Czech GP: Pramac d'Antin Friday notes

CARDOSO WORKS FOR THE RACE, SILVA LEARNS THE TRACK

Twelfth round of the season for the 2006 MotoGP World Championship on the Czech circuit of Brno. The Team Pramac d'Antin MotoGP took part to the first sessions of free practice and already worked on the definition of the ideal set-up for the Ducati Desmosedici GP06 "Sat." to be used during the race. Jose Luis Cardoso, that likes the track very much, classified himself in 18th position, while Ivan Silva, substituting Alex Hofmann for the third time of the year, discovered this circuit for the first time and is now in 19th position. Tomorrow, the whole Team will go on working very hard. There will be another session of free practice tomorrow morning, before the single qualifying practice session at 2.00 a.m. .

JOSE LUIS CARDOSO #30 (18th - 2'02.730): "Today we principally worked on the tyres. We tested one softer tyre with which I had a good feeling but that we retain wouldn't be constant enough to allow us to finish the race in good conditions ; while a harder one had no grip enough. Tomorrow we will test one more tyre and we hope to find a good compromise. Right now, I lose time especially when I need to open the throttle, I need more grip in the exit of the corners. There are also a lot of holes on the track but the situation is the same for everybody. I know this circuit very well, I always had a good feeling here and I really want to make a good race".

IVAN SILVA #22 (19th - 2'04.244): "A new track once again, I never rode here before and this track is quite hard to interpret. Besides, the track if full of holes and this makes things even harder. I must improve a lot my laptimes, then we will be able to start working on the definition of the ideal set-up of my motorcycle for the race. The grip is not the same as it was in Assen, I haven't got the same feeling with the tyres ad this surely is because of the difference of the ground here. Anyway, I am happy to be here. Three days ago, I was making free practice with another bike and I have to say it is not very easy to pass from one motorcycle to another one so quickly without a bit of confusion, but I'm confident for tomorrow and I will do my best to get closer to the other riders".

EMANUELE MARTINELLI - Track Engineer of Ivan Silva: "This track is very complicated for Silva that never rode on it before ; it is very wide and hard to learn, especially talking about the ideal lines. Silva needs to ride, we do make the maximum to make things easier for him but right now he has to make the 90% himself, by improving his times. In this way, we will be able to better understand the limits and work in an adequate manner on the tyres and the set-up of the motorcycle. Today we started with a configuration based on Winter Test' references. Tomorrow we still have another entire day of practice at our disposal and I'm confident we will improve a lot".

-credit: pda