Grand Prix (Catalunya) - Free Practice
 GOOD
OPENING FOR ALEX BARROS IN THE CATALUNYA GP, SOME DIFFICULTIES
FOR ALEX HOFMANN
The start of this weekend’s seventh round of the 2007
MotoGP championship has taken place at a sunny Catalunya Circuit
in Spain today with the opening two free practice sessions.
For the Italo-Spanish Pramac d’Antin team, it is another
very important Grand Prix and after the podium achieved by
Barros in Mugello, the entire team is working hard to be ready
for the race in an effort to obtain other important result.
Brazilian Barros got a good lap time of 1’43.683 this
afternoon to classify himself in eighth position, just a few
tenths from the lead time and declared himself satisfied with
his day and confident to improve in time for the all-important
qualifying session tomorrow afternoon.
Unfortunately, Alex Hofmann wasn’t able to find the
right feeling with the rear of his Desmosedici and he experienced
some difficulties to ride, but he remains optimistic to improve
during his second day at the Montmelo circuit.
Alex Barros (1’43.857 – 23 laps):
“My first day of free practice gave us a positive result
and for this reason I am very satisfied. Today we focused
on tyre evaluation and we also tried different set-ups. In
the afternoon we improved the lap time further and we found
a good tyre for the race. Regarding the bike set-up, we need
understand which is the best direction to follow; we made
a lot of adjustments but we need to find a compromise, because
there is still room for improvement. Now we will study all
the data we have, but I’m confident to have a large
margin for additional improvement tomorrow.”
Alex Hofmann (1’44.880- 21 laps):
“We exploited this free practice day as well as we could,
but I’m not satisfied with the final result. We have
a good set-up and I’m confident in braking but with
the rear I still do not have the right feeling. In acceleration,
I am losing a lot of time, mainly when exiting the corner.
During the course of today, we tried only one type of tyre,
but I’m not completely satisfied and I’m not sure
that I will use the same specification for the race. Anyway
I’m confident that we can improve, but tomorrow we have
a lot of work to do to find the right solution for the race.”
Official Time:
1° Valentino Rossi: 1’43.313
2° John Hopkins: 1’43.389
3° Dani Pedrosa: 1’43.391
4° Toni Elias: 1’43.592
5° Casey Stoner: 1’43.683
8° Alex Barros: 1.43.857
18° Alex Hofmann: 1.44.880
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