Repsol riders take on their rivals on the first working day at the Circuit de Catalunya.
Randy de Puniet, second fastest in the 250cc. Hayden and Porto fourth in MotoGP and the 250cc. Pasini, Lorenzo and Melandri fastest in their classes.
Summer temperatures and a significant crowd on the first practice day of the Catalunya GP. As usual, the riders have used this day to test tyres and work on the set-up of their bikes preparing for the definitive practice sessions to be held tomorrow. Randy de Puniet, second in the 250cc despite a crash, was the Repsol rider with the best performance, although Hayden and Porto managed to do a good with the settings of their machines as well.
The North American rider was happy with today’s result. He managed to set constant lap times and got good results after the tyre tests. Max Biaggi’s working plan was a bit delayed due to a crash, that fortunately had no consequences. The fastest time of the class was clocked by Italian rider Melandri, ahead of Tamada and Edwards. Little differences in the 250cc lap times with Lorenzo taking the provisional pole position ahead of De Puniet, De Angelis and Porto. Both Repsol riders are satisfied in general terms with today’s results and the behaviour of their bikes. De Puniet’s crash, without consequences, happened in the last lap, while trying to improve the time set by Lorenzo. Matia Passini was the fastest rider in an eventful 125cc practice session, with several crashes. The Italian rider qualified ahead of Mika Kallio and Marco Simoncelli. Héctor Faubel has not completely recovered from the crash suffered in Mugello, but he had a good performance in the practice session, managing to the eighth fastest time after only a few laps. His teammate Sergio Gadea finished twelfth.
Repsol rider´s comments:
MotoGP. Nicky Hayden
First free practice 4th, 1’43.928, 25 laps
Second free practice 4th, 1’43.638, 30 laps
‘Pretty happy with the way we’ve started out. It’s higher than we’ve begun for the last few weekend’s. We need to try and make the next step tomorrow but today we did a log run – 15 laps – and it all felt pretty positive with a good rhythm. Overall the guys have done a good job. I know Catalunya pretty well compared to some tracks as we test quite a bit here. I like the new surface – it’s real smooth. Today the conditions have changed quite a bit between the sessions and we seem to have found some petty good settings for both conditions.’
MotoGP. Max Biaggi
First free practice 12th, 1’44.720, 24 laps
Second free practice 7th, 1’44.145, 25 laps
‘It’s been a hard working day, but a positive one. We focused on racing set-up, because here it’s going to be a long and pretty hot race. So, the tyres will be very stressed. For this reason we’ve been riding used tires only. We also wanted to improve the rear suspension, working on springs and hydraulic set-up. There is a big step forward to take for us, especially in the corners where we still have a little rock and roll feeling. The team is working well and tomorrow we can do good.’
250. Randy De Puniet
First free practice 5th, 1’47.691, 23 laps
First qualifying practice 2nd, 1’46.825, 20 laps
‘I like this circuit a lot and I also feel well. I’ve won here twice and that always helps a lot. We had a good pace both in the morning and in this afternoon’s free practice. I would have liked to set the pole, but in the end Lorenzo managed to be faster than me. Second is OK for the first day and we have a good set-up for the bike. I made a mistake at the end of the session and crashed, but it wasn’t serious. We’ll keep on working tomorrow to see if we manage to improve a bit more for the race on Sunday.’
250. Sebastián Porto
First free practice 8th, 1’48.286, 21 laps
First qualifying practice 4th, 1’47.411, 18 laps
‘I’m not really happy although we’ve set the fourth fastest time. We’ve tested a lot of new things, among others a new chassis, which doesn’t really work well, therefore the bike’s performance has been lower. We went back to the first settings in the afternoon and finally found the right path to follow so I hope that tomorrow everything will work out much better. The engine is working well, but we loose a couple of tenths in the fast section of the circuit. If we manage to improve these aspects we’ll gain a lot for tomorrow.’
250. Dani Pedrosa
First free practice 7th, 1’48.167, 21 laps
First qualifying practice 8th, 1’47.779, 18 laps
‘Things didn’t work out very well today; we’ve been quite in the back, both in the morning and in the afternoon. We’ve had some problems with the tyres and the feelings I get from the bike, and now we’re trying to solve them. I have specially problems in T4, but I really don’t feel comfortable on the rest of the circuit. The one-second gap to the fastest time will be worrying if we don’t manage to solve the problems. In addition we didn’t plan the work during the practice well, we didn’t do a good job in the garage. I stopped in the end, but it was too late and it didn’t work as it should. Let’s hope that we’ll be able to solve the problems for tomorrow and make a better plan for the practice and the work in the garage, to make better use of the time and getter a better place at the end of the qualifying practice.’
125. Héctor Faubel
First free practice 10th, 1’53.794, 14 laps
First qualifying practice 7th, 1’53.242, 8 laps ‘The feelings I have on the bike are still slightly strange, but I have to say that I have improved a lot since last Sunday. The main problem is that I am not at 100 percent, but everything else is perfect: the engine is working well and the set-up and chassis are not bad at all. I hope to keep improving as the weekend progresses and have a chance of winning on Sunday.’
Standings:
125
- M.Passini (Aprilia) 1.52.009
- M.Kallio (KTM) 1.52.319
- M.Simoncelli (Aprilia) 1.52.397
- T.Koyama (Honda) 1.52.646
- G.Talmacsi (KTM) 1.53.098
8. H.Faubel (Aprilia) 1.53.242
12. S.Gadea (Aprilia) 1.53.628
250
- J.Lorenzo (Honda) 1.46.748
- R.de Puniet (Aprilia) 1.46.825
- A.de Angelis (Aprilia) 1.47.090
- S.Porto (Aprilia) 1.47.41
15. A.Dovizioso (Honda) 1.47.495
MotoGP
- M.Melandri (Honda) 1.43.317
- M.Tamada (Honda) 1.43.408
- C.Edwards (Yamaha) 1.43.467
- N.Hayden (Honda) 1.43.638
- V.Rossi (Yamaha) 1.43.652
10. M.Biaggi (Honda) 1.44.145
