Motorcycles and news

In this morning free practice hour, the Japanese rider continued familiarising himself with the 4,555 mt track and carried on checking the new Michelin front tyres.

The weather conditions did not affect today riders’ job at all. They could finish the qualifying practice hour of the eighth round of the 2006 MotoGP World Championship with no rain interruption.
The second of the three European consecutive transfers will see the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team rider start from the fifth row in thirteenth position obtained with a 1′37.676″ lap set at the end of the afternoon session.

Gianluca Montiron ­ KONICA MINOLTA Honda General Director
“Even today we were not able to exploit the qualifying tyres. Probably a psychological factor arises conditioning the performance because with race tyres the situation is different. Our position in the starting grid is not one of the most favourable. We have the possibility to recover some positions making a good start as in the last Catalunya Grand Prix. Makoto could then stay with the leading group in the hope to reach a result permitting the KONICA MINOLTA Honda Team to see the continuation of the season in a more favourable way.”

Makoto Tamada ­ KONICA MINOLTA Honda Rider (13° - 1′37.676″)
“Today afternoon I had some difficulties to make the best use of the qualifying tyres. During the previous sessions instead, the performance in race setting was good. When we start using the qualifying tyres, the feeling with the RC211V changes completely. It becomes too much under steering and this leads me to exit from the ideal line.
I’m happy about the improvement we got using the new 16 inches tyre and I hope this will help me in recovering positions during the race.”