Czech Republic Grand Prix
Brno, Czech Republic
Friday 26th August

ROSSI RULES FREE PRACTICE AS MOTOGP RETURNS AT BRNO

Gauloises Yamaha Team rider Valentino Rossi continued his domination of the
MotoGP World Championship at the Brno circuit today, as the series returned to
the Czech circuit after its traditional summer break. Rossi needs just two more
victories to clinch the title for the fifth successive season and he started
this weekend's mission encouragingly, clocking under lap record pace with the
fastest time over two hours of free practice.

After falling from his Yamaha YZR-M1 machine in a collision with Troy Bayliss
(Honda) during the morning session, Rossi squeezed every available minute out of
the rest of the day's action as he worked on Michelin tyre combinations and race
set-up for Sunday's eleventh Grand Prix of the season, setting his fastest time
on his final lap of the day.

Rossi's Gauloises Yamaha team-mate Colin Edwards, riding the YZR-M1 here for the
first time, was satisfied with his performance after posting the seventh fastest
time. The American immediately felt comfortable with the base set-up of his
machine and set his best lap of the day in the morning session, before focusing
much of his day's work on a variety of tyre tests.

VALENTINO ROSSI (1st - 1'59.278; 39 laps)

"Today was a strange day because we all came back from the holidays and it felt
like everybody was still in the beach rhythm! The crash this morning was not the
perfect way to start. Troy was pushing hard but he suddenly decided to come in
to the pit and braked in the middle of the corner. I was lucky because my front
brake made contact and I went down at 149km/h but I am not hurt. I think we need
to modify the pit entry for next season because at the moment it is dangerous; I
will talk about it with the Safety Commission. Anyway, my mechanics did a great
job to virtually rebuild the whole bike in just three hours and this afternoon I
was able to do a lot of tyre tests. In the end we went back to the first tyre
and I was able to go fastest. Tomorrow we need to work on the suspension to find
more grip but so far I am quite happy."

COLIN EDWARDS (7th - 1'59.867; 46 laps)

"The base set-up we started out with this morning was probably as good as I have
felt with the bike all season, it did exactly what I wanted it to do. The Yamaha
definitely suits this circuit and my pace in the first session was good. From
there we concentrated on tyre tests, although it turned out that the one we
tried first was the best of the lot. When we put that back on at the end I
immediately felt comfortable again. When Valentino put the same tyre on he set
the fastest time of the session, so we know what works. Tomorrow we'll have to
focus more on the bike set-up and I'm confident we'll improve the lap time and
the position."

JEREMY BURGESS - VALENTINO ROSSI'S CREW CHIEF

"The track is quite dirty and there's not much grip so we have some work to do
to try and adjust the bike. It's early days yet, but the setting we've found so
far is quite good and, as always, we'll be looking to improve on it tomorrow.
The guys did a good job to repair the damage to Valentino's bike, although they
strip it down after every session anyway so it doesn't make much of a difference
whether they put the same parts back on or fetch new ones!"

COMBINED FREE PRACTICE TIMES:

 1. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Gauloises Yamaha Team  1'59.278
 2. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team   1'59.366
 3. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Movistar Honda MotoGP    1'59.454
 4. Marco Melandri (ITA) Movistar Honda          1'59.469
 5. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP       1'59.755
 6. Carlos Checa (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team      1'59.807
 7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team         1'59.833
 8. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Gauloises Yamaha Team    1'59.867
 9. Alex Barros (BRA) Camel Honda                1'59.991
10. John Hopkins (USA) Team Suzuki MotoGP        2'00.043