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

Repsol Honda Day 1 Report

Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa began practice today for the third Grand Prix in as many weekends. The Twin Ring Motegi circuit hosts Sunday’s Grand Prix of Japan and the Repsol Honda riders started the process of honing set-up and choosing race tyres for the team’s home race.

Hayden, who holds a 21-point lead in the riders’ world championship, ended the day fifth on the timesheets with a lap-time of 1m 47.610s. The 25-year-old American ace wasn’t entirely satisfied with this and pledged to work with his team to improve his pace and consistency ahead of tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions.

Dani Pedrosa spent the day acclimatising to the demands of a MotoGP bike at Motegi’s stop-start layout. The Spaniard resisted the temptation to go for outright lap-times with a sticky tyre, and this was reflected in his finishing position of 15th. Still recovering from an injured right leg, Pedrosa’s pace looks certain to increase tomorrow at one of his favourite race tracks.

As with last weekend’s Australian Grand Prix, the weather may again play a part in proceedings this weekend. Tomorrow’s qualifying session should remain dry but Typhoon 14, currently moving across the Pacific to the east of Japan, threatens to bring unstable conditions, with rain and strong winds a distinct possibility for Sunday’s 24-lap race.

Nicky Hayden 5th – 1m 47.610s
“I struggled a lot at this track last year and I’ve come out today and almost picked up where I left off unfortunately. It wasn’t really that great a day. My rhythm isn’t very good and my pace, consistently, is not as fast as I’d like, so we’ve got a lot of work to do tonight because this is such an important race. I’ve got a lot of fans rooting for me here and I went to visit the local US Air Force base on Wednesday and a lot of those guys are coming out to support me. So I definitely want to get things turned around for tomorrow and pick up my speed a lot. I really trust in the guys in my team so we’ll be working hard to improve things.”

Dani Pedrosa 15th – 1m 48.389s
“Today we just wanted to get into the rhythm of this track. It was important to concentrate on testing race tyres today because the weather forecast is not looking so nice which means we must use the dry track time as usefully as possible. It’s my first time at Motegi on a MotoGP bike and there are some differences to the 250cc – mainly on the straights because they feel much shorter and everything arrives much quicker. Plus you arrive at the hard braking zones faster. My leg feels quite a lot better but I still have some pain and I must work to keep the flexibility. I like this track so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

Makoto Tanaka - Team Manager
“At Motegi we have increased pressure and strain because it’s our home Grand Prix. Luckily both our riders are very understanding that this is a very important race for us. Nicky’s time today is fifth which is not ideal, but the feeling from his chassis is better than usual. We have a lot of room for improvement in the bike’s set-up so his time should improve significantly, and his racing spirit is really powerful. The effect of Dani’s injuries is lessening and the pace at which he’s speeding up is increasing. At the end of the session the other riders improved their times with soft tyres, but Dani continued to work on race set-up with race tyres so his position is not representative. This is one of his favourite circuits and I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do tomorrow. The general pace today was very high and I think tomorrow will be an exciting fight for everyone.”