Alice French Grand Prix, Le Mans
Practice, Friday May 19 2006
STEADY START FOR DUCATI MARLBORO RIDERS AT LE MANS
Ducati Marlboro Team riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi
finished seventh and eighth fastest respectively on the opening
day of practice for the French GP at Le Mans, after a day
spent working on race set-up in the face of gloomy weather
forecasts.
Rainfall between the two sessions did not affect the two hour-long
MotoGP sessions, held in cool but dry conditions. Capirossi
was second fastest with half an hour to run in the second
session, while Gibernau took some time to get used to the
new section of the Le Mans circuit. The quickest time of the
day came from Colin Edwards and is the new track best. Despite
the overall track length staying the same as the previous
version of Le Mans, at 4,180 metres, the alterations prompted
Race Direction to call this year's layout a new circuit.
SETE GIBERNAU, seventh fastest, 1m 35.628s
"We needed both sessions to be dry and we drew some good
conclusions. We went all the way with tyre choices for the
race, so it wasn't too bad a day. We now know what we have
but maybe we have to see what happens with the rain. If it
rains then it will be a whole different story again tomorrow.
The small change to the circuit has made a big difference
and I am still not too committed on that initial part of the
track. Slowly and surely we will just have to chip away at
it."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, eighth fastest, 1m 35.662s
"We tried new tyres in the morning and the afternoon
but we still have something to test tomorrow, but nothing
substantially different. The forecast says rain for tomorrow
and Sunday, but even if racing in the wet is always a gamble,
wet conditions could help us. Apart from the two Yamahas,
which are very fast, the times are very close. I focused on
putting together a lot of laps instead of working on one fast
lap, to understand how the tyres work over a long distance."
Temperatures: Ambient: 16 degrees. Track: 19 degrees
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