Italian Grand Prix
Mugello Circuit, Italy
Friday 3rd June

QUEST FOR HOME GLORY BEGINS FOR GAULOISES YAMAHA TEAM

The Gauloises Yamaha Team's challenge for success at the Italian Grand Prix
began with a day of hard work at Mugello today as riders Valentino Rossi and
Colin Edwards completed valuable set-up work with their YZR-M1 machines.
Following on from successful tests with the base setting of the machines at Le
Mans after the last round, the riders quickly found their feet today and began
making minor refinements to suit the fast and flowing Mugello circuit.

After making a positive start to the morning free practice, when they set the
1st and 6th fastest times respectively, Rossi and Edwards suffered from the
increasing track temperatures in the scorching afternoon sunshine and were
unable to improve their times in the second free practice session, dropping to
3rd and 9th overall as they encountered minor rear traction problems. However,
both riders are confident of making the necessary improvements tomorrow. Sete
Gibernau (Honda) and Max Biaggi (Honda) were the only riders capable of
bettering Rossi's morning time, with Gibernau clocking the fastest effort of the
day with a lap of 1'50.662.

VALENTINO ROSSI - (1'50.778, 34 laps)

"The bike was good in the morning which makes me very happy because it seems we
now have a base setting that works at every track. The conditions were perfect
for our sport - no wind, some sunshine but not too hot. In the afternoon it was
much warmer and we had some problems because the tyre was moving around a lot
more. Anyway, I'm very happy to be third fastest overall today and it's a good
start to the weekend for us. I hope the weather stays like this because the rain
has followed us around for the first part of the season. There are a lot of
people here already and we want to put on a good show for them!"

COLIN EDWARDS (1'51.320, 30 laps)

"We picked up where we left off at Le Mans and tried a few different things with
the setting of the bike. We've decided to go down a particular avenue, which we
still believe is the right way, but we've just got to stick at it to make sure
it works. At the moment I'm getting into the corners okay but I'm having a bit
of difficulty getting out again, which is crucial at this track - particularly
the last corner coming onto the straight. We're trying to understand a lot of
things but we're getting there and I'm confident we can take the steps we need
tomorrow. I'm lapping in mid 1'51s on the current setting but I reckon a good
race pace is going to be in the 1'50s, so we need to take at least half a second
off - more would be nice!"

DAVIDE BRIVIO - TEAM DIRECTOR

"This morning was not so bad for both riders and it shows that we have
definitely made steps forward with the base setting of the bike coming from Le
Mans, which means the engineers and the team crews have been doing a great job.
Unfortunately in the afternoon we had some traction problems because of the high
temperatures but that is to be expected. It is only Friday and it is the day for
collecting information, checking the performance of the tyres and making some
decisions to refine the setting of the bike for the race. If it stays this hot
for the whole weekend it will make it a very demanding race for the riders and I
think their physical condition will prove to be very important."

COMBINED FREE PRACTICE TIMES:

 1. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Movistar Honda MotoGP    1'50.662
 2. Max Biaggi (ITA) Repsol Honda Team           1'50.680
 3. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Gauloises Yamaha Team  1'50.778
 4. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team      1'50.818
 5. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team   1'50.912
 6. Alex Barros (BRA) Camel Honda                1'50.966
 7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team         1'51.158
 8. Marco Melandri (ITA) Movistar Honda MotoGP   1'51.234
 9. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Gauloises Yamaha Team    1'51.320
10. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team     1'51.494