MotoGP 2006 - Round Three

Repsol Honda

The first day of practice for Sunday’s Grand Prix of Catalunya saw Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa make a promising start to his home race as he finished the day in third place, just 0.199s behind the fastest time. As the splendid Catalunya circuit began to fill with fans, the Spaniard quickly worked up to speed to set a time of 1m 43.036s – faster than last year’s race lap record.

Having ridden here at the IRTA tests in March, Pedrosa was in the unusual position this season of having previous experience of the circuit on a MotoGP bike. The reigning 250cc World Champion made the most of it, setting the third quickest time in both the morning and afternoon sessions on his RC211V.

His team-mate Nicky Hayden, who sits equal on points at the head of the riders’ world championship, struggled a little with grip in Catalunya’s long corners and finished the day in tenth place, with a lap-time just 0.685s from the fastest time. But with a plan for tomorrow, the 24-year-old American star remained positive about making big improvements before Sunday’s 25-lap race and continuing his brilliant start to the 2006 campaign.

Once again this season the weather interrupted proceedings with a rain shower at lunchtime causing a slow start to the afternoon session. The circuit dried quickly in the 25 degree heat and after fifteen minutes the riders were back up to speed, yet the lost track time contributed to several riders, including Hayden, being unable to improve their times from the morning session.

Nicky Hayden 10th – 1m 43.522s
“Obviously we’re not thrilled with our position today and the bottom line is we’re not fast enough here right now. I think we kind of went down a bit of a wrong path this morning so we’ll go back to something different tomorrow morning. Actually I’ve been in this position a lot on Friday and I definitely believe in the guys around me so we’ll come up with some ideas to help us a lot tomorrow. It’s mainly in the long corners that I don’t have enough corner speed – the front feels like it wants to run wide and the rear wants to spin a lot. There are a lot of long corners here and if you’re slow in those corners you lose a lot of time. So we’ll sit down and try to make a big step up in the morning. I think we’ll have a good package come Sunday.”

Dani Pedrosa 3rd – 1m 43.036s
“Today went ok, and we were lucky because it was raining at lunchtime but we had almost a full dry practice this afternoon. We’ll see if the weather stays sunshine. Normally on Friday I’m not so fast so I’m happy with where we are – the fact that I’ve ridden the bike here before probably helps. Still, we have a long way to go and a lot of work to do tomorrow because for sure everyone will improve. I think the set-up is not so bad and the lap-times are good but we’ll have to see how the lap-times improve tomorrow, and see what the weather does too. The conditions are much better than the test here in March, because then it was very cold. There are already many fans here, and tomorrow I think we’ll see the grandstands will be almost full - I think they will enjoy it!”

Makoto Tanaka - Team Manager
“Our biggest problem this season has been with the weather! I’m really hoping that the rest of the weekend will be fine. Dani was able to improve much quicker than usual on the first day, which was good for the local supporters. He put in some longer runs and his lap-times were promising. He needs more machine set-up time, but tomorrow I think he could spring a surprise. Nicky wasn’t able to improve from the morning to the afternoon and we have to improve his rear edge grip, yet the machine balance is not too bad. I think tomorrow he’ll make a big improvement as usual.”

Fortuna Honda

Team FORTUNA HONDA returned to the track today for the first day of practice ahead of the seventh round of the MotoGP season at the Montmelò circuit in Barcelona. Marco Melandri and Toni Elias made the most of the opening two free practice sessions for the Grand Prix of Catalunya, a special race for both of the Fortuna riders. Toni Elias, who hails from the local town of Manresa, has arrived for his home race with plenty of motivation, whilst Marco Melandri is also in good shape after finishing on the podium in his own home Grand Prix at Mugello two weeks ago. The Italian has been on the podium here in Barcelona for the past two years.

MARCO MELANDRI (1’43”500, 9th):
“We’ve worked well during both free practice sessions today and I am happy with the data we gathered. We started out with thye same base setting as Mugello, making just a few small changes. We did some tyre tests and gathered some good information so I am feeling calm and motivated. We have made good progress so I am not worried about being in ninth place. We have worked well for the race and now I am feeling confident and looking forward to being competitive in qualifying tomorrow.”

TONI ELIAS (1’43”937, 14th):
“We’ve tried a few different solutions with the setting over the course of the two sessions. We’ve made another step forward since Mugello and my feeling with the bike has improved. I’m looking forward to the race and I’m sure the team can help me find the right compromise to adapt the bike better to my home circuit. This is a very important GP for me – your home race is always special and I would like to put on a good show for the Spanish fans.”

Konica Minolta Honda

The KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team ended the first day of free practice of the Catalunya Grand Prix with Makoto Tamada settling for fourteenth place on the provisional time sheets with a lap of 1’43.944” realized during the second half of this afternoon free practice.

The day started with summer weather, interrupted around midday by a sudden rain shower stopped a few minutes before the beginning of the second session of free practice.

Gianluca Montiron – KONICA MINOLTA Honda General Director
“The first sixteen riders are all contained in one second. A hard battle is expected for the qualifying session of tomorrow defining the starting grid of the seventh round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship.

Today we noticed Makoto’s lack of feeling with tyres. During the two sessions of today, he tested different kind of tyres but he did not find the necessary feeling permitting him to have good performances in the second and fourth sector.

The changeable weather conditions did not definitely help Makoto. The rain fell just before the beginning of the second session of free practice probably modified the ground grip condition and Makoto was not able to adapt to this change.

I must really thank all members of the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team who, as usual, are giving their best to permit Makoto to ride in the best conditions.”

Makoto Tamada – KONICA MINOLTA Honda Rider
“Here I counted to find again the same positive sensations I had in Mugello during the test held after the Italian GP. Up to now, I did not have the conditions to be able to ride incisively in the acceleration phases when exiting the long corners characterizing in particular the second and fourth sector of this track. Now we have to deeply analyse our data to understand how to improve.”

LCR Honda

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