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Biaggi announcement by 9 December?
Max Biaggi hopes to be able to announce his future MotoGP plans by the time he appears at the Bologna Motorshow on 8-9 December.
During the show, Biaggi will take on the likes of double 2005 MotoGP winner Marco Melandri, 250GP frontrunner Andrea Dovizioso, WSBK star Lorenzo Lanzi, former MotoGP rider Troy Bayliss and freestyle specialist Kenny Bartram in a special 'Bikers Rally' using Fiat Panda rally cars.
"I'll be in Bologna on December the 8th for the Panda Rally and on the 9th for the meeting with 'La Gazzetta dello Sport'," Max wrote on his official website. "Both days I'll be mostly at [my] fan club stand and I hope to be able to give you, with Camel friends, some good news about my future."
Kawasaki remains favourite to field Biaggi in 2006, with Camel money expected to back the Bridgestone shod factory team and allow a third ZX-RR to be run for the Roman.
Meanwhile, Biaggi's arch rival Valentino Rossi will also be present at the Bologna show, when he will be back behind the wheel of a Subaru Impreza WRC car.
de Puniet performance reassures Kawasaki.
With some sources having reported that Randy de Puniet was out of his depth on his MotoGP debut with Kawasaki at Valencia earlier this month, the Frenchman help calm any nerves within the team green camp with a competent performance during this week's Sepang test.
de Puniet's main task at his second test was to continue his transition from the 250cc class to the much faster and heavier MotoGP machine. The #17 made the most of this by completing a massive 183 laps, all but ten of them on the 2005 race version of the ZX-RR. Late on the final afternoon de Puniet also ran 10 laps on the 2006 prototype (lower pic).
Randy's best lap was a 2mins 4.27secs, which put him 11th out of the 13 riders present, and within 1.34secs of Nakano's best time on the 2006 machine. de Puniet was also 0.819secs inside Olivier Jacque's fastest race lap from September's Malaysian Grand Prix (Nakano was eliminated early in the race after being taken out by Sete Gibernau).
"I have a very positive feeling from this test because I found some good solutions with the set-up on the '05 model ZX-RR," stated Randy. "I did my best time on tyres that had done 12 laps and I'm sure I could have been faster on new tyres, but this was not my target at this test - the main job was to learn and understand the base set-up of the bike after coming from 250s.
"On day one I concentrated on adapting my riding style and then completed some testing of engine management and fuel injection set-ups, with the chance to run some consistent laps on the third day," he continued. "Coming from a 250 the weight, power and engine braking of a MotoGP machine is completely different, but I'm happy with my progress - I have a good feeling from both the bike and tyres."
"Randy's efforts at this test were very encouraging, he made a big impression with his consistent pace and also his technical feedback to the engineers, despite his lack of MotoGP experience," underlined team manager Harald Eckl. "He still has a lot to learn and understand, especially with things like engine braking, after coming from 250cc two strokes, but he is making very good progress."
Nakano 'very happy' as new ZX-RR threatens.
Shinya Nakano gave Kawasaki an early Christmas present when he put a prototype version of the 2006 ZX-RR within 0.32secs of MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, after a fast lap late on the third and final day of testing at Sepang.
That lap, of 2mins 2.93secs, put the Japanese fourth on the Wednesday ranking and sixth on the overall end of test timesheet, which was headed by Rossi.
Nakano set the time during a total of 152 Sepang laps, a considerable achievement given that he was still recovering from bruised ligaments in his left hand, an injury sustained at Valencia three weeks ago.
"I wasn't sure I could ride here for three days because I still had some pain and stiffness in my left hand," admitted Shinya. "But in the end I could complete the test and was able to push for a fast time on the final afternoon."
The 2006 Kawasaki (pictured) features a new chassis and swing arm combination fitted with a smaller, more compact, in-line 990cc motor. Apart from a range of chassis and suspension set-up options, Nakano also evaluated two different firing order engines, plus a range of the latest Bridgestone rear tyres.
"I'm very happy because we got through a big programme of work with the new prototype which has set a new direction, with both improved handling and engine response," said Nakano. "I tried two different firing order motors to provide our engineers with data to evaluate the best combination of torque and top-end power. I'm in a very positive mood after this test and I'm looking forward to the next stage of development after a short holiday."
Team manager Harald Eckl stressed that the machine seen at Sepang is far from the finished product, but underlined "very positive" progress.
"The 2006 prototype ZX-RR is still not in its final specification, as Kawasaki engineers continue development in readiness for winter testing," he began. "But so far the response from the new chassis and motor is very positive and clearly a step in the right direction, especially with handling stability. We still have to improve engine performance and controllability and we now have some very good data for the future."
Kawasaki will return to Sepang after the winter test ban ends on January 20.
Vermeulen 'stronger and faster' but...
Suzuki team manager Paul Denning believes that MotoGP rookie Chris Vermeulen has "fantastic potential" after being "stronger and faster" every time he went out on the GSV-R during the Sepang test.
"Chris has shown fantastic potential here this week and he is getting stronger and faster every time he gets on the bike," said Denning. "He's progressed in a very step by step way and is very relaxed. He knows that the first race isn't till March and he's not going to prove anything here this week - he has gone about the task of learning to be a grand prix rider very professionally.
"Chris' feedback has been first class and Bridgestone has been impressed with his ability to give such clear comments on the tyres. All in all it has been a very good first full test for Chris and he certainly knows what he wants and how he wants to get it!" Denning added.
However, those positive comments came despite the young Australian finishing second to last on the test timesheets; the World Superbike runner-up having lapped in a best time of 2mins 4.5secs with the 2005 spec GSV-R, putting him 1.89secs from fastest man Valentino Rossi and 1.5secs behind team-mate John Hopkins (on the 2006 machine).
Against expectation, even Kawasaki's class rookie Randy de Puniet finished ahead of Vermeulen, with the only rider from the 13 man line-up slower than Chris being James Ellison - on the Dunlop shod Tech 3 Yamaha - who was 0.5secs adrift. Speaking after the test, Vermeulen himself would admit that he "had hoped to go a bit quicker".
"I am really happy with the test," began Chris, who completed over 170 laps. "I spent the first day learning the track and getting to know the bike as it was my first real test on the GSV-R and the Bridgestone tyres.
"I tried out a lot of different things, especially on the second day where I spent most of the time making long tyre runs for Bridgestone - which in these conditions was very tiring. I had hoped to go a bit quicker (on Wednesday) but the track was a bit greasy so that wasn't possible," he said.
Vermeulen is now looking forward to riding the 2006 spec GSV-R, an early version of which was tested by Hopkins this week, when pre-season testing restarts on January 23.
"John's comments on the new bike seem very promising and we should have the new engine and chassis together in a package for the next test so I'm really looking forward to that," declared the #71.
