After the good performance in the animated race of Phillip Island, the Pramac D’Antin MotoGP starts the last appointment of this long intercontinental travel with the right determination. Alex Hofmann obtained the 19th time at the end of the first free practice sessions of the fifteenth GP of the season, while Jose Luis Cardoso is 21st.
Both riders, determined to confirm the progresses showed in Australia here in Motegi, dedicated themselves to the tires selection and the definition of the ideal set-up for their Ducati Desmosedici GP06 “Sat” in view of Sunday’s race. Tomorrow at 2:00 p.m. (7:00 a.m. in Italy), there will be the MotoGP Official Practice session.
Alex Hofmann #66 (19th - 1’49.761):“I’m enthusiast and confident after the good performance we made in Phillip Island. The Team is going on working very good, following my instructions and putting me in the best conditions to be able to push at the maximum. Unfortunately, today we tested some race tires and the best we found is a soft one that wouldn’t have enough duration to end the race in good conditions. Tomorrow, let’s hope that DUNLOP will bring us more tires that will be more effective for this unexpected meteorological conditions”.
Jose Luis Cardoso #30 (21st - 1’51.138): “This afternoon, the sensations improved from this morning. We worked with the tires we had at our disposal but as we found different temperatures than we expected we couldn’t make it any better today, we already are at the limit. Tomorrow, we will test more tires and I hope to make a good session of qualifying practice. I’m very determined in this final part of the season and in this GP, I want to obtain a good result!”.
Emanuele Martinelli – Track Engineer of Alex Hofmann:“Dunlop brought us hard tires as the temperatures should have been higher. Unfortunately these tires didn’t allow the motorcycle to be effective as we wanted. Anyway we’re confident for the race. The work we made today has been very useful to select the tire we will use tomorrow and on which we will work to define the final set-up for the race. Right now, the general balance of the motorcycle is effective with soft race tires. Tomorrow we will look for a set-up evolution to allow HOFMANN to make a good race and get some more points”.
1. Valentino Rossi 1’46.981
2. Shinya Nakano 1’47.315
3. Marco Melandri 1’47.449
4. Colin Edwards 1’47.581
5. Nicky Hayden 1’47.610
19. Alex Hofmann 1’49.761
20. Carlos Checa 1’49.889
21. Jose Luis Cardoso 1’51.138
Conditions: Dry
Air: 24°c
Ground: 29°c
Humidity: 25%
Related Linkswww.dantin-pramac.com
Related News
