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

Dorna Day 1 Report

As the MotoGP riders took to the track at Estoril this morning for the penultimate set of free practice sessions this season, the hype surrounding Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi’s championship fight was at a frenzy. However, it was the young winner of last year’s 250cc race who showed that, with the phenomenal level of talent in MotoGP, a straight battle can never be guaranteed.

Things appeared to be going as per the script when Valentino Rossi topped the leaderboard this morning in the opening session, at a track where he is a firm favourite and a four-time winner in MotoGP. Times were slow for all riders as they adjusted to the new asphalt on parts of the track, although by the second session they were soon notching up the expected speeds.

However eventually it was Stoner who completed day one of practices for the bwin.com Grande Premio de Portugal at the top of the timesheets, after putting in the fastest lap of the day in the final session.

The Australian’s 1’38.218 lap put him ahead of championship leader Nicky Hayden, who would benefit from a front row start as he looks to seal his first World Championship. Impressive rides from both Kenny Roberts Jr. and Carlos Checa brought them behind the two Honda riders.

Dani Pedrosa, Colin Edwards and Sete Gibernau all improved on their morning times to put themselves ahead of Rossi, who dropped down the combined classification into eighth position.

John Hopkins and Shinya Nakano were the other riders in the top ten, whilst Marco Melandri suffered an early crash and was taken to the medical centre. The Fortuna Honda rider was treated for a contusion of the left knee and given a precautionary scan at a local hospital, although he should be ready to take to the track tomorrow for the opening practice.

The Ilmor team were hoping to kick off their MotoGP challenge with a bang, and Garry McCoy fulfilled their wishes as he impressed on their first outing in the series. Despite being around 25km/h down on the straights the Australian and his new 800cc machine finished the day in 19th spot ahead of MotoGP regular Jose Luis Cardoso on the Ducati.

KTM rider Hiroshi Aoyama put himself on provisional pole for Sunday’s 250cc race in Estoril after a delayed session due to track repairs, putting in a best time of 1’42.282. Early on, a metal grille on the kerb became exposed, with several riders keeping their bikes upright despite taking evasive action. After the red flag was shown, there was a 15-minute wait before the eventual restart.

Aprilia duo Jorge Lorenzo and Hector Barbera, the latter fastest this morning, completed the top three. Fourth fastest was Alex de Angelis, ahead of Cardion AB’s Jakub Smrz.

Roberto Locatelli also finished ahead of the fastest Honda rider, Andrea Dovizioso, who today announced his continuation with his Humangest team for the 2007 season backed by Honda. Marco Simoncelli, Yuki Takahashi and Aleix Espargaro rounded off the fastest ten of the day in the quarter-litre category.

New World Champion Alvaro Bautista took provisional pole for the 125cc race this afternoon, with a fastest time of 1’46.493.

Riding in a new ‘Spanish-flag’ livery, Bautista also went quickest in this morning’s session, but had a few problems during the early part of the second session and was forced to stay in his pit garage for nearly ten minutes. Mika Kallio came in second, little over a tenth behind Bautista, whilst Mattia Pasini and Gabor Talmacsi completed the provisional front row.

Lukas Pesek was fifth, followed by Julian Simon, Hector Faubel and Fabrizio Lai. Tomoyoshi Koyama and Lorenzo Zanetti completed the top ten.

Mateo Tunez suffered a hard crash during the second session as he collided with substitute rider Dominique Aergeter, with Mike di Meglio and Sergio Gadea escaping with light crashes in separate incidents.