The afternoon session was much hotter and breezier than the morning – and also because of the process of working through
various set-up options, which didn’t always prove suitable. That was the case for Alex Barros anyway, his seventh fastest time came in the morning hour, whilst Troy Bayliss, who was twelfth in the combined timesheets, was actually faster than his teammate in the afternoon, when he finished eighth overall.

Sito Pons – Camel Honda
“We are aiming to improve the set-up of Alex’s bike, especially on the front end. In the morning he was fast straight away, but in order to try and improve his confidence in the front, we later tried things which took us off the right track briefly. This is only the first day though, and it’s normal to try things for progress’ sake; tomorrow we will try another route. I think that Troy is gradually getting to grips with the bike, and managing to get the most out of its potential.

Anyway, the most important day for us is tomorrow now. More precisely it is tomorrow afternoon when we need to concentrate all our efforts towards being fast in the qualifying session and try and get good grid position.”

Alex Barros – Camel Honda – 1’44.105 – 7th fastest
“The track conditions compared to the morning were quite different, but the bike was also set up differently. We looked to improve the setting of the forks, as well as trying a new front tyre at the same time. None of the two things worked, so now we know for a certain which way not to go! We know that they’re not working perfectly and we definitely need to improve, so now we will look at the data to find some answers, but I can see that lots of my colleagues; Sete, Valentino, Max are more are less behind too, so I think we will see a general improvement tomorrow.”

Troy Bayliss – Camel Honda – 1’44.430 – 12th fastest
“I’m quite happy, things are beginning to improve. To be honest, I thought that I would have done better at Mugello, but it was really quite a tough weekend. This whole start to the season has been complicated, but here, both in the morning session and the afternoon I felt more comfortable on the bike, everything finally seems to be working. I hope to be able to make more progress tomorrow because I really want to get a good result here.”