MotoGP
Portuguese GP: Bridgestone Friday notes
Getting That Friday Feeling Bridgestone encountered a difficult opening day of preparation for this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix with Sete Gibernau the highest placed of the six Bridgestone-shod riders in seventh place. Gibernau's best lap of ...
Published: Oct 13, 2006, 7:56 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Getting That Friday Feeling
Bridgestone encountered a difficult opening day of preparation for this weekend's Portuguese Grand Prix with Sete Gibernau the highest placed of the six Bridgestone-shod riders in seventh place.
Gibernau's best lap of 1m38.815s led a trio of Bridgestone riders in the top ten with Suzuki's John Hopkins in ninth spot (1m39.007s) and Kawasaki's Shinya Nakano in tenth place (1m39.161s), ensuring a full representation of Bridgestone teams in the top half of the field.
Loris Capirossi's morning practice time of 1m39.637s was his quickest lap of the day and placed him 12th in today's combined free practice standings. Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen improved on his morning time by almost two seconds to go 13th fastest on his first trip to Estoril, just a fraction ahead of Kawasaki's Randy de Puniet in 14th.
Bridgestone approached today's practice sessions with the usual target of ascertaining the performance of a selection of tyres from its range as each of its teams concurrently strived to fine-tune the set-up of their bikes around the technical Estoril track.
Although the specifications evaluated today did not prove as competitive as desired, Bridgestone has additional tyres to assess in tomorrow's two sessions as foundations are strengthened for Sunday afternoon's Portuguese Grand Prix.
Shinji Aoki - Bridgestone Motorsport - Assistant Manager Motorcycle Race Tyre Development "It was not such a straight-forward day for us today. The purpose of having these two practice sessions on Friday is to find the best direction for the remainder of the weekend. With each of our teams, we have tested some of our Estoril range and the results would indicate that there is more work to do tomorrow. The circuit has recently been resurfaced in places and it was also quite dusty early on which made the morning session quite inconclusive. This afternoon, we just kept focussed and continued with our initial plan, knowing that we have additional tyres to try out on Saturday. Estoril is a technical circuit, so our teams also have important work on tuning their bike settings, of course together with the tyres. We will continue to work on all of these things tomorrow morning and only then will we have a real indication of our potential in race trim."
Weather: Air 28C, Track 40C, Humidity 16% (afternoon session)
-credit: bridgestone
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Portuguese GP: Rizla Suzuki Friday notes
Next article Portuguese GP: Pramac d'Antin Friday notes
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Randy de Puniet
Former LCR MotoGP rider joins team in MotoE
MotoE
MotoE
Former LCR MotoGP rider joins team in MotoE
De Puniet becomes KTM tester for rest of 2018
MotoGP
MotoGP
Austrian GP
De Puniet becomes KTM tester for rest of 2018
KTM's MotoGP bike completes Jerez test
MotoGP
MotoGP
KTM's MotoGP bike completes Jerez test
Latest news
Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”
GT World Challenge Europe Endurance
WCEE GT World Challenge Europe Endurance 3 h
Max Verstappen on GTWC Europe debut: “We’re here to win”
How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Phoenix II
3 h
How to watch NASCAR at Phoenix II: Weekend schedule, start time, entry list, TV
Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing
NASCAR O'Reilly
NOAP NASCAR O'Reilly
Phoenix II
3 h
Ryan Ellis signs multi-year NASCAR O'Reilly deal with Alpha Prime Racing
Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
Singapore GP
9 h
Ayao Komatsu: Rafael Camara chosen for F1 2027 seat on speed, not Ferrari links
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe