The first free practice day at the French circuit in Le Mans, was characterized by undesirable weather conditions that gave some difficulties to Team Pramac d’Antin who were not able to work at their best during the day.
In spite of this, Alex Barros is generally satisfied with his first free practice day, that was very important to get an overall feeling for the track and to analyze different bike set-ups for his race preparations.
Bad luck for Alex Hofmann who was the victim of a harmless fall and wasn’t able to make the most of the hard work that his team had put in, leaving some remaining issues to work before qualifying practice tomorrow afternoon.
Alex Barros (1’36.044):
“I’m quite satisfied after this opening day at the Le Mans Circuit because we have found a good base. Today we worked on different bike’s geometries in order to develop the best for my riding style. We also made some tire tests that have given us positive results; this is especially important because now we have a lot of options for the race. The only problem we have at the moment is my lap time, I have to lower it, but I’m sure that we have a good possibility to improve. Because of the weather conditions today, the track wasn’t very good, and in different conditions, I am sure to be faster, so I am anyway confident heading into tomorrow. ”
Alex Hofmann (1’37.751):
“This is a day to forget! In the morning I wasn’t able to find the right feeling with my Desmosedici, so before the afternoon session we changed bike set-up, but unfortunately I fell after my first lap and I couldn’t continue with the same bike. For this reason we were not able to find the right race set-up. I hope to do achieve this tomorrow before the qualifying session in order to obtain the best possible position on the starting grid. ”
Official Times:
1° Marco Melandri: 1’35.319
2° Dani Pedrosa: 1’35.467
3° Carlos Checa: 1’35.498
4° Colin Edwards: 1’35.626
5° John Hopkins: 1’35.746
8° Alex Barros: 1’36.044
18° Alex Hofmann: 1’37.751
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