MotoGP 2006 - Round Three

It was MotoGP rookie, Randy de Puniet, who led the charge for Kawasaki today, mastering the revamped Assen circuit to finish this afternoon's free practice session fifth fastest overall aboard his Ninja ZX-RR.

Weather conditions at Assen have been unpredictable for the past two days, with intermittent rain reducing track time during this morning's extended free practice session.

With the rain holding off for this afternoon's hour-long session, de Puniet took the opportunity to test a number of rear tyres from Bridgestone, to identify a suitable tyre for Saturday's 26-lap race, for which dry conditions are forecast.

The 25-year-old Frenchman is aware that lap times will continue to improve tomorrow, as his rivals become more familiar with the new Assen layout, but he remains confident that he will be able to match this increase in pace with improvements of his own.

De Puniet's Kawasaki teammate, Shinya Nakano, posted the fastest time during this morning's 90 minute extended free practice session, but slipped back to finish this afternoon ninth fastest, after changes made to the gearbox on his Ninja ZX-RR didn't work as expected.

Finding himself between gears at a number of corners, the 28-year-old Kawasaki rider struggled to find a good rhythm this afternoon, a problem that was compounded by the difficulty of passing slower riders around the new section of the Assen track.

However, Nakano remains confident that reverting back to the gearbox he ran during this morning's session tomorrow will allow him to close the gap on Colin Edwards, who was the fastest man on the track today.

Randy de Puniet: 5th - 1'38.610
"Today we tried a lot of tyres from Bridgestone, to identify a good race tyre for Saturday, and one in particular seems to work well around this new Assen circuit. It's been a good day overall; I have a good feeling with the bike and my lap times have been consistent throughout this afternoon's session. The track is new, and I think some riders will go faster tomorrow, so we must continue working to try and improve my lap time further. I prefer the older, faster part of the circuit, because the new section feels too slow to me. But it is the new section that I must concentrate on tomorrow, as I think it's possible to save some time if I can improve my lines through these first four corners."

Shinya Nakano: 9th - 1'38.965
"This morning I had a good feeling from the bike and I set the fastest time, but we made some changes to the gear ratios for this afternoon and these changes didn't work as we expected. I think we geared a little too long for some of the turns, which meant the bike didn't pull as hard out of the corners, and this made it difficult to find a good rhythm this afternoon. For tomorrow we will change back to the gear ratios I ran this morning, and I'm confident that this will lead to an improvement in my lap time. I got caught behind a slower rider a couple of times today, and it was difficult to find a place to pass them on the track. This is something I need to look at again tomorrow, as it's important to identify places on the track where a pass is possible before Saturday's race."

Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager
"Our aim today was to identify a race tyre for dry conditions on Saturday, because the weather has been very changeable and it is possible we won't get another completely dry session this weekend. The changes to the track mean that we now have a number of slow speed corners out of which the rider must accelerate hard onto fast parts of the circuit, and to find the best set-up for this situation is always a challenge. Apart from a gearbox change on Shinya's bikes, the only changes we will make ahead of tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions will be minor ones to the engine and chassis settings."