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Post by Claude14 on Jan 28, 2007 10:21:22 GMT
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Post by BADGER on Jan 28, 2007 11:28:37 GMT
Kawasaki 'might surprise a few people'.
Kawasaki's confidence received a massive boost during the third and final day of testing at Sepang, when Randy de Puniet completed an inspiring test with the sixth fastest lap time.
The 25-year-old Frenchman had been seventh fastest on the opening two days, riding a bike heavily revised over the winter break, and - like most riders - set his best final day time with a qualifying tyre, shaving almost half-a-second off his best lap time set aboard the 990cc version of Kawasaki's MotoGP racer, before switching back to standard rubber for a race simulation in the afternoon.
Overall, de Puniet was satisfied with the simulation, but identified inconsistency in his lap times towards the very end of the run as an area on which to focus during the next test here in just two weeks time.
"This has been a good first test for us in many ways," confirmed de Puniet, who lapped within one second of fastest man Valentino Rossi. "I am impressed with the bike, especially with just how much Kawasaki's engineers have managed to improve it in just six weeks. We've been able to do a lot of laps here without any problems at all. This has allowed us to work our way through an intensive test programme, which is important at this point in the season.
"Overall I am pleased with the amount of progress we've made. I managed to set my fastest lap ever here at Sepang this morning, and then the first part of the race simulation this afternoon went well. At the end my lap times started to drop off slightly, but this is an area we will look at more closely during our next test. We have nine more days of testing before the first race, during which we must continue to work hard, but the potential is definitely there and I think we've proved that over the past three days," he underlined.
Also happy with his progress, although left at the other end of the timesheets, was de Puniet's new team-mate Olivier Jacque.
"The test started with a nice surprise, in the fact that Kawasaki have worked wonders in six short weeks with the bike. It's much better than it was during our first, short test in November," said OJ, who was 1.7secs slower than de Puniet in 18th. "We've found a fairly good base set-up, but we've also identified some small changes that will improve things further for the next test. Randy showed that the bike is fast today, and I hope that the work I've completed over the three days with my new crew will allow us both to go even faster next time out. Of course, we need to keep working and to keep our motivation, because if we do this I think we might surprise a few people come the first race of the season."
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Post by kevrex on Jan 28, 2007 18:33:04 GMT
That Looks awsome it realy dose ans 6th fastest lap time i cant wait for the season to start on the 10th march,if he can get his lap time consistent on race rubber well,we could be in for a good season
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