Kawasaki Racing Team - Malaysia

[MadKaw]

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS OFFICE
04 SEPTEMBER 2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MALAYSIA KICKS OFF DEMANDING THREE RACE RUN FOR KAWASAKI

The Kawasaki Racing Team head for the Far East this week, and an intense schedule of three races in as many weekends, starting with the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang, and taking in the Australian Grand Prix at Phillip Island before bringing their whirlwind tour of Asia to an end with the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi.

It's a punishing schedule for both teams and riders alike, with Sepang in particular making huge demands on the physical fitness and endurance of Kawasaki's riders, Shinya Nakano and Randy de Puniet, due to the strength sapping extremes of temperature and humidity experienced at the Malaysian circuit.

But both Kawasaki riders head into this weekend's Malaysian Grand Prix with their sights set firmly on a strong performance, and confident that hundreds of testing laps completed during the winter at the 5.548 km Sepang circuit will stand them in good stead once practice gets underway on Friday.

For Shinya Nakano, Friday's two free practice sessions will allow him the first opportunity to test a revised Ninja ZX-RR engine and exhaust system, designed by Kawasaki engineers in Japan to improve torque at the bottom of the rev range, as well as outright power at the top end - both essential characteristics at the Sepang circuit.

The 28-year-old Japanese rider rates the Sepang track as one of his favourites, and is confident that the latest specification Ninja ZX-RR will suit the characteristics of the high-speed, but technical, Malaysian circuit. The Kawasaki pilot heads for Malaysia from his home in Japan determined to secure a good result for Kawasaki, as he builds up the momentum for his home Grand Prix at Motegi in three week's time.

Nakano's Kawasaki teammate, Randy de Puniet, has been on a mission in recent weeks, to improve both his qualifying performance and his race starts. The 25-year-old Frenchman saw an improvement in qualifying at Brno, after regaining his confidence in Bridgestone's super-sticky qualifying tyres during free practice, and a series of successful practice starts during the one-day, post-race test at the same circuit means that de Puniet heads for the Far East in determined mood.

The rookie Kawasaki pilot likes the challenges offered by the Sepang circuit, where he completed three successful tests aboard the Ninja ZX-RR over the winter. And, the demanding conditions in Malaysia will certainly hold no fears for de Puniet, who is one of the fittest riders on the MotoGP grid.

Sunday's 21-lap Malaysian Grand Prix will get underway at 15.00 local time (GMT+8 and CET+6) on Sunday 10 September.

Shinya Nakano: #56
"Sepang is definitely one of my favourite tracks, and one I know pretty well after completing so many laps there during winter testing. I've had some good results at Sepang in the past, and the fact that we head to Malaysia with a massive amount of data collected during testing means that I'm quietly confident ahead of this weekend's race. The Ninja ZX-RR already suits the characteristics of the Sepang circuit very well, but this time around we have a revised engine and exhaust system to evaluate during free practice, and this could well give us a distinct advantage this weekend. Overall, I'm looking forward to racing in Malaysia, and I hope that I can pick up some good results here and in Australia, and then carry that momentum through to my home Grand Prix at Motegi."

Randy de Puniet: #17
"We completed three successful tests at Sepang over the winter, so I know the track pretty well. Of course, everyone else knows the track equally well, because all the other MotoGP teams were out in Malaysia testing at the same time! But I like the track, and the fact that we managed to find a good working set-up on the Ninja ZX-RR during our last test there in February should stand us in good stead when practice gets underway on Friday. I think it's possible to get a good result in Malaysia, but I do need to look hard at my starts. Too often in the last few races I've lost places from the start, and then been forced to try and make them back up during the race. We did some work on this during the post race test at Brno two weeks ago, so I'm fairly confident going into the first of the three overseas races."

[MadKaw]

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS OFFICE
08 SEPTEMBER 2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

REVISED ENGINE INSPIRES CONFIDENCE IN KAWASAKI'S NAKANO

Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano ended today's free practice tenth fastest overall, but the 28-year-old Japanese rider is confident that the latest engine revision on his Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine will lead to a significant improvement in his lap times ahead of tomorrow's all-important qualifying session.

Nakano started this morning's hour-long free practice aboard a Ninja ZX-RR fitted with the older specification engine, but quickly switched to the latest version of Kawasaki's MotoGP bike, on which he was immediately able to match his previous best lap time.

Nakano's initial comments were that the latest specification 990cc motor, which also features a revised exhaust system, offered a significant improvement in top speed along Sepang's trademark twin straights, but that throttle response - especially out of slower turns - still required some refinement.

The Japanese rider, together with his crew and engineers from Kawasaki in Japan, continued to make improvements to the ignition mapping and set-up of the engine throughout this afternoon's free practice, but the increasingly hot conditions conspired against Nakano, as he tried to improve his lap time towards the end of the hour-long session.

Nakano remains confident that the latest specification Ninja ZX-RR engine will prove an advantage at the Sepang circuit, once he and Kawasaki's technical staff have had more chance to refine the set-up during tomorrow's two hours of track time.

Kawasaki's MotoGP rookie, Randy de Puniet, finished 13th fastest overall, after struggling through both of today's free practice sessions with front brake problems on his Ninja ZX-RR.

With an inconsistent feeling from the front brake, the 25-year-old Frenchman was unable to string together the consistent laps required to collect the data necessary to improve the overall set-up of his Ninja ZX-RR.

Although disappointed to have effectively lost a whole day of track time, de Puniet is confident that his crew can come up with a solution to the brake problems overnight, to give him at least two track sessions tomorrow during which to refine his set-up and identify a suitable race tyre for Sunday's 21-lap Malaysian Grand Prix.

Shinya Nakano: 10th - 2'03.100
"Our revised engine is working well here, and there is a definite improvement in top speed on Sepang's two long straights. However, we've only been running this engine for two hours today, so there is still some set-up work to be done tomorrow. At the moment we're about 70% there with the set-up - it's still a little bit too aggressive out of the turns - but I'm confident that, with more track time tomorrow, we can improve things in this area. We also worked today on refining the chassis balance, which is important at this circuit, as well as trying a selection of tyres from Bridgestone. Conditions this afternoon were very difficult physically, because the temperature has increased considerably during the course of the day, but I was still a little disappointed not to improve my lap time towards the end of the session. Having said that, I'm happy overall with what we've achieved today, and I'm confident that we will make further improvements tomorrow."

Randy de Puniet: 13th - 2'03.418
"Today was not the start to the weekend I was hoping for. It's strange, because the bike felt good during the early part of this morning's free practice session, but then as the pace increased we started to suffer with front brake problems. The braking force is just not consistent from lap to lap and corner to corner, which doesn't inspire confidence at a fast track like Sepang, and also makes it difficult to work on the set-up of the bike, because it's impossible to lap consistently. We've made changes to try and eliminate the problem, but without success so far. We need to sit down tonight and go through the data from today, to see if we can come up with a solution. But, while I'm confident my crew can fix the problem, it doesn't change the fact that we've effectively lost one whole day of track time, and I think this will be difficult to make up tomorrow."

Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager
"For Shinya it was a very positive start to the day, as his lap times on the revised engine were similar to those on the older specification motor. With any major revision to the engine there is extensive set-up work to be done, so I'm confident that we'll be able to make further improvements with more track time tomorrow, which should allow Shinya to close the gap to the top of the timesheet ahead of qualifying. With Randy we need to identify the problem that's causing his lack of feeling on the brakes. We made many changes to the brake set-up on both his bikes today, but the problem has persisted and we now need to look a little more deeply into the causes using the data collected from his bikes today. Until we've fixed this problem, it will be difficult for Randy to progress with setting up his bike for this track."

FREE PRACTICE - COMBINED TIMES
1. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team 2'01.711; 2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +0.310; 3. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts +0.852; 4. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP +0.999; 5. Casey Stoner (AUS) LCR Honda +1.136; 6. Makoto Tamada (JPN) JIR Konica Minolta Honda +1.207; 7. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team +1.259; 8. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team +1.270; 9. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda +1.338; 10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.389; 11. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +1.463; 12. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team +1.644; 13. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.707

[MadKaw]

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS OFFICE
09 SEPTEMBER 2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

QUALIFYING ABANDONED AS TORRENTIAL RAIN HITS SEPANG

Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet will start tomorrow's 21-lap Malaysian Grand Prix from seventh place on the grid, after unique circumstances at Sepang saw this afternoon's qualifying session abandoned due to torrential rain.

But while de Puniet was relatively satisfied with his starting position, his Kawasaki teammate, Shinya Nakano, was disappointed to find himself placed twelfth on the grid, at a track that he rates as one of his favourites.

After three dry free practice sessions for the MotoGP class, the rain that had been threatening for the past three days finally arrived with a vengeance, shortly before an already delayed qualifying session was due to get underway.

With standing water quickly building up on track under the onslaught from the elements, race direction had no option but to delay qualifying again, in the hope that the weather would improve and the track drain quickly enough for the all-important timed session to get underway.

But, despite the torrential rain gradually easing and allowing the standing water - which was ankle deep in some places - to drain quickly from most of the track, qualifying was abandoned after a delay of two hours. Race control cited safety concerns, due to water running across the track at turn five, as the reason for the abandonment.

As a result, the final grid positions for tomorrow's 21-lap Malaysian Grand Prix were calculated using the fastest time of each rider over the course of the three free practice sessions, all of which were run in the dry.

This method of calculation favoured those riders who'd run qualifying tyres during free practice. And while Randy de Puniet is happy that the decision will see him start tomorrow from seventh place, and the head of the third row, Shinya Nakano was disappointed to find himself placed twelfth, and facing a start from the fourth row, after staying on race tyres for all three free practice sessions.

Randy de Puniet: 7th - 2'02.313
"We decided to run a qualifying tyre this morning, just so I could get a feel for it at this track, and that obviously gave us something of an advantage when they calculated the grid positions after abandoning qualifying. On the other hand, the bike and the tyres were working well this morning, with no recurrence of the braking problem I had yesterday, and I like to think that I could have finished higher than seventh if qualifying had gone ahead as planned. I need to get a good start tomorrow, and it's important that I carry the speed all the way into the first turn, as this is the best way of holding the right line through the corner. Overall, I'm happy with the progress we made during today's free practice session, and I'm looking forward to tomorrow's race."

Shinya Nakano: 12th - 2'02.832
"With hindsight it is easy to say we should have run a qualifying tyre during free practice, like some of the other riders did, but it's impossible to account for every eventuality. As far as I know, this is the first time qualifying has been abandoned and this method used to calculate grid positions, but we have to live with the decision. Despite having to start tomorrow's race from the fourth row of the grid, I think it's still possible to leave here with a good result. I'm fairly happy with the bike, and also the tyre options for tomorrow's race, so I guess it's just going to be a case of getting the best start I can, and then getting my head down and pushing hard for the best result possible."

Harald Eckl: Team Principal
"It's unfortunate that qualifying had to be abandoned, but there was obviously a problem with the track and safety is, of course, paramount. Some riders, like Shinya, have been unlucky because they chose not to run a qualifier during free practice, while others may be higher up the grid than they would normally expect. But, I'm pretty sure this won't have a major effect on tomorrow's race results. I just hope that the rain doesn't return tomorrow, as it would not be good for MotoGP if we had to abandon the race because of the same problem we experienced with water running across the track today."

GRID POSITIONS AFTER FREE PRACTICE 3
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team 2'00.605; 2. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.438; 3. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.562; 4. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts +1.293; 5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +1.416; 6. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team +1.576; 7. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.708; 8. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP +1.848; 9. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda +1.955; 10. Casey Stoner (AUS) LCR Honda +2.185; 11. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team +2.195; 12. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team +2.227; 13. Makoto Tamada (JPN) JIR Konica Minolta Honda +2.313