PRAMAC D’ANTIN MOTOGP
Grand Prix of France
Le Mans Circuit, France
Friday 19 May 2006 - Free practice
PRAMAC D’ANTIN MOTOGP : CONTINUITY IN THE WORK
AT LE MANS
 A
day characterized by the instability of the weather and the
coldness, on the track of Le Mans in France ; Happily, the
MotoGP class was saved and the PRAMAC D’ANTIN MOTOGP
Team had the possibility to work on the setting of the DUCATI
DESMOSEDICI GP06 “Sat.” on a dry track during
both sessions of free practice. ALEX HOFMANN obtained the
17th general time, while JOSE LUIS CARDOSO classified himself
19th.
For tomorrow, the whole Team hopes to be able to go on practising
on a dry track to give continuity to the work that was done
today. There will be another session of free practice in the
morning, before the single session of qualifying practice
reserved to the MotoGP class riders at 2p.m..
ALEX HOFMANN #66 (17th - 1’37.173): “Today
we had the opportunity to work a lot, the rain didn’t
ruin our plans as it did for the other categories. That allowed
us to test a new tyre, which had positive and negative outcomes.
Tomorrow we will go on testing it, to have a more concrete
judgement. About the track, I can say that the modifications
they did to it are nice, the chicane configured in this manner
is not bad. Tomorrow we will go on working hard, to define
the optimal set-up for the race on Sunday ; we have got a
good direction in which we need to concentrate ourselves and
we are optimistic”.
JOSE LUIS CARDOSO #30 (19th - 1’38.509): “Today
we worked on the tyres. Our official tyre supplier, DUNLOP,
brought us a new tyre here, slightly better, and that allowed
us to concentrate our work on the definition of the best set-up
for our DUCATI. From the first practice session of this morning,
my feeling with the bike, on this track, improved during the
second session. We worked in a constant way and tomorrow we
will go on like this, I consider the set-up of the motorcycle
more important than the single lap time. Anyway, we tested
a qualifying tyre at the end of the session, but it didn’t
make us gain a lot ; we will test another one tomorrow, and
from what says my team mate it should be a little bit better”.
ANDRE LAUGIER - Track Engineer of Jose Luis Cardoso:
“Without the rain, we were able to take advantage of
both sessions of free practice on the dry track. This allowed
us to work a lot, even if the coldness didn’t help us
at all, as, actually, many of the tyres we have are more adapted
to temperatures a bit higher. Anyway, both our riders have
been constant during the whole day, and so we could work concentrating
ourselves especially on one tyre, testing different solutions
for the setting for our motorcycle. Tomorrow we will go on
with this work, hoping that the conditions will remain dry.
It’s quite positive for us to know in which direction
we have to work and the whole Team would like to get the chance
to demonstrate their valour”.
1. Colin Edwards 1’35.170
2. Valentino Rossi 1’35.282
3. Shinya Nakano 1’35.447
4. John Hopkins 1’35.461
5. Casey Stoner 1’35.546
17. Alex Hofmann 1’37.173
19. Jose Luis Cardoso 1’38.509
Conditions: Dry / Air: 16°c / Ground: 19°c / Humidity:
27%
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