NAKANO AND JACQUE CONFIDENT FOR ISTANBUL RACE
22 October 2005 - Kawasaki Racing

Kawasaki riders, Shinya Nakano and Olivier Jacque, are quietly confident of a strong race performance in tomorrow''s inaugural Turkish Grand Prix at Istanbul Park.

Both riders were impressed by the consistent performance of their Ninja ZX-RR bikes, and their Bridgestone tyres, in race trim during today''s two hours of practice and qualifying.

Nakano will start from tenth position on the third row, while Jacque heads the fourth in 13th place. Just 0.4s separated the Kawasaki pair on the time sheets.

While both riders had expected more from their final runs on soft qualifying tyres, the focus today was fine-tuning race set-up.

The 14 turn, 5.34 km Istanbul ''Otodrom'' has proved a challenging addition to the MotoGP schedule, with its undulating layout and creative combination of fast and slow sections.

The fastest corner, the 260 kph flat-in-fifth gear turn 11, was the scene of a scary moment for Jacque in qualifying.

A huge rear-end slide sent the Frenchman spearing off the circuit at top speed, although he was able to regain control without crashing. After returning to the pit box Jacque was forced to switch to his spare Ninja ZX-RR for his final fast laps, after technicians found a small crack in an exhaust pipe.

Jacque used this morning''s free practice session to confirm his comfortable base set-up, after losing direction after changes yesterday afternoon.

Meanwhile, Nakano posted his fastest lap with three minutes remaining and charged into seventh before finishing the session in tenth position.

Today also saw a dramatic increase in top speeds as both Nakano and Jacque perfected their lines and set-up through the ultra-fast turn 11, with 312 kph clocked in the speed trap on the following short straight.

Before qualifying it was confirmed that Nakano would again spearhead Kawaski''s factory MotoGP team for the 2006 season, his third year with the Green Team.

Shinya Nakano: #56 - Tenth - 1''54.023
''For sure I expected more in qualifying, but I have a very consistent race set-up. I did many laps today on a race tyre and it appears Bridgestone are competitive at this track. Everything was okay with the bike and tyres for my qualifying runs, but the fast times just did not come - I pushed hard and made no mistakes, but this was the best I could do. I understand the track much better now and we only made small changes today, just to make the rear-end more stable. The bike is very good in race trim. The track is very enjoyable, but there are difficult sections, the downhill part after turn one and the final, slow first-gear complex is very tricky.''

Olivier Jacque: #19 - Thirteenth - 1''54.407
''That was scary; sideways and off the track at 260 kph in the fast right-hander! That was on the second of my qualifying tyres and the feeling wasn''t perfect, and then I had to change bikes because of a small technical problem. I was hoping to be further up the grid, but on my last run on a soft tyre, on the spare bike, I made a small mistake in the final section of the lap. It''s a shame, but I have a good bike and tyre for the race - this is the most important thing - and we were back on the right set-up today.''

Harald Eckl: Team Manager
''I''m surprised that we are not closer to the leading times, especially as yesterday it appeared that our bike, tyres and set-up were quite competitive for this new circuit. We need to understand why we did not make more progress compared to others in qualifying - I thought Shinya could have been top six this afternoon. But Bridgestone have very competitive tyres here and I think Shinya can race for a top eight finish.''

QUALIFYING PRACTICE 1 - FINAL TIMES
1. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Movistar Honda MotoGP 1''52.334; 2. Marco Melandri (ITA) Movistar Honda MotoGP +0.129; 3. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda +0.642; 4. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Gauloises Yamaha Team +0.843; 5. Colin Edwards (USA) Gauloises Yamaha Team +0.885; 6. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Yamaha Team +0.896; 7. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda +1.333; 8. Alex Barros (BRA) Camel Honda +1.385; 9. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team +1.502; 10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team +1.689; 11. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Camel Honda +1.883; 12. Max Biaggi (ITA) Repsol Honda +2.024; 13. Olivier Jacque (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +2.073

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