Estoril GP Practice
BATTLING THE ELEMENTS AT ESTORIL
Typically unpredictable Atlantic coast weather greeted the
protagonists of the MotoGP World Championship today at Estoril.
After heavy rain on Thursday night, the 18-strong field headed
out for the first practice session of the weekend on a damp
track.
Kawasaki Racing Team riders, John Hopkins and Anthony West,
were on great form during the morning session, both riding
with a wet set up. West rode to fourth fastest on the timesheets
on the last of his 20 laps, putting in a time of 1'48.873,
under a second off leading man, Casey Stoner.
Hopkins, just behind his team mate, came in fifth and headed
the field on highest speed when he got his Ninja ZX-RR up
to an eye-watering 307.601kmh. Somewhat heroic, given the
conditions.
By the afternoon session, the surface of the 4.182km, Portuguese
circuit was dry but high winds were a problem. However, lap
times soon plummeted and both Kawasaki riders remained on
promising form.
Hopkins put in two fastest laps, putting him on provisional
pole twice during the first half of the session, and the Anglo-American
ended the practice with a best time of 1'39.474, putting him
tenth fastest and less than a second off speediest man of
the day, Dani Pedrosa.
West took over seven seconds off his earlier time, ending
the day with a best lap of 1'41.572, just short of Marco Melandri's
time and ahead of the Ducatis of Sylvain Guintoli and Toni
Elias.
The ZX-RR began to show off its real abilities in the dry
too, with Hopkins posting 314.5kmh and West, 313.5kmh: putting
them among the quickest in the field. However, with further
changeable weather forecast for the weekend, it may be the
times from the morning, which have more relevance for the
final outcome of the event…
Either way, the Kawasaki squad has busied itself during the
course of the day, trying a new chassis and various settings
to add to their hoard of data; so it was a constructive start
to the Portuguese round.
The team now looks ahead to tomorrow afternoon's qualifying
session prior to the race itself, which is scheduled for 13:00
hours, local time, on Sunday.
John Hopkins
#21: 10th - 23 Laps - 1'39.474
"This morning the conditions were poor and it was incredibly
windy, so we used the session to check our wet set-up, which
went well. We found a good setting at the Jerez post-race
test last week, which offered more machine stability and rear
grip, so the dry track time this afternoon was used to improve
on that. We also had a new chassis to try and this made the
bike feel easier to ride, resulting in our times being quite
consistent. Overnight, we will analyse the data collected
today to build on the work we've done with the new chassis.
I like it here: it's a late, hard-braking circuit and it's
vital we qualify on the first two rows because it's quite
difficult to make passes. I'm aiming for a top five grid position,
which I think we should be able to achieve."
Anthony West
#13: 16th - 25 Laps - 1'41.572
"It's certainly quite difficult here as the track conditions
really aren't ideal. This morning we used our wet setting,
which I felt quite comfortable with. In the later session
the track was slippery in some places but dry in others. With
that and the wind, it was difficult to make any real progress
with the new chassis we were using, as I couldn't feel how
much the wind was affecting the machine stability. Estoril
isn't a track I go particularly well at, so we have a lot
of work to do here. I hope that tomorrow we can have either
wet or dry conditions, not a combination of both, so we can
make steps forward in set-up."
Naoya Kaneko
Kawasaki Technical Manager
"This morning we checked our machine settings in wet
conditions and both riders went well, so I am confident that
we have a good wet set-up. In the afternoon, the track was
dry but the times of all the riders were quite a lot slower
than last year, due to overall conditions. This means it's
been quite difficult to make any comparisons to the data we
already have. Both riders had different chassis specifications
to try today and we have been testing these with various settings.
The feedback from John and Anthony is positive, although it's
hard to come to any conclusions as the wind around the circuit
makes it difficult for the riders to trace the same line on
every lap. I hope the conditions are better tomorrow so that
we can gain a clearer view of how the machines are performing,
as well as collecting data to improve our set-up further."
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1'38.507; 2. Valentino
Rossi (46) Fiat Yamaha +0.040; 3. Colin Edwards (USA) Yamaha
Tech 3 +0.125; 4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.181;
5. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha +0.361; 6. Andrea Dovizioso
(ITA) JIR Team Scott +0.664; 7. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati
Marlboro Team +0.695; 8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Honda Gresini
+0.802; 9. Randy De Puniet (FRA) Honda LCR +0.825; 10. John
Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing Team +0.967; 16. Anthony West
(AUS) Kawasaki Racing Team +3.065
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