The first session of the first day in Portugal saw Andrea Dovizioso achieving a good position by setting the sixth fastest provisional time. The first part of the day was affected by rain and, while weather conditions improved by the afternoon’s second free practice session, they were still far from perfect. Because of this, lap times fell far short of record pace but the JiR Team Scot rider was able to take advantage of the weather to gain more experience of riding at Estoril in variable conditions - something which could be a factor in the race. In the afternoon, Dovizioso concentrated on final race set-up for his Honda RC212V, trying to find a good balance and to understand in which direction to work towards for final qualifying and the race itself.
Cirano Mularoni – Team Manager, JiR Team Scot“This morning has been very strange and not so useful because of the rain but the team was eventually able to find some good information which could prove very valuable in the next two days. Andrea worked hard to try and understand how his bike works on rain tyres and in the dry conditions in the afternoon he tried to establish where we are from a technical point of view. Andrea was pretty happy. He found a good feeling for this track in conditions which were similar to those in which he has enjoyed success here in the smaller classes in the past. For this reason we can look forward to more improvement tomorrow.”
Andrea Dovizioso – Rider, JiR Team Scot MotoGP
Best time: 6th - 1’39”171“The big difference between riding a MotoGP bike and a 250cc bike at this circuit is that the race track has some very slow corners where you have to be very good in using first and second gear. On a bike with so much horsepower, this requires a lot of sensitivity in using the throttle, especially when you exit the corners. This is why we are going to work a lot tomorrow on the electronic engine management system to find a better set-up. I had a good pace in the afternoon and I was increasing my performance progressively so I think we are in a position to do even better tomorrow. Estoril is a race track that I like a lot and this helps me to find a good feeling with the bike. I hope, for this reason, to be as fast as possible in the race.”
Gianni Berti – Technical Co-ordinator, JiR Team Scot“In one way practice was very useful to verify how the Michelin tyres work in changing weather conditions. In fact, in the first session, Andrea was able to use the full wet tyres. When the track dried out in the afternoon, he started with a well-known set-up on the bike and soon found the direction which allowed him to go even faster. We did three medium runs of about half race distance in a bid to understand how competitive we could be during a full race distance. The balance of the day was positive and we will be able to start the practice session tomorrow with the target of doing even better.”
Gran Prix of Portugal – MotoGP – First Practice Session:1) Dani Pedrosa - Honda 1’38”507
2) Valentino Rossi - Yamaha 1’38”547
3) Colin Edwards - Yamaha 1’38”632
4) Nicky Hayden - Honda 1’38”688
5) Jorge Lorenzo - Yamaha 1’38”868
6) Andrea Dovizioso - Honda 1’39”171
