NAKANO OVERCOMES CHATTER TO QUALIFY NINTH
07 April 2006 - Kawasaki Racing

MOTOGP WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2006 KAWASAKI RACING TEAM

Kawasaki''s Shinya Nakano bounced back after a difficult two days at the Losail International circuit, snatching ninth place on the grid for tomorrow''s 22-lap Grand Prix of Qatar during the final seconds of this afternoon''s qualifying session.

Nakano has struggled all weekend to find a confidence-inspiring set-up on his Ninja ZX-RR. After a disappointing opening day, The Kawasaki ace was confident that small changes to set-up would reap big benefits in terms of lap times, but despite the best efforts of his crew, the chatter problems that hampered the 28-year-old Japanese rider yesterday were still in evidence during practice and qualifying today.

Nakano battled on throughout this afternoon''s hour long timed session, but was still lying in a lowly 14th position with just ten minutes remaining. A change to a rear qualifying tyre reduced the effect of the chatter enough to allow Nakano to push for a fast lap right at the end of the session, to move up five places and secure a third row start for tomorrow''s race.

Despite the improvement, Nakano is under no illusions about how tough tomorrow''s race will be if his crew cannot find a solution to the problems overnight.

While not happy to only qualify 15th for tomorrow''s race, Randy de Puniet was more than a little relieved to have made it to the start line at all, after problems with the hand he injured at Jerez almost forced the Frenchman to withdraw from the Grand Prix of Qatar following yesterday''s opening practice session.

But after responding well to treatment in the circuit medical centre, the 25-year-old Frenchman has seen an improvement in his hand with every track session today.

After bettering his lap time on race tyres during qualifying, de Puniet was forced to settle for 15th position, and the fifth row of the grid, after suffering an off-track excursion on his final flying lap on a qualifier while avoiding pole sitter Casey Stoner, as the Australian toured back to the pits after his own qualifying lap.

Shinya Nakano: 9th (1''56.237)
''I''m never happy to qualify as far back as ninth, but if I''m honest, it is better than I was expecting today, after the problems we''ve had here. Since yesterday we''ve been struggling with chatter from the front and rear of the bike, and although we''ve managed to make a small improvement through changes to the bike set-up, it''s still a major problem. The chatter was less on the qualifier, which allowed me to at least salvage a reasonable starting position this afternoon, but we can''t race on a qualifier unfortunately. I''m hoping that we can sit down tonight and come up with a solution to try in warm-up tomorrow, because it''s going to be a very difficult race for me otherwise. I guess we will see tomorrow, but I''ll be out to collect as many points as I can regardless.''

Randy de Puniet: 15th (1''57.822)
''Thankfully, my hand is much better today. I''ve been able to steadily improve my lap time on race tyres and I''m sure I could have qualified higher today but for going off the track after running wide to avoid Casey round the back of the circuit. So, while I''m not so pleased to be starting 15th on the grid, I am happy that I''ll actually be on the grid tomorrow after the problems that I had with my hand on Thursday. Tomorrow my aim is to finish my first MotoGP race, preferably in the points. If I can do that then it will be a good end to the weekend for me and for the team.''

QUALIFYING PRACTICE - FINAL TIMES

1. Casey Stoner (AUS) LCR Honda 1''55.683; 2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.038; 3. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda +0.052; 4. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team +0.110; 5. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team +0.325; 6. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team +0.393; 7. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team +0.494; 8. Colin Edwards (USA) Camel Yamaha Team +0.547; 9. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team +0.554; 10. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts +0.589; 15. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team +2.139

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