Nicky Hayden begins his title defence leading the standings.
Repsol Honda Team rider Nicky Hayden is second, less than one tenth behind Casey Stoner. Dani Pedrosa is fifth after his first contact with the Portuguese track in the MotoGP class.
Good start for the riders of the Repsol Honda Team in Portugal, venue of the sixteenth and penultimate round of the 2006 MotoGP Motorcycle World Championship. In one of the most even and contended ends of the season, the North American rider set out today for his difficult task of defending the leadership of the championship with two races left to go.
After taking the lead of the overall standings at the Turkish Grand Prix in late April, the Repsol rider has kept the top position during the last five months and twelve races. With two races left to go, Nicky Hayden and his team are ready to fight in order to keep the leadership until the end. The foundations to make it happen were laid today in Estoril. Fourth in the morning, 4 tenths behind the best clock set by his highest rival in the fight for the title, Italian rider Valentino Rossi, Nicky Hayden and his team made another step forward in the afternoon finishing second, only 5 hundreds of a second behind Australian rider Casey Stoner, who set the fastest time in the afternoons second free practice.
Dani Pedrosa, also showing a positive progression during the day, moved up from sixth in the morning to fifth in the afternoon, showing himself comfortable and competitive from the very first day on a track on which he hasn’t managed to finish on the podium so far. A curious mishap during the 250cc timed session was the 15-minute interruption due to the grating of the tracks draining system that had got loose close to one of the kerbs delimiting the asphalt. As regards the sporting aspect, the Repsol Honda Team 250 riders had their first contact with the Portuguese track today.
Shuhei Aoyama, managed to set the eleventh fastest time in the mornings free session; a positive result for his first time on the track. However, the afternoon session did not work out well for the Japanese rider who had to settle for the eleventh position, fourth row of the provisional starting grid. David De Gea, again with the Repsol Honda Team 250 after taking part in race of the Spanish Road Racing Championship (CEV) last weekend on his 4-stroke Honda CBR 1000 RR, is going step by step in order to adapt again to the two-stroke machine, with which he has set the twelfth fastest time in the morning and the fifteenth in the afternoon. In the first official practices, De Gea finished one and a half seconds behind the fastest time set by Hiroshi Aoyama. In the minor class, young British rider Bradley Smith is showing a constant adaptation and maturity in the eighth-of-a-litre class. On a circuit he had never been before, the Repsol rider set the twentieth fastest time in the morning and was twelfth in the afternoon’s first qualifying session, thus getting a place on the third row of the provisional starting grid. A positive result considering his lack of experience on the difficult Portuguese track.
Nicky Hayden,
57 laps, 238.37 Km:
Id say thats by far the best Friday Ive had in quite a few races, and definitely the best start Ive had at Estoril, so its been a positive day. I came out this morning and had a pretty good feeling on the bike straight away. The team did a good job with the bike and we worked well together today. The bike felt better out the gate than its felt for a while which allowed me to ride it hard and get a good feeling – so well see if we can make the steps tomorrow that we need. Its exciting to be a part of this championship and Im just going to try and have fun and enjoy the ride. Its important and I definitely know what this means I need two really good races. So Ill just try to be smart, not make any mistakes and see what happens.
Dani Pedrosa,
53 laps, 221.64 Km:
Today we had a great practice. We were trying to more or less find the right tyres and the best bike settings. Of course we still have to improve some things though, and I hope to make some further improvements tomorrow. I feel much better now on the bike, both physically and mentally, than I have in the last couple of races. Its quite different to riding the 250 here because the MotoGP bike moves around a lot more on the track. This is a very tricky track and its not so easy to get a good lap time. There are still some secrets to the track which I must discover on this bike.
Shuhei Aoyama,
50 laps, 209.10 Km:
Im not happy today because the position is very bad. I dont really know what happened. I could have set better lap times, but I made mistakes, the track is a bit difficult. Its not that I dont like the circuit, but Im having trouble in getting used to it, in getting the right feeling. I still have to work a bit on the machine, on the tyres, the suspension and things like that. Lets hope that everything will work out better tomorrow.
David De Gea,
40 laps, 167.28 Km:
The truth is that everything has worked out quite well, though Ive felt again the change from the four-stroke to the two-stroke machine, which I think is not easy at all. I got the pace quite quickly this morning and everything went well. In the afternoon we made some changes which we expected to be better but they werent. The most important is that we know what we have to change and everything is quite clear for tomorrow. We have to look at and check everything again but I know what I have to improve for tomorrow as regards suspensions and other changes and thats the most important. The times are going to be improved tomorrow again and I think that I can improve as well. I’m never happy with what I achieve so I’ll try to achieve much more tomorrow.
Bradley Smith,
36 laps, 150.55 Km:
This position is a big improvement from previous races after the first day. Its good because the weather can easily change here, so maybe it will rain tomorrow, though the forecasts do not say anything like that, so it would be nice to improve some more. I left it a bit late and we didnt get as many laps in the consistent times as I would have liked to but I still set the lap time so it’s still very good. Well wait and see for tomorrow. I got a few more things to test and a few more improvements to do. We’re going in the right direction which is good and I’m looking forward to it.
Standings
MotoGP
- C.Stoner (Honda) 1’38.218
- N.Hayden (Honda) 1’38.268
- K.Roberts (KR) 1’38.337
- C.Checa (Yamaha) 1’38.503
- D.Pedrosa (Honda) 1’38.586
250
- H.Aoyama (KTM) 1’42.282
- J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 1’42.357
- H.Barberá (Aprilia) 1’42.778
- A.de Angelis (Aprilia) 1’42.831
- J.Smrz (Aprilia) 1’42.835
11. S.Aoyama (Honda) 1’43.313
15. D.de Gea (Honda) 1’43.825
125
- A.Bautista (Aprilia) 1’46.493
- M.Kallio (KTM) 1’46.580
- M.Pasini (Aprilia) 1’46.843
- G.Talmacsi (Honda) 1’46.845
- L.Pesek (Derbi) 1’46.873
12. B.Smith (Honda) 1’48.228
