Marlboro Ducati MotoGP

Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner continued his dazzling form in Portugal today, leading both morning and afternoon practice sessions around the tortuous and bumpy Estoril circuit. Team-mate Loris Capirossi ended the day in seventh spot, half a second behind the Australian.

World Championship leader Stoner, who has topped practice and qualifying at the last four MotoGP events and won the last three races, worked with his usual precision to achieve an impressive pace, his best run averaging low 1m 38s. His closest rival today was Makoto Tamada who used a qualifying tyre to get within 0.039 seconds of Stoner, who used race tyres throughout the day.

Capirossi improved during the afternoon but still has more work to do to get the best out of his Desmosedici GP7 at this challenging racetrack.

CASEY STONER, fastest, 1m 37.950s
"We're reasonably happy with the way today went, we struggled a little bit this morning and also a little bit in the last part of this afternoon's session but apart fro that we're very happy with the settings we've got for this track, which is one of the most difficult circuits of the year with a lot bumps and some very technical corners. We've nearly done race distance on the tyres, so everything is thing going very well, we just need to try and improve the traction for tomorrow. If we can do that then we should be able to push to improve our lap times and also our pace for the race."

LORIS CAPIROSSI, 7th fastest, 1m 38.481s
"I'm struggling a lot here. During the final phase of the afternoon session I was able to find a better set-up and I did some not so bad laps, but we aren't okay yet. The engine delivery is too aggressive, so I'm having a lot of trouble, most of all in the slow parts of the track. We need to work on the engine management system and the electronics. This is a particular track where you need a perfect bike, because if the engine delivery isn't right, then the chassis won't work well and it's difficult to find the problem. Anyway, we made a step forward at the end of the day and we are hoping to improve some more tomorrow.".

Repsol Honda MotoGP

The top 17 MotoGP riders were separated by less than a second on a very close first day of practice for the Grand Prix of Portugal at Estoril today. Repsol Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden looked competitive, finishing in fourth and eighth places with Pedrosa recording a lap just 0.251s from the fastest time and Hayden ending up a mere 0.317s behind his team-mate.

The 4.182km (2.597-mile) Estoril circuit provides the challenge for round 14 of the MotoGP World Championship, with the Repsol Honda Team spending today's two one-hour sessions adjusting the 800cc RC212Vs to the demands of the tight and bumpy track. Pedrosa declared himself reasonably happy with the day's progress, and will be looking to further improve the stability his factory Honda on Saturday. Hayden too was positive after taking a useful step forward from the morning to the afternoon session and will be determined to secure his third successive front row start in tomorrow afternoon's one-hour qualifying session.

Any advantage in the ongoing battle between tyre manufacturers in the year's championship was not clear cut today, with Casey Stoner topping the time sheets on Bridgestone tyres, followed by Makoto Tamada on qualifying Dunlops and Valentino Rossi and Dani Pedrosa close behind on Michelins. With the track surface conditions expected to further improve, tomorrow's practice and qualifying sessions promise to be close, exciting and unpredictable.

Dani Pedrosa - 4th 1m 38.201s
"I'm reasonably happy with how today has gone. The track was a little dirty this morning and so we took some time to work up to full pace. In the afternoon the condition of the surface improved quite a lot and this helped us to take nearly a second off the morning's fastest lap. In the morning we had some trouble finding a tyre that worked very well but this afternoon we quickly found something that gave us more speed, which is good. We must continue to test the endurance of this one to check that it could be usable in the race. We will also work to improve the stability of the machine because the bumps at this circuit mean the bike always moves around quite a lot, so we'll have to reach the best combination of grip of stability. Let's hope we can move things on further tomorrow."

Nicky Hayden - 8th 1m 38.518s
"This was a pretty routine Friday for us. The position is obviously down a little bit from where we would like to be, and half a second is quite a lot, but time-wise it's not as far back as we've been at some tracks on Friday. We made a good step from the morning to the afternoon session and I've got a few clear ideas on direction for the machine set-up, so that's encouraging. I need to improve in T3 - that's my biggest problem area at the moment - but overall we've made some good progress today. The track conditions were pretty perfect in both sessions and the surface wasn't too dirty to start with this morning. That little flip-flop chicane is probably the trickiest part of this track so we need to make sure we're getting through there a little better tomorrow."

HANNspree Gresini Honda MotoGP

The opening day of the Grand Prix of Portugal proved to be tougher than expected for the Honda Gresini Team.

Marco Melandri, who finished fourth in the last race at Misano, started out with a similar base setting and worked hard to adapt it to the characteristics of the Estoril circuit. Unfortunately this proved to be a difficult task and he was unable to ride to the best of his abilities, finishing tenth in the morning free practice and sixteenth in the afternoon. The Italian will be looking for major improvements tomorrow.

Toni Elias’ return to Estoril brought back memories of his first ever victory in MotoGP here last season – a result he would love to be in a position to repeat come Sunday.

TONI ELIAS (15th, 1'38"843):
"Physically I feel better compared to Misano so today I tried to ride without any painkillers and I struggled a little. I’m at about 80% fitness now but I could feel the pain and tomorrow I’ll have to take something again. I like this circuit a lot and I’ve had some great times here. I’m sure we can get a top result here but we still have a lot of work to do. Today we weren’t able to get the best set-up for the bike’s characteristics and we’re struggling mainly under heavy braking. Tomorrow we’ll also keep working on the cycle part.”

MARCO MELANDRI (16th, 1'38"919):
"We started out with the base from Misano and some of the good solutions we found in the test on Monday. Unforunately we’ve come up against a chattering problem here that doesn’t allow me to ride as I like. We’re struggling in some of the hard braking that characterises this circuit. Tomorrow we’ll keep working. According to the weather forecasts the temperature could be up and that could be favourable for us because we went for a slightly harder tyre choice than we needed today. We know that this track is demanding and together with the team we’re working to find the best solution.”

Konica Minolta Honda MotoGP

Shinya Nakano put his Honda RC212V into the top ten in this morning’s practice session for the Portuguese Grand Prix. In the afternoon session the 29-year-old Japanese rider made some overall improvements but had slipped down the order to 16th. He left it until the dying moments before finally moving up to 15th place overall. In the afternoon’s session he shaved around four-tenths of a second from his earlier time. With the Michelin tyres giving the former 250cc rider more feedback than ever before, he and the Team are confident that tomorrow they can make further improvements to the set-up of his Honda RC212V.

Shinya Nakano – Rider, KONICA MINOLTA Honda (52 laps – 1’ 38.761”)
“This has been a good Friday for us. This morning was very positive and so was the afternoon, although there wasn’t much of a difference in actual position compared to our other Fridays. The improvement is that I’m getting a much better feeling with the rear tyre. This is a big improvement and it helps me keep up my corner speed. I enjoy this track and I hope to make more improvements tomorrow. We already have a good feeling with race tyres and we’ve found two or three that are pretty good and could be potential race tyres for Sunday afternoon.”

Kawasaki MotoGP

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 DePuniet #14 - 5th - Best Lap 1'38.287
"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 #13 - 14th - Best Lap 1'38.723
"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."

Pramac D’Antin Ducati MotoGP

The circuit of Estoril is hosting round fourteen of the MotoGP World Championship.  The Portuguese circuit is located just a few kilometers from the coast, and is  reknowned for being a tricky and technical track, as well as having shifting weather patterns.   Due to the circuit’s emphasis on high speed cornering and low-speed flickability, the right balance of the motorcycle and tires is fundamental.  The Pramac-d´Antin team finished the first day of Free Practices with Alex Barros in ninth and Alex Hofmann in eighteenth.   

Alex Barros ( 27 laps. 1´38´61). “I was really upset with this morning’s free practice, so I charged ahead this afternoon to improve my results.  I changed quite a few aspects of the motorcycle, and immediately I felt much more comfortable on my Ducati Desmosedici.  On one of my last laps, I was headed towards a low 1:38, but a small mistake in a curve cost me some time.  For tomorrow, we’re going to change a couple more things and I expect to lower my rhythm about a half second.  We’re looking to be as competitive as possible on Sunday”.

Alex Hofmann (24 laps. 1´39´11). “Of course, that this is not the result I expected.  We worked well on the "set-up", but this is a circuit in which there is a lot of pressure coming onto the brakes and in some zones I find I’m still suffering from my hand injury.  I’m not at 100%, but I’m shooting to drop my times a lot tomorrow and I want to be able to fight among the top ten in the race”.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP racers John Hopkins and Chris Vermeulen were sixth and eleventh quickest respectively after today’s free practice sessions, in preparation for Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix in Estoril.

Hopkins (1’38.471, 49 laps) and Vermeulen (1’39.655, 52 laps) both worked hard to achieve the optimum settings for their respective Suzuki GSV-Rs at the demanding and technically difficult Estoril circuit. The two Rizla Suzuki men were separated by less than two-tenths of a second at the end of the day, as the top 17 riders were covered by only 0.969 seconds, with championship leader Casey Stoner on the Bridgestone-shod Ducati the fastest.

Vermeulen showed a marked improvement throughout the day and in the second session took over eight-tenths of a second from his fastest time this morning. He believes there is more to come and is very comfortable with the way the bike and his tyres are working.

Rizla Suzuki MotoGP has one more practice session on Saturday morning, followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon to determine grid positions for Sunday’s 28-lap race that gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (14.00hrs GMT).

John Hopkins:
“Going into this morning was all about working our way through our tyre allocation with Bridgestone and getting the best results for the cooler conditions. We changed some gearbox and suspension settings because the set-up for this track is not as easy as it has been at some of the circuits recently. But we’ve got our heads down and Stuart and the crew have done a good job in finding what we need. This afternoon we had a couple of minor mechanical glitches, but we got them all sorted out by the end and we’re confident about what we can do tomorrow. If we can continue from how we ended this afternoon’s session we will make some serious improvements tomorrow!”

Chris Vermeulen:
“This is only my second time here, but I do feel a lot more comfortable now that I know my way around a bit more. The track felt slippery to me, especially after the last few circuits we’ve been to. Bridgestone has done a fantastic job here – compared to what we had last year – and the tyres are working really well. I’m feeling very comfortable with the bike and our base set-up seems to be working well. Although I am only in 11th place, all the lap times are quite close so I’m sure I can make up some places tomorrow. We still have a few changes to make on Saturday and with it being so close it will be important to get a good grid position so I can be up towards the front right from the start on Sunday.”

Fiat Yamaha MotoGP

Valentino Rossi was quick to put his recent disappointments behind him today, finding a good pace early on in Estoril and finishing the first day third in the combined standings. Rossi has an excellent record at the Portuguese track, having finished on the podium in all seven of his premier-class visits here, and he was quick to make the most of his experience to find a good base setting for his M1. Colin Edwards had a more difficult day and finished 13th in the combined standings, which were topped by Casey Stoner.

A sunny and warm morning's practice saw both Valentino and Colin lapping consistently in the top four places, finishing the session second and fourth respectively. This afternoon the good weather continued and Rossi put in some steady progress, improving slightly on his time and finishing only 0.170 behind Stoner, with second place filled by Yamaha Tech 3 rider Makoto Tamada. Edwards meanwhile ran into problems after his promising start and was unable to improve on his time from this morning, finishing 0.727 second down in 13th.

Valentino Rossi - Position: 3rdTime: 1'38.120Laps: 55
"Today I am quite happy because we've made some improvements to the new engine and it's going well for us, plus the new tyres that we found at the last test are also working quite well. We have a few small problems to fix, but I was able to ride a lot better today; I was quite fast from the start and we did some good work to find the right setting. Also this afternoon Tamada used a qualifying tyre so in reality we were second fastest on race tyres and quite close to Stoner; this is a good result. The bike is not so bad and it feels like we've made a good step forward. At the moment we need to think about the second part of the race, because this is where we expect more problems, but tomorrow the condition of the asphalt should be improved so hopefully this will also help our tyre performance."

Colin Edwards - Position: 13thTime: 1'38.677Laps: 50
"This morning things were quite good, definitely not perfect but we didn't make a bad start. We had an idea about where we wanted to go this afternoon but unfortunately it didn't work out and we found ourselves in a worse position. I was lacking in traction and felt like I couldn't make the bike go where I wanted to go, which was pretty frustrating. We lost some time this afternoon but we'll have a good look at all the data tonight and go back towards this morning's setting tomorrow and see how it goes. I'm confident that we can find the right way so we're in a position to fight for a good grid spot tomorrow."