Kawasaki Racing Team - Germany

[MadKaw]

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS OFFICE
13 JULY 2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KAWASAKI LOOK FOR SACHSENRING SUCCESS

The journey to this weekend's German Grand Prix was a short one for the Kawasaki Racing Team, whose headquarters are just 200 kilometres south of the historic Sachsenring circuit, in the Bavarian town of Vohenstrauss.

The ten-day break between the last race at Donington Park and this weekend's German Grand Prix has been important for Randy de Puniet. Time off the bike has allowed the Kawasaki pilot to finally recover from a niggling back injury, which was sustained in the first corner crash that saw him exit prematurely from the French Grand Prix at Le Mans back in May.

The 25-year-old Frenchman arrives in German fully fit and determined to improve upon his twelfth place finish last time out at Donington Park. De Puniet likes the tight and twisty nature of the Sachsenring circuit and, after watching his Kawasaki teammate, Shinya Nakano, finishing within five seconds of the race winner here last year, he knows that the 3.671 km circuit also suits well the characteristics of his Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machine.

Forced to retire from the British Grand Prix two weeks ago due to a mechanical failure, Shinya Nakano arrives in Germany determined to get his championship campaign back on track, at a circuit that suits both his Ninja ZX-RR and his Bridgestone tyres.

Nakano finished last year's race in a creditable sixth position, after struggling during qualifying, but more importantly he crossed the line less than five seconds behind race winner, and reigning World Champion, Valentino Rossi.

The 28-year-old Kawasaki pilot already has his strategy mapped out for this weekend, with the first sector of the Sachsenring circuit already identified as the place where Nakano feels he must concentrate his efforts during practice, and where he can make up the most time on his factory rivals.

The current Sachsenring hosted its first Grand Prix event in 1998, although the layout was altered in 2001 and the 3.671 km track is now a combination of ten left-hand corners and only four rights, linked by short straights. The rear tyre gets a heavy workout at this track, which features steep, up and down sections with its hillside location.

Probably the most spectacular corner on the whole circuit is the downhill, right-hand turn eight, which is taken at 220 km/h in fifth gear and has been likened to dropping off the edge of the world on a MotoGP bike. Adding to the excitement of this turn is the fact that it is only one of four right-hand corners on the whole circuit, and coming as it does after a long series of left-hand turns, it's not unusual for MotoGP riders to have the bike almost sideways, with the rear tyre spinning and smoking, as they crest the rise at the top of the hill!

Randy de Puniet: #17
"The ten day break between Donington Park and Sachsenring is just what I needed to sort out the back injury I sustained in the first corner crash at Le Mans. I was able to start training properly again after Donington, so I arrive in Germany for this weekend's race fully fit and ready to go. Shinya finished sixth in this race last year, less than five seconds behind the race winner, so I know already that this circuit suits the characteristics of both our Ninja ZX-RR and our Bridgestone tyres. Sachsenring is one of the shortest circuits on the MotoGP calendar, which means that we will race over 30 laps on Sunday, but I like this circuit and, if we can pull everything together during practice and qualifying, then I hope to put in a good race performance in the Kawasaki Racing Team's home Grand Prix this weekend."

Shinya Nakano: #56
"I like the Sachsenring circuit, it's one of my favourites, but I'm not sure whether this is because of the track layout or because I finished on the podium here in 2001, which was my debut season in the premier class. Either way, I always look forward to the German Grand Prix, especially as it is the home Grand Prix of the Kawasaki Racing Team, which is based just two hours down the road from Sachsenring, in Vohenstrauss, Bavaria. So, we are definitely looking for a good result this weekend, and based on past results here, I think top six is a realistic possibility. I need to focus on finding the fastest line through the first part of the circuit, as the first corner is one of the few overtaking places on this track, and because I think there is time to be made up around the slower turns at the start of the lap. Because passing places are limited it is very important to qualify well here, and we'll definitely be aiming for a front row start during qualifying on Saturday. I'm looking forward to getting things underway on Friday, and I just hope we can give the team a great result in their home race on Sunday."

[MadKaw]

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS OFFICE
14 JULY 2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

KAWASAKI SEEK ELUSIVE SACHSENRING SET-UP

Shinya Nakano and Randy de Puniet remain confident that Sachsenring is a circuit that suits the characteristics of their Ninja ZX-RR MotoGP machines, despite the fact that set-up problems during today's free practice sessions left both Kawasaki pilots further down the timesheet than expected.

Nakano finished this afternoon's free practice session thirteenth fastest, while his Kawasaki teammate, de Puniet, was one place further back in fourteenth.

While yesterday's pre-event promotions were blessed with sunshine and 30-degree temperatures, overcast conditions and sporadic rain showers greeted Nakano and De Puniet as they arrived at the Sachsenring circuit this morning for the opening day of practice ahead of Sunday's 30-lap race.

With track temperatures lower than predicted, Nakano and de Puniet struggled to find a set-up to suit the conditions during today's two practice sessions, with both riders complaining of a lack of rear traction that stopped them from carrying the high corner speed necessary for a fast lap of the tight and twisty Sachsenring circuit.

Both riders will revisit their chassis and engine management settings together with their respective crews tonight, but Kawasaki's Technical Manager, Naoya Kaneko, is confident that small changes to set-up will pay dividends tomorrow, when the track temperature is again expected to rise.

Shinya Nakano: 13th - 1'24.190
"We were expecting a lot better from today, but we've had a few problems that we weren't really expecting and we've ended up a lot lower down the timesheet than we were hoping for. We need to sit down tonight and look at changing both our chassis balance and also our engine settings to improve our situation. At the moment the power comes in a little bit too aggressively and this makes the bike a little bit nervous and causes some pumping from the rear going into the turns, which nearly caused me to highside a couple of times today. We have some options on tyre choice, as well as some ideas on how to improve the chassis set-up, and I'm confident that we will see an improvement tomorrow. I think some small changes will make a big difference, which, in turn, will give me the confidence in the bike that you need here at Sachsenring - especially for the downhill corners like the right-hander at turn eight."

Randy de Puniet: 14th - 1'24.582
"At the start of this afternoon's session I immediately saw a one second improvement in my lap time, but then when I started to push for further improvements that's when I started to struggle with the bike. Halfway through the session I made a mistake and crashed at turn one without injury, but when I got back on track with my number two bike I just didn't feel confident exiting the turns because the rear tyre would spin up as soon as I touched the throttle. Through the slower turns I just didn't have the confidence to open the throttle when I wanted to, as again, the rear would just spin up straight away. As a result, I was losing time through every turn, which is why we finished today only fourteenth fastest. Overall today hasn't been such a good start, but we will look at our set-up overnight to see if we can find a solution and I'm confident that we will see an improvement tomorrow."

Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager
"Today both riders were struggling with the feeling and the level of grip from the rear of the bike, which meant that they were unable to carry corner speed, nor get on the gas as early and as hard as they would have liked out of the turn. Tonight and tomorrow we need to focus on finding a good combination of rear tyre and suspension settings for this track, in order to instil more confidence in both riders. At a track like Sachsenring, where the bike spends a lot of time banked over on part throttle, even a small improvement in this area can lead to a big improvement in lap times."

FREE PRACTICE - FINAL TIMES
1. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda 1'23.145; 2. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +0.341; 3. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.345; 4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.380; 5. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts +0.531; 6. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP +0.548; 7. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team +0.726; 8. Casey Stoner (AUS) LCR Honda +0.744; 9. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.877; 10. Makoto Tamada (JPN) JIR Konica Minolta Honda +0.885; 13. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.045; 14. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.437

[Nanna10r]

Thanks for the Updates as always Dave1,
I'm tipping Randy's best finish for the year here. Maybe a top 5 for the young'en.

[icebreaker]

Looks like Nakano 4th, Randy 13th..

[ozx6r]

4th!

the mans on a mission

hopefully he converts this 1 into another podium

[MadKaw]

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS OFFICE
15 JULY 2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

TRANSFORMATION PUTS NAKANO ON SECOND ROW AT SACHSENRING

Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano will head up the second row of the grid for tomorrow's 30-lap German Grand Prix, after overcoming the set-up problems that had plagued him throughout free practice to qualify his Ninja ZX-RR in fourth place during this afternoon's 60 minute timed session.

Having struggled all day yesterday to overcome rear traction problems on his Ninja ZX-RR, Nakano continued to chase a workable set-up during this morning's free practice session, with little success.

The 28-year-old Kawasaki rider was lucky to escape injury when he was highsided from his Ninja ZX-RR at the right-hand turn three halfway through the morning session.

Nakano's crew made significant changes to the rear suspension settings ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session and this, together with a switch to a different Bridgestone rear tyre, transformed the Japanese star's Ninja ZX-RR.

The Kawasaki pilot jumped to the top of the timesheet halfway through this afternoon's qualifying session, holding onto pole position until the final 15 minutes, when a hard charging Casey Stoner knocked him from the top spot.

Nakano retook pole with his next flying lap - bettering Max Biaggi's pole position record by half-a-second - but was knocked once again from the top spot with just three minutes left to run, this time by the man who will start tomorrow's race from pole position, Dani Pedrosa.

Fast laps by Nicky Hayden and Kenny Roberts in the dying moments saw Nakano eventually pushed off the front row and back to position four on tomorrow's starting grid.

Randy de Puniet also saw big improvements in the performance of his Ninja ZX-RR on race tyres after making changes to the rear suspension settings, but the 25-year-old was unable to get the best from his qualifying tyres this afternoon and, as a result, finished today's timed session down in thirteenth place and facing a fifth row start in tomorrow's race.

The 25-year-old Frenchman knows that he's made his job tomorrow a whole lot harder by not qualifying closer to the front of the grid, but remains confident that further fine-tuning of his race set-up during morning warm-up will still allow him to put in a strong performance for Kawasaki in tomorrow's 30-lap race.

Shinya Nakano: 4th - 1'22.273
"The struggle we had to find a good set-up yesterday continued this morning, but then we switched tyres and made some changes to the rear suspension settings ahead of this afternoon's qualifying session and the bike was transformed. It's still not 100 percent there, but I was up with the leaders on race tyres this afternoon, and I'm confident that some more fine-tuning during warm-up tomorrow will produce even more of an improvement. Sachsenring is a difficult circuit to pass at, so qualifying near the front of the grid is critical. We were aiming for the front two rows this afternoon, so I'm happy enough to be starting from fourth on the grid. I also have to say a special thanks to all the Kawasaki supporters at turn four, who were passionate in their support every time I came past on a fast lap. It was really motivating, and I reckon all that waving was worth an extra three tenths of a second each lap at least! I hope they will be as enthusiastic with their support during tomorrow's race, and that we can give them a result to really cheer about."

Randy de Puniet: 13th - 1'22.974
"Obviously I'm not so happy to only qualify down in 13th place for tomorrow's race, but I just didn't seem to be able to get the best from the qualifying tyres today. We made numerous changes to the bike during practice and qualifying, with positive results, and my confidence on race tyres has increased with every track session. I'm still missing some time through the first section of the track, so this is an area I will focus on during warm-up tomorrow. We will also try a few further small changes to the set-up of the bike during warm-up, but our biggest problem for the race tomorrow is the fact that I'll be starting from the fifth row of the grid and Sachsenring doesn't have so many obvious passing places. Despite this, I think that with a little luck it's still possible to secure a good result tomorrow, and that's exactly what I'll be aiming for."

Naoya Kaneko: Technical Manager
"We've made quite a few changes to the rear suspension settings of both riders' bikes and this, together with the increase in track temperature today, has had positive results in terms of the level of grip available. But we know that there are further improvements to be had. Shinya's performance on qualifying tyres this afternoon shows that our set-up is right when rear grip is there, but we still have a problem with rear traction on race tyres, so we will look at this again tomorrow during warm-up. Randy went well on race tyres this afternoon, but was unable to match Shinya's performance on qualifying tyres. This is down solely to experience; a qualifying tyre is difficult to get the best from on this circuit because of the long periods where the bike is banked over on part throttle, and this is Randy's first time here on the MotoGP bike."

QUALIFYING PRACTICE- FINAL TIMES
1. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team 1'21.815; 2. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts +0.092; 3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.268; 4. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team +0.458; 5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.514; 6. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda +0.605; 7. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.654; 8. Casey Stoner (AUS) LCR Honda +0.762; 9. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP +0.886; 10. Makoto Tamada (JPN) JIR Konica Minolta Honda +1.051; 11. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team +1.053; 12. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha +1.149; 13. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.159

[MadKaw]

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006
KAWASAKI RACING TEAM PRESS OFFICE
16 JULY 2006 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SIXTH AT SACHSENRING FOR KAWASAKI'S NAKANO

Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano took a hard fought sixth place in today's German Grand Prix at Sachsenring, to move up to eighth place in the World Championship standings.

But while Nakano celebrated achieving his aim of a top six finish today, his Kawasaki teammate, Randy de Puniet, was left disappointed after a mechanical problem forced him to retire his Ninja ZX-RR from the 30-lap race just short of the halfway point.

Nakano got a good start from fourth place on the grid, but the Kawasaki pilot was forced wide at the first corner and found himself pushed back to ninth place as a large group of riders managed to squeeze through on the inside of the turn.

The 28-year-old Japanese rider quickly got the better of John Hopkins to move up to eighth place, from where he was able to see the seven-way battle for the lead being played out in front of him.

Nakano was pushing hard to catch the leading group when he was elevated to sixth position on lap eleven, after Kenny Roberts crashed out of the battle for the lead at the last turn, taking the luckless Makoto Tamada into the gravel trap with him.

During the closing stages of the race Nakano managed to close the gap to Loris Capirossi to just three tenths-of-a-second, but was unable to pass the Italian for fifth place on the final lap, and was forced to settle for sixth, and ten vital championship points, at the line.

Starting from the fourth row of the grid, Randy de Puniet knew he was facing a tough challenge in today's race, but the 25-year-old Frenchman made the job even harder with a less than perfect start that left him down in 15th position at the end of the opening lap.

The Kawasaki rider fought his way through into 11th place with some aggressive overtaking manoeuvres, and was chasing down Sete Gibernau for tenth when a mechanical problem with his Ninja ZX-RR left him with no other option but to retire from the race.

Shinya Nakano: 6th
"I was on the outside going into the first turn, and I could see everyone pushing up the inside, so I decided to stay wide to avoid any chance of a first corner crash. I tried to follow the leading riders through the turn, but I couldn't get back inside and I lost positions. At the start of the race I was having some problems carrying speed through the right-hand corners, which lost me time and meant I wasn't able to match the pace of the leading group. By the middle of the race I could still see the battle for the lead, but they were too far in front for me to close the gap, despite me setting my fastest lap while chasing them. At the end I thought I would be able to catch Loris for fifth place, but by the time I was close enough to think about a pass the race was over. After the problems we had with set-up during free practice I'm pretty happy with today's result, and it's good to be back in the top ten of the championship standings."

Randy de Puniet: DNF
"I lost some places at the start, but a bit of aggressive overtaking during the opening laps put me just behind Sete Gibernau and the battle for seventh place. I felt comfortable on the bike and I was starting to close the gap on the group in front of me, but then the bike just stopped and I had to retire. It's disappointing because I know a top ten finish was a possibility, but on a more positive note, I gained a lot of confidence in the bike today and this will stand me in good stead next week at Laguna Seca. Again, we need to put this behind us now and focus on the next race, which is just seven days away."

Harald Eckl: Team Principal
"We came to Sachsenring expecting better than sixth place in the race, and with conditions better suited to our bike today, and Shinya starting from fourth place on the grid, there was no reason for us to lower our expectations ahead of the race. But then both riders got a bad start, and places lost at the start are difficult to make up at Sachsenring, because there are not so many places to pass at this track. I think this is the main reason why we didn't meet our expectations today."

MOTOGP RACE RESULT
1. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team 41'59.248; 2. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda +0.145; 3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.266; 4. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +0.307; 5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +8.764; 6. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team +9.147; 7. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Team Suzuki MotoGP +16.608; 8. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team +16.648; 9. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha +17.097; 10. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP +17.786; DNF. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +18 Laps

[ty]

not too bad at all