“It is evident that there are problems
The 2006 preseason tests continue, the last tests before the first race of the year, and this time the riders are at the Jerez circuit, venue of the Spanish Grand Prix in a couple of weeks time.
The young riders of the 125cc class had their turn on Monday and Tuesday, and they are not going to get back on their bikes until Friday 24 March for the first practices of the Spanish Grand Prix.

The two sunny days enjoyed by the 125cc riders have probably made them forget the cold temperatures experienced last week in Barcelona. Under much milder temperatures - around 20ºC - and the sun shining throughout the day, the 125cc riders made use of every single minute to thoroughly prepare the first Grand Prix of the year. A good proof of it is that the top riders have been lapping on record times.

In the middle group and in constant progression, young Repsol rider Bradley Smith is preparing his first participation in the Road Racing World Championship step by step. Smith crashed on Monday on the Dry Sack corner, at around three o`clock in the afternoon, putting back his evolution on the Spanish track. He finished thirty- first, more than three seconds behind the fastest time.

On Tuesday, already recovered from the incident of the previous day, Bradley clocked the twenty-fourth fastest time improving the time he set on Monday by a bit more than a second.

Yesterday was the turn of the 250cc riders who will have today the second and last chance to lap on the Spanish track before the first Grand Prix of the season. Sebastián Porto, seventh fastest, continues adapting to the new bike, although it is being a slow progress. Step by step he is trying to find the right path to follow, with the help of his team.

"We have managed to improve a bit since the previous tests. I like the bike a bit better, but I`m not feeling really comfortable yet. The truth is that we`re still far behind the Aprilias and apart from our problems, which we will surely be able to solve, there is a very big difference. We`ll see, we have to work and we still have tomorrow," Sebastian Porto said. "Let`s hope to be able to improve as much as we can in order to be faster, as we already did here in November, when I set a much faster time than now. The bike isn`t working as it did then, so we are analysing the information to find the right way to follow. The conditions are good, it was much colder than now in November, when I tested the bike for the first time. It`s only natural that everything should be much better now, but it is evident that there

Shuhei Aoyama
are problems and we are not lapping as we should, but we`re here to solve them. I hope that tomorrow we`ll be able to make the bike work better."

Team-mate Shuhei Aoyama had a good performance yesterday, in his first ever visit at the circuit in Jerez. Thirteenth fastest, Aoyama covered a total of 100 laps, setting his fastest lap time in lap 93.

"This circuit is much more difficult than Barcelona. It`s my first time here and the truth is that the more laps I cover the more difficult I find it. It has fast corners and some very slow ones, where you have to brake hard and accelerate well when coming out," explained Shuhei Aoyama. "To be fast here you need a very well balanced bike - stable in fast corners and light in slow corners - and it isn`t always easy to find the balance and compromise between these two aspects. We`ll have a second day tomorrow to keep on improving and gathering kilometres on a track which is yet unknown to me."

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