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Weather played a big part in the practice session today with squally conditions, including high winds. Two rainstorms spoiled the opening practice in the morning. With another wetting the track before the afternoon session.
The wild wind was worst at turn one, a 200pkh corner with both Garry McCoy and Alex Criville crashing in separate incidents due to the 80-kmh gusts.
Marlboro Yamaha Team manager Geoff Crust. as quoted as saying \"I think we’ll have to get some Yamaha yachts sorted for tomorrow’s session and hoist the spinnakers!. Seriously though, conditions were very treacherous today and after seeing Garry and Alex crash, it’s better that the guys keep something in reserve for tomorrow, though they both went well today. You don’t learn a lot about setup when there’s so much wind but we’ve plenty of data from last year to go on.\"
Crivile said after his crash told the press. \"I took quite a blow to my back in that crash and I\'ll be going to get it checked over at Doctor Costa\'s clinic later on, I just got caught out by the wind, that\'s why I crashed. At the end of the main straight, going into the first corner, the wind caught the front of the bike and started pushing me towards the grass. I tried to control it but I ended up losing the front.\"
Others who had problems in the conditions Marlboro Yamaha Team rider Carlos Checa said this about the first turn. \"I had a couple of big scares there,\" he said. \"You’re flat-out in sixth approaching the corner and a couple of times the wind from the right of the track was so strong that I couldn’t even get the bike turned into the corner, I locked the rear at about 200 kmh and went sideways, like speedway. But I think we’re OK whatever the conditions; we have a lot of experience with wind because my crew chief Mike Webb and Mike Sinclair (the Marlboro Yamaha Team’s senior race engineer) are both very keen windsurfers! And if it rains hard for Sunday, I’ll be OK because I spent last week scuba diving in Port Douglas! The wind also makes things difficult out of the corners, because as soon as you touch the throttle, the front goes light and the wind takes it away from you. The gearbox is a mess too, because you’re doing corners at different speeds every lap, according to what the wind’s doing.\"
Kenny Roberts Jr. wished he wasn’t out there at all. \"Riding today is a waste of time,\" said the American. \"We shouldn’t be out there, not for safety reasons, but because we’re not learning anything, about tires, suspension and so on.\"
Marlboro Yamaha Team star Max Biaggi was another who struggled today \"I don’t think I’ve ever ridden in such windy conditions,\" said the Italian. \"It’s so inconsistent that you get blown around in different places every lap, and it makes it really hard to change direction and very easy to go off line. We’re trying to make my bikes more stable for these conditions and if we can do that, then I can start looking for fast lap times. The other problem is the temperature, this is probably the coldest day we’ve had all season, so it’s not easy to find the right tyres.\"
Despite the conditions Alex Barros managed to take Fridays provisional pole for Sunday\'s Philip Island 500GP with a 1.35.14 lap today.
Kenny Robert\'s was in second spot with a 1.35.15. Valentino Rossi took 3rd spot with a 1.35.21 and Norick Abe completed the front row on his Yamaha.
\"The conditions are very difficult,\" said Barros, \"The wind changes every time you go out, every lap, so getting a trouble-free lap is largely a matter of luck. They say it\'s going to be less severe over the next few days and I hope so, because racing in these conditions would be bad.\"
Even with the tricky winds just .822 of a second covered the top eight qualifiers for Sunday\'s Grand Prix.
Friday Qualifying
