SATISFAYING TIME FOR HOFMANN DURING ISTANBUL’S FREE
PRACTICE, BARROS CONFIDENT OF IMPROVEMENT
 The
first day of the season’s third race weekend, this time
at the Istanbul circuit, has just finished. The morning testing
wasn’t too successful due to track conditions, but during
the afternoon both the Pramac d’Antin riders were able
to try different set-up solutions for their Ducati GP7s and
obtain strong results for further improvement tomorrow.
Alex Barros, completed only 14 laps because of a small technical
problem, but all the same, he was satisfied with his day and
confident of better tomorrow.
The German, Hofmann, is very satisfied to have posted the
fifth quickest time in the morning session and eighth during
the afternoon.
Alex Barros (1’56.233 – 14 laps):
“The very positive thing of this day, was that we can
try the bike on this track that I don’t know very well.
I raced only once here in 2005 and I haven’t a lot of
data at my disposal; finally today I had this possibility.
The work we did was focused in particular on the frame and
set-up; we obtained important results to use tomorrow. We
are moving in the right direction, but we still have a lot
to do. In general, I’m satisfied with this day and confident
to have beautiful race on Sunday.”
Alex Hofmann (1’55.736 – 19 laps): “If
I consider my time only, I’m obviously happy, but the
things to improve are still too many, so we can’t be
entirely pleased. We have to continue to work hard. I like
this track a lot, but unfortunately conditions aren’t
very good and I fear they will be worse during the race; but
it isn’t my personal problem, it is the same for everyone!
If I look at Stoner’s and Loris’ result, I’m
very confident, because today they’ve done very well.
For this reason I think with the DUCATI GP 7 we can obtain
good results, if we improve the bike’s set up. As concerning
the tyres, we utilised two different kinds of Bridgestone,
but we aren’t yet sure which one to go with in the race
on Sunday.
Official time:
1° Casey Stoner 1’54.200
2° Loris Capirossi 1’54.979
3° John Hopkins 1’55.062
4° Valentino Rossi 1’55.120
5° Toni Elias 1’55.158
8° Alex Hofmann 1’55.736
13° Alex Barros 1’56233
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