Rain demon Olivier Jacque made the most of the unpredictable Mugello weather, and some Kawasaki tactics, to record fourth on the grid for Sunday's Italian Grand Prix - the highest qualifying position yet for the 800cc Ninja ZX-RR.
"That was the most exciting qualifying session of the season so far," smiled OJ, who missed his home French Grand Prix due to an arm injury sustained at Shanghai. "Our tactics worked perfectly and I got my best ever grid position in
MotoGP. The feeling in the wet was good and we improved the set up both for wet and dry conditions during the course of the day. I have more rear traction and, working with the mapping, we managed to make the engine less aggressive under damp conditions.
"In the afternoon, we first went out with wet tyres and I took the opportunity to improve my lap times when the track was drying out, just before it started raining again. Our strategy paid off later, too, as we waited until 10 minutes before the end to go out again, this time with intermediate tyres. The track had dried out again and I almost got a first row spot. I must thank my crew as today everything worked perfectly.
"Physically, I felt on good form in the wet and even this morning was better than yesterday. My arm is not painful anymore, although I can still feel a lack of strength in the dry. The weather is quite unstable and, at the moment, we're not sure what it's going to be like for the race. Personally, I'd prefer a wet race, even though the conditions are trickier, as it's less demanding physically and I enjoy it," he concluded.
Team-mate
Randy de Puniet, also riding injured, will start three places behind his fellow Frenchman, but was far less pleased after letting a potential faster lap slipped through his fingers.
