Phillip Island Testing Session

Source : Kawasaki-Eckl

The second testing session of the year (the first one at Sepang) attended by the Honda, Kawasaki and Ducati teams saw Shinya showing some mettle, that'll hopefully bode well for the 2006 season. I find the word hope repeated much here :|

"The focus today has been on tyre testing with Bridgestone, and also continuing the work from Tuesday to find a good base setting on the new bike. I also spent a lot of time working on my riding today, trying different braking points and lines through the turns to see if I could improve on my lap time. Overall, I'm happy with what we've achieved here. Despite the rain yesterday we've managed to complete our test programme and we leave here with a good base set-up on the bike. We still have some work to do with a revised version of the new engine at the next test but, based on the two tests so far, I'm confident that we'll arrive at Jerez for the first race with a very competitive bike in the new Ninja ZX-RR."

- Shinya after Phillip Island test

Source : Kawasaki-Eckl

Phillip Island test times - day three:

1. Sete Gibernau SPA Ducati Marlboro Team 1min 30.06 secs
2. Loris Capirossi ITA Ducati Marlboro Team 1min 30.25 secs
3. Shinya Nakano JPN Kawasaki Racing Team 1min 30.59 secs
4. Marco Melandri ITA Fortuna Honda 1min 30.6 secs
5. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team 1min 30.9 secs
6. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team 1min 31.1 secs
7. Casey Stoner AUS Honda LCR 1min 31.13 secs
8. Kenny Roberts USA Team Roberts 1min 31.64 secs
9. Randy de Puniet FRA Kawasaki Racing Team 1min 31.77 secs
10. Makoto Tamada JPN Konica Minolta Honda 1min 31.77 secs
11. Toni Elias SPA Fortuna Honda 1min 32.15 secs
12. Alex Hofmann GER Team d'Antin Pramac 1min 32.4 secs
13. Jose Luis Cardoso SPA Team d'Antin Pramac 1min 32.4 secs

Fastest day two time:

Shinya Nakano JPN Kawasaki Racing Team 1min 42.6secs (wet)

Weeeewitt. Fastest, eat that Sete.

Shinya and Kawasaki left the Phillip Island test with the third fastest lap time and will test a revised engine, designed to help rideability and top end power at Sepang next. Almost the entire 2006 MotoGP grid will attend that test which will take place from 14th to 16th February. Looks like he won't be having any Valentine plans then.