MotoGP 2006 - Round Three

Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet remains confident ahead of Sunday's Grand Prix of Catalunya, after finishing this afternoon's second free practice session just one second adrift of reigning World Champion, Valentino Rossi, who topped the timesheet today.

This afternoon's free practice session was disrupted by the onset of rain shortly before the start, with the result that almost a third of the session was lost while riders waited for the circuit to dry sufficiently to allow the use of slick tyres.

Once the track had dried out, de Puniet was quick to find a good rhythm aboard his Ninja ZX-RR, improving his time with each lap and eventually finishing the session twelfth fastest overall.

The 25-year-old Frenchman was disappointed to have finished outside the top ten, but remains confident that, with some changes to his lines through the critical second sector, he can close the gap on the leaders even further during tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions.

Also confident of an improvement tomorrow is de Puniet's Kawasaki teammate, Shinya Nakano.

The 28-year-old Japanese rider finished today's free practice session down in thirteenth position, after problems with the stability of his Ninja ZX-RR under braking lost him valuable time, by forcing him to brake early for each of the thirteen corners that make up the 4.727 km Circuit de Catalunya.

Although disappointed with his position on the timesheet today, Nakano has already identified a tyre that works well around the Catalunya circuit and remains confident that changes to the chassis set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR overnight will be rewarded with an improvement in lap times during tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions.

Randy de Puniet: 12th - 1'43.784
"Conditions were hot out there today, and I expended some energy chasing a fast lap time towards the end of the session. I had a good feeling on the bike, and my last run was good, so I was a little disappointed to finish today outside the top ten. At the moment I have some problems through the second split; I need to look at my lines through this section of the track to see where I can save some time. We're less than a second from pole position at the moment and I'm confident that, with the help of my crew, I'll be able to close the gap further on the leaders tomorrow."

Shinya Nakano: 13th - 1'43.937
"The rain just before practice meant that we were 20 minutes into the session before it was possible to start testing the different rear tyres we have for this round. In the end we tested three rear slicks and the last one felt pretty good overall. Our main problem today was with stability under braking; the bike just didn't inspire confidence going into the turns, with the result that I had to brake earlier to make sure the bike was settled before turning in. This lost me a lot of time. Tonight we will look at changing the balance of the bike to improve stability, and with more confidence in the bike under braking, I'm sure that we can improve our position during practice tomorrow."

Harald Eckl: Team Principal
"Catalunya, like Mugello, is a fast circuit and I'm afraid we will face another difficult race on Sunday, as we did two weeks ago in Italy. Randy and Shinya are riding as hard as ever, but I think we must hope for rain in Sunday's race if they are to compete on a level playing field with our rivals."