from the pre-season tests, and tomorrow we will work to make it even better. We need to find some better grip in the rear because it’s sliding a bit too much. The grip from the asphalt improved during the morning hour, but then in the afternoon it didn’t change too much and after trying lots of rear tyres, I still couldn’t find the most suitable one. Tomorrow we will work on this and on the rear shock too. In general though I’m happy with this first day of practice.”

Ryuichi Kyionari – Camel Honda – 1’35.579 – 17th fastest
“My position today doesn’t reflect my potential, nor the team’s nor the bike’s too, and I’m the only rider who didn’t’ improve on the time set in the morning session. It’s my fault because I still haven’t rediscovered the technical sensitivity that’s required in MotoGP and I chose some changes to the set-up which ultimately worsened the bike rather than improved it. We have checked the data with the team and tomorrow morning will go back and try several more solutions. I’m sure we can do better than this because this morning I felt very good with the RC211V.”

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