Valentino Rossi finished the first day of practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix in confident mood today, riding his Fiat Yamaha Team M1 to second place on a day of contrasting weather conditions at Estoril. The Italian, the most successful rider in MotoGP history at this circuit, was luckily unhurt in a nasty crash during this morning’s wet first practice session and went on to make some good progress this afternoon, finishing the day just 0.040 seconds off the leader.
After heavy rain overnight and showers throughout the morning, the track was very wet for the first session. It was only the second real chance for Rossi and his crew to try the Bridgestone wet-weather tyres and this, added to the fact that there has been no pre-season testing at this track, meant it was a less-than-straightforward session for last year’s winner and his crew. His c rash came mid-way through the practice but he was unhurt and was able to continue on his second bike, finishing second and quite pleased with his wet-weather pace. This afternoon’s session was a much cheerier affair with the sun and wind combining to dry the track out almost completely, and Rossi took full advantage to work on his set-up and tyres, finishing with a best time of 1’38.547. His team-mate Lorenzo was fifth in a time of 1’38.868.
Valentino Rossi
Position: 2nd
Time: 1'38.547
Laps: 43
“I am happy about today’s result. To be second in both sessions, in the wet and the dry, is not bad at all and the conditions were quite difficult! My Bridgestone tyres in the wet worked very well and I had a great feeling, so I’m really happy about this. Maybe I had a bit too much feeling in fact because I was pushing a little bit too hard when I fell! It was quite a big crash and I hit the ground hard but fortunately I am fine and I just have a bit of pain in my hip. After that with my second bike I was able to go even faster so this made me very happy. This afternoon was good again, even if the track wasn’t perfect and the wind was tricky, but this is Estoril and we know that the weather can always change from minute to minute so we have to be ready to adapt. Tomorrow we need to keep improving, whatever the we ather, and be ready to fight in any conditions! Thanks to my team for working very hard to rebuild my bike, it was a big job!”
Davide Brivio - Team Manager
“We expected quite a difficult situation today with the weather and this was how it turned out. This morning it was wet and windy and then this afternoon it had mostly dried but not completely, so it was still quite tricky conditions. It was actually very important for us this morning to have another chance to test the Bridgestones in the wet and we were able to gather a lot of important data and make some good comparisons to the Jerez test. Valentino had a crash but this is all part of the learning curve with the new Bridgestone wet tyres and luckily he wasn’t hurt so there was no harm done. The most satisfying thing about today is that we were fast in both kinds of conditions, so this is a good sign for the weekend because it seems the weather is going to keep changing! After this morning the team were faced with a big tas k to build the bike from scratch between the sessions and they did a fantastic job, so I want to say a big thank you to them!”
Ambient temperature: 14 degrees
Track temperature: 22 degrees
Humidity: 49%
Combined Free Practice Times:
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'38.507
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'38.547
3. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'38.632
4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'38.688
5. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'38.868
6. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'39.171
7. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'39.202
8. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'39.309
9. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'39.332
10. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1'39.474
11. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'39.591
12. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'39.946
13. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'40.055
14. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'41.033
15. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'41.112
16. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'41.572
17. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'41.875
18. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'43.262
Estoril
Lap Record: K. Roberts JR (Honda) 2006, 1'37.914
Best Lap: V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2006, 1'36.200
original article
Rossi Makes Strong Start Despite Morning Upset
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