2006 MotoGP Championship - Round 15 - Motegi, Japan - September 22/23/24

Kawasaki Day 1 Report

Shinya Nakano led the Kawasaki charge at Motegi today, storming to a sensational second place on the provisional grid during this afternoon's hour-long free practice session.

A problem with braking stability, so critical at Motegi, meant that Nakano finished this morning a disappointing eleventh fastest, but changes to chassis and suspension settings transformed the 28-year-old Japanese rider's Ninja ZX-RR ahead of the second hour of practice.

Nakano claimed provisional pole just five minutes into this afternoon's hour-long session, and remained top five on the timesheet until the leading riders started switching to qualifying tyres with ten minutes left to run.

Having dropped down to sixth place, as his factory rivals put in fast laps on qualifying rubber, Nakano underlined just how much Kawasaki's Ninja ZX-RR has improved this season, by snatching second place on the provisional grid with a final flying lap that was almost half-a-second faster than his qualifying time for this race last year.

And the Kawasaki pilot is confident that, with additional refinements to the set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR overnight, he can improve his lap times further ahead of tomorrow's all-important qualifying session.

Randy de Puniet finished the opening day of practice in a creditable ninth place, but like his more experienced team leader, the 25-year-old Frenchman is confident that there is more to come during tomorrow morning's final free practice session.

De Puniet worked closely with his crew to refine the set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR - fitted with the latest specification engine for the first time - during this morning's practice session, before switching his attentions to evaluating two different tyres from Bridgestone. With rain forecast for tomorrow, de Puniet, like many riders, opted to try a qualifying tyre at the end of this afternoon's session, and it was on this tyre that he set his fastest time.

Also riding the latest specification Ninja ZX-RR for the first time was Kawasaki wild card rider, Naoki Matsudo. The 33-year-old Japanese rider made steady progress during both practice sessions, as he and his crew refined the set-up of the new engine, before switching to a qualifying tyre at the end of the afternoon, and recording the sixteenth fastest time.

Shinya Nakano: 2nd - 1'47.315
"This morning we had some problems with braking stability, which made it very difficult to lap consistently. Between sessions we made some changes to the balance of the bike, which was a big improvement, and I was able to find a good rhythm very quickly this afternoon. Having said that, I think it's still possible to improve things further, as I could still feel the rear hopping about when hard on the brakes this afternoon - and you're hard on the brakes quite a lot at Motegi. Having the rear wheel trying to overtake the front on the brakes may look good on television, but it's not so good for a fast lap time. We know what we need to do to improve this, so I'm confident that we can go even faster tomorrow."

Randy de Puniet: 9th - 1'47.982
"Overall, I'm happy with the progress we've made today. This is my first time at Motegi with the MotoGP bike, so I faced quite a steep learning curve this morning, but I think we're almost there now. I tested a couple of different rear tyres from Bridgestone, and one definitely seems to offer an advantage here, but I still need to do more work on the set-up of the bike. At the moment I'm just over a second off pole position, but as we get the bike dialled in tomorrow, I think I should be able to close this gap significantly in qualifying."

Naoki Matsudo: 16th - 1'48.722
"This is the first time I've ridden the latest specification engine, so we knew we would have to spend some time this morning working on set-up. At first I wasn't too comfortable with the engine braking, and the bike had a tendency to wheelie out of the turns, but now the set-up is much better. This is my one and only MotoGP race appearance this season, so this morning I was a little bit nervous to start with. But, once I'd settled into the practice session, and we'd made improvements to the set-up, I really enjoyed myself, and I'm looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow."