2006 Australian Superbike Championship (YMF Loan) - Round Four - Queensland Raceway

Konica Minolta Honda Day 1 Report

The high temperature of this part of California characterized the first two hours MotoGP free practice on the renewed American circuit. In the first morning session, started thirty minutes late to permit the track operators to remove the oil present close to the “Corkscrew” corner, the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team rider preferred not to immediately force the rhythm to avoid overcharging the left knee injured during the recent Grand Prix of Germany.

In the afternoon session, Tamada could slightly improve his performance lowering his lap time of more than two seconds with a lap of 1’24.339” placing him at the seventh place of today’s combined classification.

Gianluca Montiron – KONICA MINOLTA Honda General Director
“Today’s feedback is positive because, despite the physical conditions not at the top, our rider demonstrated to be of strong character ready to compete again with the top riders even on this American circuit. This positive start makes us confident for tomorrow because today, our Honda RC211V set-up has just started. Makoto seems to have found the right power again to show all his potential, therefore it is the moment to profit from the situation to obtain all the necessary confidence to struggle at the top.”

Makoto Tamada – KONICA MINOLTA Honda Rider (7° - 1'24.339")
“My left knee conditions are getting better little by little thank to the “Clinica Mobile” treatments too. However, I’m not able to force the bike sufficiently when entering the corner. Therefore, in the first session, I preferred not to push too much. The track asphalt was not excessively clean yet; this morning, in particular, in some parts of the track there was no grip at all. Tomorrow the situation will be surely better and the lap times should be even lower. Today we started from the Sachsenring setting, adjusting the suspensions to this track characteristics. The feeling is good and I’m convinced we’ll have a good margin to improve tomorrow.”