PRAMAC D’ANTIN MOTOGP
First Free Practice at the Circuit of Jerez de la
Frontera (Spain)
FIRST FREE PRACTICE AT JEREZ HOME GP FOR PRAMAC D’ANTIN
MOTOGP RIDERS
A first free practice day characterized by quite variable
weather conditions. The morning session was on wet track,
with JOSE LUIS CARDOSO and ALEX HOFMANN classifying themselves
respectively in 4th and 6th position; the Spanish rider at
only one second from the best time, on his home track. During
the second free practice session, the weather conditions return
stable and the track finally dry. Both PRAMAC D’ANTIN
MOTOGP riders retrograded in the classification but are now
at only two seconds from the fastest time, an acceptable gap
considering the weather difficulties today.
Tomorrow morning at 10 a.m. the third and last free practice
session and at 2 p.m. the single session of qualifying practice
reserved to the MotoGP class riders, at 2 p.m.
JOSE LUIS CARDOSO #30 (1’43’’712):
“This morning the track was wet and it has been a beautiful
sensation being in the first positions in front of my public.
In these conditions there are always more possibilities and
I usually feel quite good on the wet. During the second session,
the track dried -even if still a bit humid in some places-
and in these conditions we had some difficulties. We tried
a new front tyre but I didn’t find an adequate feeling
and couldn’t ride as I would have liked to. Everything
was quite different from two weeks ago and this didn’t
allow us to continue on the same line. We will work to be
at a good point tomorrow, but unfortunately we cannot know
which will be the weather conditions. I really would like
to obtain a good result on this track, this is my home GP
and also my first MotoGP race on the DUCATI. We still have
another free practice session tomorrow before the single qualifying
practice session when it will be important to give the maximum
to start the more in front as possible on the grid”.
 ALEX
HOFMANN #66 (1’43’’781): “I’m
not very happy, this morning we lose an hour practice because
of the rain. It was important to bring together all the components
we had collected during the Winter Test, to define the general
set-up of the bike for the race, but unfortunately we couldn’t
proceed as we would have liked to. Besides, we had some new
material and tyres to test but we had to wait for the second
practice session to do it. Even if there were some wind and
humidity on the track during the afternoon, the ground conditions
were good enough to allow us to go on with our program. We
worked a lot, there is still much to do but I’m confident
for tomorrow. In the meanwhile, our distance from the first
riders is getting lower than during the Winter Test: today
our gap was only two seconds from the fastest riders and I
think this is positive.”
ANDRE LAUGIER – Track Engineer of Jose Luis
Cardoso: “Today we made some more tyres and
set-up test but the weather conditions didn’t help us
to make everything we wanted. This morning the track was wet.
Then, during the afternoon, it dried but the conditions were
different from two weeks ago at the IRTA Test. Consequently,
the riders sensations weren’t the same and we had no
possibility to proceed in the way we wanted. Tomorrow we will
see, it will obviously depend on the weather conditions. Anyway
the most riders rode slower today than during the last Test.”.
1. Valentino Rossi 1’41’’613; 2. Loris
Capirossi 1’41’’625; 3. Daniel Pedrosa 1’41’’798;
4. Sete Gibernau 1’41’’798; 5. Shinya Nakano
1’41’’939; 6. Marco Melandri 1’42’’108;
7. Colin Edwards 1’42’’266; 8. Nicky Hayden
1’42’’276; 9. Randy De Puniet 1’42’’455;
10. Toni Elias 1’42’’518; ...; 17. Jose
Luis Cardoso 1’43’’712; 18. Alex Hofmann
1’43’’781; ...
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