Results from this morning's FP1

I've just posted the full set of results (http://www.motoreview.net/news/france06/free-practice-results/) up on the site.

So far the Yamahas are looking good but it's so close it could be anyone's race. If we have another wet qualifying session tomorrow that could really mix things up too... roll on qualifying. :D

Pics from today (http://www.motoreview.net/pictures/races/france-2006/). Here are a few quotes:

COLIN EDWARDS (1st; 1’35.170, 52 laps)

“It wasn’t a bad day. We came here off the back of a good result in China, just brought the bike off truck this morning and everything seemed to work pretty well. Valentino is trying to fix a few things with the new chassis so we’re able to focus on working hard towards a race setting and seeing what we can get. I said yesterday that I’d know after four laps what my objective can be for the weekend and now I can say it’s to win. Why not? Since the test in Turkey we’ve hardly touched the bike and I’ve got a level of confidence and feeling that I know what the bike will do. This morning it worked really well and although the chatter started to come this afternoon when we got more grip, we were still able to push so that’s encouraging. We know this chassis has its limit but we can get it there pretty easily and at this track, where the Yamaha goes well, at least it should allow us to push as hard as anyone else.”

VALENTINO ROSSI (2nd; 1’35.282, 36 laps)

“I’m happy because both Colin and I are fast from the start and it seems the M1 machine is working very well at this circuit. Now we are in the first and second places so this is a very good result for our team and it gives us some confidence. I was very fast in the morning and in the afternoon we spent the time making some tests for the setting with the new chassis for tomorrow. This job is very important because they say it might rain tomorrow, but we have already found a good base, so I’m very happy about that. I like the new chassis and I think it will help us to go faster. It is much better for the vibration and even at this early stage we can see it has a lot of potential. Yamaha have always gone well at Le Mans so now we wait for tomorrow and see if we can keep it going.”

DAVIDE BRIVIO – CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR

“We’ve made a good start today with both Colin and Valentino. Both specs of the bike are working well so this is a very positive thing for us. Today was a good chance for us to gather some data in the dry because it looks as though it will rain tomorrow and we at least know we have a good base setting if it is dry again for the race on Sunday. Tomorrow Valentino will have the new chassis on both bikes and Colin will remain on the standard version but it seems both are working well so we look forward to seeing what happens tomorrow.”

Shinya Nakano: 3rd - 1'35.447

"The weather forecast is predicting a dry race on Sunday, but with rain during practice and qualifying tomorrow, so it was important for us to try and identify a race tyre during the dry conditions today. Bridgestone have brought a lot of new tyres to Le Mans, and I think today we tried them all. Every one was very consistent, which is good for us, but I think we will wait to see what the track conditions are like on Sunday before making a firm decision about which tyre to race. I like the changes that they've made to turn one since last year, but then I wasn't a very big fan of the original first turn to be honest. For me the new layout is better, although it has been quite hard to find the best braking point for the new turn one. Overall, the feeling with the bike has been good today, but I think that we can find some improvements through small changes to the chassis and suspension, together with some tweaks to the engine management package. At the moment I'm having to change my riding style and lines through the turns slightly to get the best from the bike, but I think it is possible to improve the situation before the race, as long as we get at least one dry session tomorrow, which I hope will be the case."

Randy de Puniet: 12th - 1'36.159

"This afternoon's practice session started well; after just a few laps I had a good feeling on the bike and my lap times were good, but then I had a collision with Toni Elias just after the Dunlop chicane and crashed, with the bike too badly damaged to continue. When I returned to the track on my spare bike I overshot one of the turns and ran on into the gravel trap. I lost ten minutes of the session while the guys sorted out the bike, and it took some effort to try and stay cool, and ride smoothly, when I did make it back out on track. At first my lap times were slower than at the start of the session, but then we switched to a different rear tyre and I was able to get back up to speed very quickly. It's a shame I wasn't able to continue with both bikes, as we're running a slightly different engine specification in each, and I would have liked to have had more time to run a comparison between the two, to see which was best suited to the Le Mans circuit. Hopefully I'll get a chance to do this in the dry tomorrow, but the weather forecast doesn't look too promising! Overall I'm happy with the result today; I'm less than one second slower than the fastest rider and I'm confident we can close the gap even further tomorrow if the wet weather holds off."

SETE GIBERNAU, seventh fastest, 1m 35.628s

"We needed both sessions to be dry and we drew some good conclusions. We went all the way with tyre choices for the race, so it wasn't too bad a day. We now know what we have but maybe we have to see what happens with the rain. If it rains then it will be a whole different story again tomorrow. The small change to the circuit has made a big difference and I am still not too committed on that initial part of the track. Slowly and surely we will just have to chip away at it."

LORIS CAPIROSSI, eighth fastest, 1m 35.662s

"We tried new tyres in the morning and the afternoon but we still have something to test tomorrow, but nothing substantially different. The forecast says rain for tomorrow and Sunday, but even if racing in the wet is always a gamble, wet conditions could help us. Apart from the two Yamahas, which are very fast, the times are very close. I focused on putting together a lot of laps instead of working on one fast lap, to understand how the tyres work over a long distance."