bMoto

Nicky Hayden has taken pole at a sunny Phillip Island in a record breaking time. The young American powered his Repsol RC211V to a 1:29.020 lap to lead the grid, in front of Shinya Nakano and Valentino Rossi.

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This crucial timed session of MotoGP qualifying provided all the action usually associated with this raw, coastal track. In sunny 17-degree temperature with the track at a manageable 25-degrees, this final hour got underway with Randy de Puniet (Kawasaki) heading the timesheets.

But it ended with last year’s pole-setter Nicky Hayden (Repsol Honda RC211V) on top again here with another Kawasaki rider Shinya Nakano lining up next to him and with Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) completing the front row. Kenny Roberts (Roberts KR211V) just missed out on what would have been his fourth front row start of the season.

At the halfway point of the session it was Ducati man Sete Gibernau who led the way with a lap of 1m 30.471 seconds. This was before de Puniet upped the pace with an early qualifying tyre fitted to record a 1m 30.581 second time. The front row grid order at this stage was de Puniet, Gibernau, Nakano.

With twenty minutes to go Carlos Checa (Yamaha) rode into the reckoning and onto the provisional front row knocking Nakano back to fourth. Hayden and his team-mate Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda RC211V), still recovering from his Sepang injuries, were nowhere (10th and 15th) with twenty minutes to go.

Events intensified as the clock ticked down, and with 18 minutes remaining Nakano made another bid for pole with a 1m 29.827s lap. Aussie hope Casey Stoner (LCR Honda RC211V) elevated himself to the front row too with a 1m 30.446s lap. Then with 11 minutes remaining Rossi, who had been sitting seventh slotted into fourth, while Hayden scorched to second fastest.

Dani then made it to eighth quickest, but it was clear that the rookie sensation was still suffering from his cut right knee and broken left toe sustained in Malaysia. He would eventually qualify tenth for a fourth row start.

With five minutes left on the clock, Checa grabbed second place from Nicky and it was left to the Kentucky Kid to respond. He did it the best way he could, shattering his own 2005 pole time of 1m 29.337s by 0.317 seconds with the fastest ever lap of this daunting 4.448km Phillip Island track at 1m 29.020s.

Rossi was on the grass trying to respond to this time but he got in one final tour of the circuit before the clock ran down to steal second on the grid before Nakano again reclaimed that spot for himself with a 1m 29.258s time.

This is Nicky’s first pole of 2006 and it couldn’t have come at a better time. He said, “It’s really nice to be on pole and to get a good lap in. That Michelin qualifier worked so good and my bike felt awesome for that one lap. On race pace I’m struggling a bit and I just cannot find any traction. We’ve changed everything on the bike to try and get some grip and not just spin the tyre. Nonetheless it feels good to get a good lap in - we’ve still got some work to do if we want to do 27 of them tomorrow.”

Dani, 10th fastest, said, “Today we worked on set-up and my feeling on the bike was not quite as good as I’d have liked. We are tenth on the grid and that is not fantastic but it’s much better than 15th, which is where I was for a lot of the weekend. I was able to ride quite hard on the qualifying tyre, but I’m losing a lot of time on every lap in the first sector so I will have to improve that for the race. Tomorrow is another day so I’m not sure of my potential yet. I don’t know yet if I’ll have painkillers - I prefer not to but it may be necessary.”

Kenny, heading row two in fourth, said, “I really didn’t think I had a lap in me like that, to get so close to the front row. We’ve been struggling for rear grip, and we made a few changes since this morning. On my second qualifier I thought I could follow Nicky (Hayden), but he wanted to follow me. I surprised myself. I had a really steady lap, pretty smooth. I think I could have gone quicker if I had somebody to gauge off. But it’s only qualifying, and anywhere in the top three rows for me would have been good. Fourth is a bonus.”

“I set a decent pace,” said seventh fastest Marco. “But unfortunately I lost a few vital tenths on a qualifying tyre and tomorrow I’ll be on the third row. We’ve still got a few modifications to try in the warm-up and I’m still confident I can fight for the podium because this is a track where you always fight to the end. Last year that was the case – I started from eighth and fought for the podium, finishing fourth.”

Casey, eighth fastest, said, “I think it is going to be a close race up front. Hopefully I can get a good start, although there is not a big run to turn one. I like the Island track but there is not a lot of passing room, you have be aggressive on the first lap and then be patient as the race unfolds. I usually suck in qualifying so I’m pretty happy with today - the set-up worked really well on both race and qualifying tyres.”

Tamada in 11th, said, “Probably, the different track conditions today are the reason why this morning, I immediately suffered a grip problem in corners and a lack of traction. We tried different tyre solutions, and worked on rear suspension and electronics without solving the problem. This hampers me in the long high speed corners in the second and fourth track sectors.”

Elias, 14th quickest, said, “The feeling with the bike setting has improved a lot and compared to yesterday we took a big step forward. I set quite a good pace but I wasn’t able to build on the good work we did on a race tyre by making the most of the qualifying rubber. Hopefully I can make a good start in the race as I did in Malaysia. I’m confident – I like the track a lot – but I hoped to be higher up on the grid.”

Press Release courtesy of Honda

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Kawasaki’s Shinya Nakano will start tomorrow’s Australian Grand Prix from the front row of the grid, after qualifying his Ninja ZX-RR in second place during this afternoon’s hotly contested timed session at the Phillip Island circuit.

Randy de Puniet will start from ninth position, and the third row, as changing conditions meant he was unable to better his fastest lap from yesterday during qualifying this afternoon.

Nakano was quick to stake his claim for a front row start, taking pole position on race tyres just ten minutes into qualifying. The 28-year-old Japanese rider relinquished the top spot five minutes later, but remained top five on the timesheet, as his Kawasaki teammate, de Puniet, put in a fast lap to take pole position at the halfway stage.

With his first qualifying tyre Nakano was the first rider to dip below 1’30s this afternoon, reclaiming pole position from de Puniet in the process. Nakano improved his lap time again with his second qualifier, but then fast laps in quick succession from Carlos Checa, Nicky Hayden and Kenny Roberts saw the Kawasaki rider pushed back to fourth, and facing a second row start in tomorrow’s race.

Nakano started his final qualifying run determined to reclaim a place on the front row. With the qualifying tyres struggling to last even a single lap of the 4.445 km Phillip Island circuit this afternoon, the Kawasaki ace rode as smoothly as possible up to the first split, before riding right on the limit over the remaining two thirds of the lap.

It was a tactic that paid dividends, with Nakano taking second place on the grid, but missing out on his first ever MotoGP pole position by the slimmest of margins.

De Puniet was quick to take maximum advantage of a switch to qualifiers, taking pole position at the halfway stage in the qualifying session, and only relinquishing it to his Kawasaki teammate, Nakano.

The MotoGP rookie then held on to second place, giving Kawasaki a one-two at the top of the timesheet, before being pushed back to ninth position during the closing seconds of the hour-long session.

Both Kawasaki riders were happy with the pace and consistency of their lap times on race tyres today, and will start tomorrow’s 27-lap Australian Grand Prix with their sights set firmly on a top five finish.

Shinya Nakano - “We worked extremely hard here at Phillip Island during the winter test in February, to provide both Kawasaki and Bridgestone with a lot of information and development data, and today was our payback. From this data, Kawasaki and Bridgestone have improved to the point where Randy and I were able to come here on Friday and be straight on the pace. I think this shows the commitment of everyone involved with the Kawasaki Racing Team. I’m happy with my consistency on race tyres, as this is important for tomorrow, but I’m also pleased to be starting from the front row. I saw from my pit board that I was in fourth place as I started my final qualifying lap, so I pushed as hard as I could to try and reclaim a position on the front row of the grid. I’m not so bothered about missing out on pole; the front row is good enough for tomorrow’s race, in which I think it’s possible for us to finish top five at least.”

Randy de Puniet - I’m a little disappointed not to have matched my best lap time from yesterday, as this would have put me closer to the front of the grid for tomorrow’s race. However, I am pleased with the improvements we made to the bike today, and also my times on race tyres. It’s been a good weekend so far, and I hope we can carry the momentum into tomorrow’s race. If I can get a good start, then my only strategy is to try and stay with the leading group of riders for as long as I can. I think it’s possible, if our luck holds in the race, to score our best finish of the season so far tomorrow. That’s what I’ll be aiming for anyway.”

Harald Eckl, Team Principal - “Shinya did a fantastic qualifying lap today, to finish on the second row, and as the highest placed Bridgestone rider. Both riders have a good race set-up, as they showed with their pace on race tyres early in the session, and this is equally as important as their final qualifying positions. I hope that Shinya and Randy can get a good start tomorrow, because I think they are both capable of finishing top five. I’m certainly looking forward to, what promises to be, an exciting race.”

Press Release courtesy of Kawasaki Racing Team Press Office

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Rizla Suzuki MotoGP endured a difficult qualifying session at Phillip Island today that left its riders in 15th and 16th place for tomorrow’s race. Hopkins (P15, 1′31.143) will start from the fifth row of the grid with team-mate Chris Vermeulen (1′31.288) at the head of the row behind. Both riders struggled to get the optimum balance from their Bridgestone shod Rizla Suzuki GSV-Rs and were always chasing the pack on a circuit where hundredths of a second makes all the difference.

Neither rider was able to use the ultra sticky Bridgestone qualifying tyres which have been so successful elsewhere this year, and as such they both reverted to race rubber to try and better their times.

Today’s qualifying was held in bright sunshine with temperatures reaching 17°C. Current Championship leader Nicky Hayden set the fastest time to take pole position.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP will have a warm-up session tomorrow morning to try and find some solutions for tomorrow’s 27-lap race and give both Hopkins and Vermeulen the opportunity to challenge for all-important Championship points.

John Hopkins - “What can I say? We certainly have a lot of work to do! This is no way what we expected and far from being the best qualifying position we’ve had. We are all pretty disappointed really. This is a race where you need to be up in front from the beginning, so we need to concentrate on a really good start tomorrow. We will look to make some drastic improvements overnight and in tomorrow’s warm-up. We are all working hard to improve the situation, but you can be assured we will come out fighting tomorrow!”

Chris Vermeulen - “Not our best qualifying session. I’ve had my worst two positions of the year in the last two races – both 16th. But I did come up to 11th in the last race in Sepang and I’m feeling a lot healthier this weekend so hopefully we can do even better. We couldn’t use a qualifying tyre today, even the race tyres are not working well around here for me. It’s been hard work but we have made the bike better, we will try more things in the warm-up and hopefully we can make it better again.”

Paul Denning - Team Manager - “It’s not exactly what we planned for! The guys have worked really hard today to improve the bike, and those improvements have helped in our consistency. Our ultimate speed is not quite enough but it has got better so all credit to the team. John said this morning that being in the tow of faster riders makes a huge difference round here and that qualifying would be very important towards getting a decent result.

“Bridgestone’s race tyres here have been the class of the field, and the Kawasakis seemed to be able to use the qualifier to good effect also. But unfortunately for us – and by the look of it Ducati – the compound choice on the qualifying tyre left us unable to complete a lap. Therefore both riders went out at the end on race tyres and did their best to better their times, but it was always going to be a difficult task to make a big step. Let’s see what tomorrow brings – hopefully it will rain!”

Press Release courtesy of Suzuki

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Valentino Rossi will start from the front row of the grid in third place with his Camel Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards just two spots behind him in fifth when the Australian Grand Prix gets underway tomorrow, thanks to a much improved performance on the second day of action at Phillip Island. After initially struggling to find an adequate set-up for their YZR-M1 machines in yesterday’s opening free practice sessions due to the cool spring temperatures, both riders worked effectively with their pit crews to find better grip for the rear tyre - improving their best lap times by almost two seconds and securing prime starting positions for tomorrow’s crucial round in the process.

For Rossi the target is a sixth victory of the season as he looks to pull even closer to series leader Nicky Hayden (Honda). After an excellent run of recent form the Italian lies just 26 points short of the American and tomorrow promises to be another mouth-watering duel between the pair, with Hayden starting from pole position thanks to a record lap this afternoon. Edwards is also targeting his best finish of the season in front of a bumper Phillip Island crowd including many of his Australian family members and friends.

Valentino Rossi - “The team did a really good job today because we had some difficulties setting the bike up yesterday, but today it worked really well and I was able to qualify on the front row, which is very important at this circuit. Because of the temperatures here we are finding it hard to get heat into the rear tyre and we struggled a bit again today, which is why I had to leave it so late before trying for the fast time on the qualifying tyre. We still have some work to do in this aspect on the race setting but with the qualifying tyre the grip was there and I was able to go third fastest, even though I ran off the track on my out lap and then my bike did a small wheelie in the last corner on my flying lap. Anyway I am happy and want to say a big thank you to my team and to Michelin for the excellent progress we made today. I’m surprised that Capirossi and Gibernau are so far back because they have got a very strong race pace so I suppose me and Nicky will be pushing hard from the start to try and escape.”

Colin Edwards - “I don’t think I’ve ever gone from one extreme to the other to this extent in my whole career! From being totally miserable yesterday I’m now really happy and content with our set-up and today’s work. It’s a good feeling! We’ve actually made a big move with the setting, back towards what we had at China and Le Mans and it seems to be working. The thing is we had a different chassis back then and we were suffering with chatter at the time so we never went back to that but the guys worked overtime and came up with a concoction that worked. I’ve really got to thank my team; we’ve changed almost everything possible since yesterday, from electronics to suspension and, bar the engine and the chassis, it’s hardly the same bike today. They’ve put in the hours and it’s clearly worked so I really am seriously grateful to them. I’m really happy with my race tyre and the set-up we used through the session and then the qualifier I used was like superglue! It’s no secret that we were struggling in the tyre area too yesterday so I want to say thanks to Michelin, they’ve pulled something out overnight and it’s looking good. I can’t wait for tomorrow; it feels good to be starting at the right end of the grid for my favourite race of the year!

Davide Brivio - Camel Yamaha Team Director - “It’s been a very good day for us. Firstly we’re all really pleased to see Colin back near the top again and feeling so much better with the bike. Then with Valentino we achieved our main target of starting on the front row and this is very important for tomorrow’s race. I think it’s going to be a very interesting race tomorrow! The race pace of both Valentino and Colin is very good and I think it’s going to be a great fight, as it always is at Phillip Island, with a lot of overtaking. I hope that we will be in that fight with both our riders!”

Press Release courtesy of Camel Yamaha

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Ducati Marlboro Team riders Sete Gibernau and Loris Capirossi look towards tomorrow’s Australian GP with mixed feelings. The pair ran an impressive race pace at Phillip Island today but struggled to turn that into competitive qualifying laps, ending this afternoon’s qualifying session in 12th and 13th positions. Nevertheless both men are ready to fight back in tomorrow’s race at this high-speed venue.

Gibernau and Capirossi were happy with their speed on race tyres, which they also used for their best qualifying laps because their qualifying tyres didn’t prove as well suited to the Desmosedici here as they were to the Kawasaki, which qualified second. Tomorrow’s race will thus be a real challenge for the Spaniard and the Italian who start from the fourth and fifth rows of the grid.

Sete Gibernau - “The qualifying tyres didn’t work the way we had expected them to work here so I had to do my fastest laps with race tyres. My 1m 30.2s best, that was with my race tyre. We’ve done some long race runs at a pretty good pace but we will be starting from way back on the grid, so it’s going to be a very hard race for us. The lap times are very close at this track so it’s not easy to get past here. Right now, we’ve just got to keep our heads down and know that it’s going to be an uphill race. We’ve been running the new-profile Bridgestone as well as the tyre we normally use but we’ve yet to confirm which we will use in the race. Morning warm-up will be decisive for us.”

Loris Capirossi - “I had a problem with my number one bike [a gearbox gremlin stretched the final drive chain], so I had to come in and wait while my second bike was prepared for a qualifying run. That lost me some time and I only did one lap with a qualifier which didn’t work the way we wanted it to work. It’s a pity because we are okay with our race set-up but we know that starting from the fifth row will make the race difficult. Anyway, I am positive because I know we have a chance to do well tomorrow. There are plenty of riders who were faster than me today but how long can they maintain that pace in the race?”

Press Release courtesy of Marlboro Ducati

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Alex Hofmann finished with the 17th fastest laptime at the end of a difficult qualifying session at the Australian Gran Prix. The German rider, who had problems with all of his qualifying tires, wasn’t able to complete a full, fast lap, but is confident in his consistent race pace to score points once again.

His team mate, Jose Luis Cardoso, ended the day in 19th, and suffered from the same problems as HOFMANN. Nevertheless, he is looking forward to getting a decent result tomorrow.

The start of the race is scheduled tomorrow at 15:00 local time, one hour later than normal. (GMT+10, CET+8).

Alex Hofmann - “I am not satisfied. The DUNLOP Qualifying tires I had were finished before I could complete a fast lap. I couldn’t push to improve my times because the tires didn’t last. My best laptime this afternoon is roughly the same as I obtained this morning with the race tires and this validates my position on the starting grid. Anyway, once again I have a consistent race pace and for the race I will be ready to fight and finish in the points. We did a good job today in spite of some problems we had, and tomorrow we need to concentrate on getting a good start.”

Jose Luis Cardoso - “I wasn’t able to stop the clock again, unlike this morning’s laptimes, and I don’t know why. I am not happy because we had problems with all of our tires, both the race tire and the qualifying one. We are too far from the other riders, and I just couldn’t accelerate like I wanted to because the bike was sliding everywhere. I’m hoping for a lot of luck tomorrow.”

Emanuele Martinelli - Track Engineer for Alex Hofmann - “We worked very well with the race tires in the earlier free practice sessions, but not with the qualifying tires, and that didn’t allow us to finish the laps that counted. The aim for these two days was to control the high temperatures of our tires because of the amount spin we are experiencing here. We are doing alright with race tires, and the adjustments we made to the suspension and chassis were useful for us in order to have a good pace race.”

Press Release courtesy of D’antin MotoGP

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1. Nicky HAYDEN (Hon RC211V), 1:29.020, Michelin
2. Shinya NAKANO (Kaw ZX-RR), 1:29.258, Bridgestone
3. Valentino ROSSI (Yam YZR-M1), 1:29.271, Michelin
4. Kenny Lee ROBERTS (Hon KR211V), 1:29.662, Michelin
5. Colin EDWARDS (Yam YZR-M1), 1:29.680, Michelin
6. Carlos CHECA (Yam YZR-M1), 1:29.865, Dunlop
7. Marco MELANDRI (Hon RC211V), 1:29.949, Michelin
8. Casey STONER (Hon RC211V), 1:29.969, Michelin
9. Randy DE PUNIET (Kaw ZX-RR), 1:30.037, Bridgestone
10. Dani PEDROSA (Hon RC211V), 1:30.081, Michelin
11. Makoto TAMADA (Hon RC211V), 1:30.132, Michelin
12. Sete GIBERNAU (Duc GP06), 1:30.237, Bridgestone
13. Loris CAPIROSSI (Duc GP06), 1:30.393, Bridgestone
14. Toni ELIAS (Hon RC211V), 1:30.498, Michelin
15. John HOPKINS (Suz GSV-R), 1:31.143, Bridgestone
16. Chris VERMEULEN (Suz GSV-R), 1:31.288, Bridgestone
17. Alex HOFMANN (Duc GP05), 1:31.676, Dunlop
18. James ELLISON (Yam YZR-M1), 1:31.998, Dunlop
19. Jose Luis CARDOSO (Duc GP05), 1:32.870, Dunlop