Jerez IRTA Test
Jerez, Spain
Friday 10th March 2006

CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM BEGIN FINAL RACE PREPARATIONS AT JEREZ TEST

Camel Yamaha Team riders Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards began their final
three days of pre-season testing at Jerez de la Frontera in Southern Spain
today. The 4.423 km Jerez circuit, which will play host to the season-opening
Grand Prix in two weeks time, provides the last chance for the World Champion
and his team-mate to perfect the set-up of their YZR-M1s before the curtain goes
up on the new MotoGP season.

Following last weekend's test in Barcelona, where Rossi consistently topped the
time sheets and Edwards drove away with a new car after winning Sunday's wet
'qualifying' shoot-out, both riders were faced with some traction problems today
and are now focused on finding a solution with tyre manufacture Michelin and the
Yamaha engineers over the next two days. Loris Capirossi (Ducati) was the only
rider to lap under the circuit record, setting a time of 1'40.910. Edwards
(1'41.730) and Rossi (1'41.861) set the sixth and ninth best times respectively.

COLIN EDWARDS (6th, 1'41.730, 68 laps)

"After the highs of last weekend, today has shown us that we still have a bit of
work to do before the first race. We started with 99% of the same settings that
we had in Barcelona and we've only made some small changes; the bike is still
working great. However we're missing traction with the tyres and now we need to
get that sorted out with Michelin. We need to find the right tyre for our bike
at this track, but they're working hard to do just that and tomorrow we should
have something new to try. I think everyone's a bit 'tested-out' now so it's
just a case of making one last big effort here, then we can all finally
concentrate on the first race!"

VALENTINO ROSSI (9th, 1'41.861, 73 laps)

"It's quite a big change coming here after last weekend as we have some problems
and the vibration that we had in Malaysia and Qatar has returned. The problem is
that the tyres that we have available to us here are not working correctly with
our bike, so now we're waiting for some new race tyres for tomorrow and Sunday.
We hope that with this we can fix the problem. We've worked a lot on settings
and other things today in order to find a way to improve the traction, but in
reality we can't do anything until we have a different tyre. We're ninth so we're
not very fast! Now we have just two days to prepare before we come back here
for the first race so we're going to work very hard with Yamaha and Michelin to
solve the problem."

DAVIDE BRIVIO - CAMEL YAMAHA TEAM DIRECTOR

"We had some problems today to make our package work like it did last week in
Barcelona, but both riders have the same problem so this make it's easier to
work on the situation. We exchanged a lot of information between Yamaha and
Michelin and in the next two days we will work together to find the right
solution. I am confident that with the full cooperation of everyone involved, we
can overcome the problem."

Lap Times:

 1. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Ducati Marlboro Team,   1'40.910
 2. Sete Gibernau (SPA) Ducati Marlboro Team,     1'41.176
 3. Shinya Nakano (JPN) Kawasaki Racing Team,     1'41.477
 4. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda Team,         1'41.499
 5. Toni Elias (SPA) Fortuna Honda,               1'41.680
 6. COLIN EDWARDS (USA) Camel Yamaha Team,        1'41.730
 7. Carlos Checa (SPA) Tech 3 Yamaha,             1'41.732
 8. John Hopkins (USA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP,       1'41.740
 9. VALENTINO ROSSI (ITA) Camel Yamaha Team,      1'41.861
10. Randy de Puniet (FRA) Kawasaki Racing Team,   1'41.915
11. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda Team,         1'41.984
12. Marco Melandri (ITA) Fortuna Honda,           1'42.106
13. Kenny Roberts (USA) Team Roberts,             1'42.328
14. Makoto Tamada (JPN) Konica Minolta Honda,     1'42.558
15. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP,    1'42.938
16. Alex Hofmann (GER) D'Antin Pramac,            1'43.274
17. Vittoriano Guareschi (ITA) Ducati,            1'43.417
18. Jose Luis Cardoso (SPA) D'Antin Pramac,       1'44.501
19. James Ellison (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha,            1'44.953
20. Tadayuki Okada (JPN) HRC,                     1'45.930

Jerez Lap Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005 - 1'40.596
Jerez Best Lap: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 2005  -  1'39.419