The countdown for the 2006 has started
The first official tests of the 2006 season are being staged this week at the Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona.
The testing started yesterday with the 125cc riders who continued this morning until 14.00 h. From that moment the 250cc took the turn and will continue testing tomorrow, Thursday.
Friday will be the start of the main course of the weekend with the MotoGP riders who will be on track until Sunday.
In the 125cc, Repsol rider Bradley Smith, outstanding rider of the MotoGP Academy, started his World Championship experience with ease, ready to learn day after day. The progression shown by his lap times - today he was almost one second faster than yesterday -, took him to finish twenty-fourth after the two days, two seconds behind the fastest time set by Finnish rider Mika Kalio.

Bradley and his team will leave in a couple of days to Jerez de la Frontera, to continue with the MotoGP Test on the Andalusian circuit next week.

In the 250cc, Sebastián Porto is adapting step by step to his new bike, already setting the sixth fastest time this afternoon. The Argentinean Repsol rider made a total of 31 laps on the Barcelona track, staying a bit over one second behind Lorenzo, who was fastest today. Team-mate Shuhei Aoyama, in his second visit to the Circuit de Catalunya, was thirteenth.

Sebastián Porto :
"Well, it`s been good today. I haven`t been able to be faster but we are in the middle of the preseason, everything is new to me and I think that we still have to improve a bit in general terms. I`m taking it easy, we still have tomorrow and there are a few things to be improved, but we`re working on it. I`m not worried and I know that I`m going to have a very good bike. I have a great team and it`s only a question of covering more kilometres and giving the finishing touches to the bike. That`s what we`re doing. I have found several favourable aspects in the bike and some that still need to be improved, but I hope to work hard and arrive for the first round in Jerez at a 100% and with the bike the way I like it."

Shuhei Aoyama :
"I`m not very happy because I haven`t been fast today, but this circuit is quite difficult and this has been my second time here. We basically used this first day to lap and test different settings for the suspensions. The track is very cold and I don`t want to make mistakes, but I would have liked to set better times."

Bradley Smith : "It`s been an interesting experience. We had some problems on the first day, but I`ve learnt a lot and I`ve also been able to improve my times, so I`m very happy. We`re still learning, we have a different bike for this year and we`ve obviously had some trouble getting used to it, but now we`re more familiar with it and looking forward to getting to Jerez. It`s interesting to see that between the fastest and the 25th there are several bikes in the 52", so if you manage to improve 0.2" or 0.4" you may jump up between five and ten places. We`re working on it. I`m very happy, I enjoyed the test and now we`ll have another soon. I hope not to make the same mistakes I`ve made, to improve and to give the best.”

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