The 14th round of the MotoGP World Championship got underway today as the
first practice sessions of the Portuguese Grand Prix took place at Estoril.
Dry and sunny weather welcomed the bikes on track and Kawasaki riders, Randy
de Puniet and Anthony West, climbed aboard their 800cc Ninja ZX-RRs with the aim
of conquering the 4.182km circuit. Both were using the new specification engine
they've been testing recently and, judging by their performances today, it's
offering them no shortage of accessible power.
After both sessions, de Puniet claimed fifth place on the leader board with a
fastest lap of 1'38.287 and a top speed of 313.9kmh. The 26-year-old Frenchman
and his crew succeeded in finding a good set up almost immediately and, with
promising results from the start, he came home just 0.337 seconds off the day's
fastest man, Casey Stoner.
He was also fortunate with his early tyre choice as the Bridgestones he used
in the morning performed admirably, despite Estoril's punishing series of
corners, including the famously fast and long Parabolica. The day's progress was
hugely encouraging for de Puniet and, despite riding with a broken rib sustained
at the last round at Misano, he's upbeat about his chances in tomorrow's crucial
qualifying session.
His team mate, West, was also fabulously fast on his Ninja today. His final
placement on combined times was 14th but that figure disguises the fact he was
well under a second behind Stoner: just 0.773 seconds, in fact. He has still
struggled somewhat with set up, generally getting used to the bike and varying
his riding style to suit its numerous demands but, with a top speed of 313.2kmh,
fifth on the time sheets, he wasn't hanging about. Furthermore, he found the new
spec engine really came in to its own on the long Estoril start/finish straight:
the first time either rider has really seen what it can do at full chat.
The Australian completed 56 laps in total today with his fastest time being
recorded just before the end of the final session: an indication his progression
to confident and capable MotoGP rider is unwavering as he rides through a steep
learning curve and, generally, comes up trumps. Certainly, with times so close
to riders far more experienced on this machinery, West's advancement shows no
sign of letting up.
Randy de Puniet:
"I've been happy with the bike since this morning, when we immediately
found a good setting. In the first session, I did 24 laps with the same rear
tyre and my times were very good. I tried a harder compound but was sliding a
bit so I went back to the first one. I didn't realise my rib was broken until I
got it checked out last week and, this morning, it was a bit painful to move on
the bike; I was much more confident this afternoon after it had subsided a bit.
We'll try to improve the ZX-RR a little for Saturday but it's already very good
for the race. We just need to perfect some little bits."
Anthony West:
"I'm still struggling a bit with chatter and rear grip but I'm sure we
can improve things tomorrow. And I've been trying to change the position of the
bike in corners and shifting my weight around to make it feel more stable. It
feels like it's moving around a lot in the Parabolica, so I don't feel too
confident through there, but I'm not losing much time through the rest of the
track, just little parts here and there. Once we can fix that I can move up and
be more consistent. The top speed down the straight's pretty good and, overall,
the new engine felt great: really strong."
from Kawasaki press
