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HAYDEN HEADS HONDA TOP FIVE IN TURKEY Grand Prix of Turkey - Friday 28th April 2006 The second ever Grand Prix of Turkey got underway at the Istanbul Park circuit today, under comfortable conditions despite some thin cloud in the skies. American youngster Nicky Hayden, currently second in the championship and on a fabulous run of six podium finishes, ended the day as fastest out on track after the two hour-long free practice sessions. Hayden led a Honda charge, with a 1’53.623 lap of Istanbul putting him at the head of a five-rider group of young riders for the Japanese factory. Second in the standings was Australian Casey Stoner, who suffered a late crash in the second session after heading the first. The 20 year-old only completed 10 laps in the afternoon practice, but managed to walk away unscathed from his front-end spill at the end of the back straight. Last year’s MotoGP race winner Marco Melandri was hot on the heels of 2005’s 250cc winner Stoner, and finished ahead of Dani Pedrosa and Toni Elias. With all the front five runners under 24 years of age, the more experienced in the pack will have to up their game to challenge for honours this weekend. Yamaha''s Colin Edwards came in sixth as the fastest non-Honda rider, with World Championship leader Loris Capirossi close behind on his Ducati. John Hopkins, Sete Gibernau and Makoto Tamada completed a top ten which was only split by eight tenths of a second. Reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi dropped to eleventh as he had two worrying moments during the session, both times running wide at the end of the back straight. Meanwhile Australian Chris Vermeulen experienced another setback when his GSV-R had a technical problem in the final minutes. Light rain is forecast for sometime during the day tomorrow, with the MotoGP riders hoping that their afternoon qualifying session, which begins at 2pm local time, will not be affected by the showers. Jorge Lorenzo took provisional pole for Sunday’s 250cc race after yet another fine qualifying performance. The only rider to break the 1’57.841 barrier, he was a second ahead of his nearest rival Alex de Angelis and the morning''s fastest rider Andrea Dovizioso, whilst Yuki Takahashi finished a provisional fourth despite suffering a crash on his final lap. Hector Barbera occupies fifth spot, ahead of Hiroshi Aoyama, Marco Simoncelli and Sylvain Guintoli. Sebas Porto and Jakub Smrz completed a top ten over two seconds behind Lorenzo’s marker. Meanwhile in 125, Alvaro Bautista finds himself on provisional pole having registered a best time of 2’04.035, three tenths faster than team-mate Mattia Pasini, himself fastest in the morning session. The virtual front row is completed by Simone Corsi and Hector Faubel, whilst Mika Kallio is fifth. A podium finisher in Qatar, Sergio Gadea suffered a crash which left him having only completed eight laps, dropping him down to 16th. ''It''s a good start to the weekend, it''s important to come out and get a good pace going, and try and improve as the weekend goes on. We''ll see what''s going to happen with the weather - it doesn''t look pretty, but rain or shine we''ll have to be ready to roll on Sunday afternoon.''
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