Rossi fastest in Japan

Valentino Rossi has gone fastest on the first day of practice for the Japanese Grand Prix on Sunday, September 24, 2006, having posted a time of 1:46.981.

Rossi was the only rider to drop below one minute 47 seconds, with Shinya Nakano again going well in practice, with the second fastest time of 1:47.315 on the Kawasaki Ninja ZX-R, perhaps boosted by rumours he will be on a Honda next year. Marco Melandri was third fastest, following his win last weekend at Phillip Island, with Colin Edwards fourth. Britain’s James Ellison is 18th fastest, with Dani Pedrosa down in 15th, sandwiched by wildcards Kousuke Akiyoshi and Naoki Matsudo.

MotoGP FP2:

Valentino ROSSI 1’46.981

Shinya NAKANO 1’47.315

Marco MELANDRI 1’47.449

Colin EDWARDS 1’47.581

Nicky HAYDEN 1’47.610

Toni ELIAS 1’47.646

Loris CAPIROSSI 1’47.731

John HOPKINS 1’47.915

Randy DE PUNIET 1’47.982

Kenny ROBERTS JR 1’48.002

Casey STONER 1’48.059

Makoto TAMADA 1’48.160

Sete GIBERNAU 1’48.313

Kousuke AKIYOSHI 1’48.317

Dani PEDROSA 1’48.389

Naoki MATSUDO 1’48.722

Chris VERMEULEN 1’49.488

James ELLISON 1’49.683

Alex HOFMANN 1’49.761

Carlos CHECA 1’49.889

Jose Luis CARDOSO 1’51.138

Jorge LORENZO 1’52.132

Hiroshi AOYAMA 1’52.250

Shuhei AOYAMA 1’52.425

Yuki TAKAHASHI 1’52.737

Alex DE ANGELIS 1’52.846

Andrea DOVIZIOSO 1’53.125

Roberto LOCATELLI 1’53.412

Ryuji YOKOE 1’53.546

Hector BARBERA 1’53.884

Ratthapark WILAIROT 1’53.986

Jakub SMRZ 1’54.242

Marco SIMONCELLI 1’54.326

Seijin OIKAWA 1’54.472

Anthony WEST 1’54.495

Fabricio PERREN 1’54.624

Manuel POGGIALI 1’54.634

Sylvain GUINTOLI 1’54.733

Andrea BALLERINI 1’54.907

Alex BALDOLINI 1’55.211

David DE GEA 1’55.29

Aleix ESPARGARO 1’55.498

Dirk HEIDOLF 1’55.569

Takumi TAKAHASHI 1’55.603

Youichi UI 1’55.923

Taro SEKIGUCHI 1’56.144

Arturo TIZON 1’56.153

Jordi CARCHANO 1’56.340

Kouki TAKAHASHI 1’56.526

Jules CLUZEL 1’56.971

Arnaud VINCENT 1’58.055

Luca MORELLI 1’58.423

DNQ

Alessio PALUMBO

125cc qualifying one:

Alvaro BAUTISTA 1’57.627

Sergio GADEA 1’58.320

Mika KALLIO 1’58.336

Mattia PASINI 1’58.598

Hector FAUBEL 1’58.765

Julian SIMON 1’58.839

Fabrizio LAI 1’58.878

Lukas PESEK 1’58.948

Tomoyoshi KOYAMA 1’59.068

Gabor TALMACSI 1’59.316

Mike DI MEGLIO 1’59.491

Thomas LUTHI 1’59.544

Lorenzo ZANETTI 1’59.586

Joan OLIVE 1’59.596

Pol ESPARGARO 1’59.614

Raffaele DE ROSA 1’59.772

Hiroaki KUZUHARA 1’59.889

Nicolas TEROL 1’59.904

Federico SANDI 1’59.909

Karel ABRAHAM 2’00.027

Sandro CORTESE 2’00.280

Imre TOTH 2’00.469

Roberto TAMBURINI 2’00.559

Bradley SMITH 2’00.790

Michael RANSEDER 2’00.994

Simone GROTZKYJ 2’01.040

Kazuya OTANI 2’01.223

Hiroomi IWATA 2’01.283

Manuel HERNANDEZ 2’01.426

Roberto LACALENDOLA 2’01.463

Michele CONTI 2’01.482

Shouya TOMIZAWA 2’01.565

Kazuma WATANABE 2’01.656

Vincent BRAILLARD 2’01.664

Joey LITJENS 2’02.028

Esteve RABAT 2’02.072

Dino LOMBARDI 2’02.852

Iori NAMIHIRA 2’02.963

Toshihisa KUZUHARA 2’03.161

Blake LEIGH-SMITH 2’05.387

DNQ
Simone CORSI