Free practice 1:
The 2006 MotoGP season began with a bang, with Ducati rider Loris Capirossi heading up the time sheets, continuing his good form after pre-season testing.
Capirossi came in with a lap time of 1'56.260, quite far off the usual pace of the circuit, but still substantially ahead of Marco Melandri on the Fortuna Honda....
Probably the suprize of the first session was that of Jose Luis Cardoso, managing to come in third with a time of 1'57.272, beating young gun, Casey Stoner, who is recovering from a shoulder injury.
Sete Gibernau dissapointed the crowd, only managing to come in in 10th place, behind Chris Vermeulen
Times, FP1
1-Loris Capirossi ~ 1'56.260
2-Marco Melandri ~ 1'57.026
3-Jose Luis Cardoso ~ 1'57.272
4-Casey Stoner ~ 1'57.527
5-Shinya Nakano ~ 1'57.626
6-Alex Hofmann ~ 1'58.477
7-Kenny Roberts Jnr ~ 1'58.566
8-Nicky Hayden ~ 1'58.575
9-Chris Vermuelen ~ 1'58.627
10-Sete Gibernau ~ 1'58.655
Free practice 2:
The second free practice session saw the lap times drop dramatically, with world champion Valentino Rossi topping the time sheets, with a 1'41.613, just over a hundreth of a second ahead of Ducati rider Loris Capirossi.
Rookie Dani Pedrosa(if we can call him a rookie
) came in in third place ahead of MotoGP veteran Sete Gibernau. Gibernau increased his position from the first session, and really gave his home crowd something to cheer about.
The top ten was rounded off by newcomers to MotoGP, Randy De Puniet, and Toni Elias.
Times, FP2
1- Valentino Rossi ~ 1'41.613
2- Loris Capirossi ~ 1'41.625
3- Dani Pedrosa ~ 1'41.798
4- Sete Gibernau ~ 1'41.798
5- Shinya Nakano ~ 1'41.939
6- Marco Melandri ~ 1'42.108
7- Colin Edwards ~ 1'42.266
8- Nicky Hayden ~ 1'42.266
9- Randy De Puniet ~ 1'42.455
10- Toni Elias ~ 1'42.518
