Last lap push gives Pedrosa early Donington Free Practice advantage
Friday, 24 July 2009
Spaniard’s 1’38.627 lap opens up MotoGP practice for British Grand Prix.
A dry line and a determined effort from Dani Pedrosa at the Donington Park circuit on Friday gave the Repsol Honda rider the fastest time of Friday afternoon, in practice for the British Grand Prix. Pedrosa clocked a 1’38.627 lap on his final lap of the day to continue his strong run of form from recent weeks, and take the early advantage ahead of this Sunday’s race.
Second quickest in the session, Casey Stoner recorded the fewest laps of any rider with 16 turns of the British track –some eleven fewer than Pedrosa. He was examining his Ducati Desmosedici GP9 in the garage whilst his rival was reducing his time by 0.245.
World Championship leader Valentino Rossi was third, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso and title challenger Jorge Lorenzo in a top five separated by half a second.
There were difficulties in the session for home rider James Toseland, who had a run off track during the session and was also unable to bring his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bike back to the pits after an incident at the end of the session.
Track conditions were drier than the drenched 125cc session, although not completely dry. motogp.com
MotoGP Free Practice Nr. 1 Classification
Pos. Num. Rider Nation Team Motorcycle Lap time Km/h Gap
1 3 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'38.627 260.497 “It feels great to be on top today and I’m pleased with how we handled a tricky practice session. The conditions were continually changing and so we needed to make the best use of the track time to learn as much as we can. There are a few areas we can improve upon - such as the feeling from the bike when it’s really wet - and we’ll look at working on the settings for those conditions because the weather doesn’t look so stable for the weekend and we could see more rain on Sunday. It nearly dried out fully towards the end of the session but we stayed on wet tyres for the whole time and I think this was useful because you can have this sort of situation in the race. We’re in reasonable shape for the rest of the weekend and I hope I can be in this position at the end of Sunday afternoon.” motogp.com
2 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1'38.872 262.399 0.245
“It was good to be able to test the wet setting today because we’ve struggled with it a little this year and we need time to work out the best solution,” Stoner commented. “We’re still far from it at the moment but it felt quite good and we have a good base to work from now.”
The Aussie youngster added, “Once we got some laps under our belt in the wet I decided to sit the rest of the session out because even though the track was drying it was very slippery and it would be foolish for us to risk an unnecessary crash on the first day of an important weekend. Hopefully we’ll get a couple of sessions in the dry tomorrow and ideally, from our point of view, we’d like it to be cool.” motogp.com
3 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1'38.917 261.002 0.290
“These strange conditions are always hard to ride in but it was important that we had some time in the wet today because we were able to understand our level. We’re quite happy because I felt confident and I was able to be fast today,” said Rossi on the afternoon session, in which there was both a dry racing line and wet patches on the notoriously slippery British track.
“The conditions changed a lot during the hour and by the end it was mostly dry, which meant it was quite hard to ride with the wet tyres but we were still quite fast and in the end we’re third, which is a good start. We’ve got a few modifications to make as usual after a Friday but we have a good base. Tomorrow it seems it will be completely dry so hopefully by the end of the day we will be ready for Sunday, whatever the weather,” he continued.
Expect Rossi to face competition from close to home this weekend, courtesy of teammate and persistent rival Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard is still undecided as to whether he will continue to share a partitioned garage with Rossi next season, but that is not something that overly alters the 30 year-old’s perception of the young pretender to his crown.
“Jorge is a great rider and a great teammate; I’ve heard the rumours about him going ot another team, but it doesn’t make a difference to me. I’m already signed for next year, and I think that he will be a great rival on either a Yamaha or another bike,” he concluded. motogp.com
4 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Repsol Honda Team Honda 1'39.069 258.747 0.442
“I’m satisfied with the job we did today. Of course we need to tune the set-up and improve the traction in wet conditions, but this was a good way to begin the last British Grand Prix at Donington,” said the Repsol Honda rider, just over half a second down on teammate and fastest Friday man Dani Pedrosa.
The practice started in very wet conditions and I had a good feeling on the bike from the beginning of the session so I’m pleased about that. The track had quite a reasonable level of grip and the pace I could set was good straight away.
“Conditions were changing all the time and in the last part of the session when the track was 90 per cent dry, I couldn’t set the fastest lap that I was capable of because I waited for a couple of laps and didn’t use the wet tyres to the maximum when they were new,” he reviewed.
Dovizioso had a disastrous qualifying session last time out in Germany, where he could only salvage eleventh on the grid under tricky conditions. The pressure is on the factory rider for race day after three consecutive DNFs, but at the moment his main focus is Saturday afternoon and what he expects to be a positive run.
“I’m confident for tomorrow and I think we have a decent chance of getting a good grid position here,” he declared confidently. motogp.com
5 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha 1'39.105 261.572 0.478
“I’m really happy about this practice today because I felt comfortable on the bike and was able to brake quite late in the wet. I was pleased that we had a chance in the drier conditions later, because it showed what we need to work on for tomorrow. I had made a lot of laps in the rain so my tyre was quite worn by that time, when it was more dry, but anyway the times weren’t important for me today and I’m just happy about my performance in the wet. We learnt a lot and now we will use this to improve tomorrow.” motogp.com
6 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki 1'39.130 259.744 0.503
“We could understand a bit how the bike works on the full wet tyres here today, and also try to understand when would be the best time to change bikes in the race if conditions were to be like that,” Melandri stated after placing sixth in the timed run with a 1’39.130 lap.
“I’m confident, because I feel good on the bike and in the dry I also think that we can get a good rhythm going.”
Looking for further rear grip in the dry ahead of qualifying, the Hayate Racing rider is happy with his wet weather performance but still hopeful of a rain-free race.
“I would prefer to have a dry race because on this track it is very risky all the time. The grip level in the wet is very bad and it is difficult to work the left side of the tyre up to temperature during the race when you can’t wait many laps.” motogp.com
7 36 Mika KALLIO FIN Pramac Racing Ducati 1'39.209 261.445 0.582
“I think seventh position is not too bad, because it is our first time here with this bike and everything was a little bit difficult for everyone. The things we were trying to find were difficult due to the weather. In the last laps I was able to improve a lot, so at the moment I think we can be more or less happy with where we are.”
He continued, “Normally this track has been pretty good for me, like last year I won here in the 250cc race and in 125cc I was always quite fast here. I like the track so I think in the MotoGP class we can also be really fast here. Like we saw today we are able to be in the top ten which is important, but in the race if everything goes well I hope we can be in the top five.”motogp.com
8 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'39.379 259.058 0.752
“It was mixed conditions and that made it tough but it was probably the best conditions because we got some wet set-up time and at the end it was drying out really fast. And even though I was still on the wet tyres when it was dry, we gained a lot of information. I'm pretty happy because in the wet I was sitting in the top five comfortably and as it dried out I was looking good in the first three sections. But in the last section I was losing half-a-second. That was still the wettest section but I could have pushed harder. I felt like I was pushing but when you think you're on the edge you still might have another 15 per cent to go. But it's hard to gauge in those conditions until you're either on top of the charts or in the gravel trap. I think we learned a lot and we made some big progress with the front-end problems I've been having. We've been experimenting with body position to try and help improve the front and it seems to have worked. We're going more in (Jorge) Lorenzo's direction to get a bit more weight on the rear and not overloading the front. So I'm happy and looking for another good result at Donington.” motogp.com
9 24 Toni ELIAS SPA San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'39.755 252.269 1.128
10 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1'40.116 254.592 1.489
“Typical British weather! It’s been like this since I got here at the start of the week. We started out in the wet and I didn’t have much feel to begin with but we made a couple of changes and got better and better as the session went on. On the last lap I went straight in the last corner and ran wide so I made a little error there. Basically the bike didn’t feel too good in the heavy rain but much better in the damp. The weather looks better for tomorrow so we hope that’s the case because it was difficult to draw any conclusions today.” motogp.com
11 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1'40.419 256.836 1.792
"As I have said before, we need to have time on the bike to get it set-up the best for us. It seems that we keep getting really difficult weather that isn't helping us at all. Today we used a wet tyre for the whole session and at the end 85% of the track was dry and the rest was wet so it was difficult to be able to get anything done. We can hope that the weather is better tomorrow so we can work on the bike and if we can I am sure we will be in a good position for Sunday." motogp.com
12 52 James TOSELAND GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 1'40.522 255.558 1.895
“I didn't have much feeling with the bike when it was full wet but it just kept drying out and I knew the bike set-up would suit the conditions better when it was drying up. So I didn't think there was any point in coming if the track conditions were going to get better and I decided to stay out. I did a lot of laps in the mixed conditions in Germany last weekend and that really helped me out a lot today. I just kept improving and improving but unfortunately because I stayed out for the session I ran out of fuel right at the time when the track conditions were the best they had been for the whole hour. I wasn't sure how much time was left but having done 28 laps I knew it was going to be close on the fuel. It's a shame because I slipped down the order a little bit but I'm happy because most of that session I was right in the mix in the top six and it was pretty encouraging. This weekend is very important for me and as always I put my maximum effort into that session to start the weekend off on a positive note and I think I've done that. I've got unbelievable support here already and that makes me determined to get a good result on Sunday.” motogp.com
13 41 Gabor TALMACSI HUN Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda 1'40.850 258.127 2.223
14 7 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki 1'41.467 256.836 2.840
"It was really strange conditions out there today, but I guess you could say that is just normal British weather! We had a huge downpour at the start of the session and the track was very wet and quite slippery. We worked hard - and quickly - on getting a good wet setting while the track was still wet and the bike worked well in those conditions. At the end the track dried a lot so we just tested some small things that didn't really rely on fast lap-times, which was useful because with how the track was there wasn't a lot else to be learnt out there. At the end I came in a bit early because the track had dried out in most places, but there was still a couple of wet patches and it seemed a bit too dangerous for slicks." motogp.com
15 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 1'41.861 255.134 3.234
16 15 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda 1'42.210 258.561 3.583
17 88 Niccolo CANEPA ITA Pramac Racing Ducati 1'42.696 253.515 4.069
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