The first day of practice for the French Grand Prix has finished with a positive start for Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa, who finished in fourth and fifth places respectively. On an uncharacteristically sunny day at the French Le Mans circuit, the first encounter for the Repsol riders with the French track served to begin work on the set-up of their Honda RC212Vs in a session which was finally headed up by the Italian rider Valentino Rossi.
Almost three weeks after the action-packed race in Jerez, Pedrosa started today in the first Le Mans free practice following along the positive lines of the post Grand Prix tests in which he rode, with the rest of the MotoGP riders, the Monday after the Spanish meeting at the Jerez circuit. Even though there is still work to do on the set-up and improvement of the Honda RC212V 2010, his fifth best time denotes continuous progress in the work of the Repsol Honda Team.
And while Pedrosa clocked up the fifth best time and progresses, step by step, confidently to improve his motorbike, on the other side of the Repsol Honda Team box, the Italian rider Andrea Dovisioso does the same alongside his mechanical and technical team. Classified sixth at the last Grand Prix in Spain, Dovisioso returned today to the business of clocking up good times from the start of the session. Overall, the Italian rider was happy with the ease with which he was able to set good times each time he took to the track on this French summery day. His fourth best time, two-tenths from that of Rossi, put him amongst the fastest riders of the premier class.
Dani Pedrosa, >> Audio
“Well this was a fairly normal first Friday session and the feeling today was positive. Obviously we were working a lot to find a good base setting for this circuit in these conditions and we haven’t found the perfect set-up yet, but I’m sure we can improve it a lot tomorrow. I tested some electronics settings that I didn’t feel 100 per cent comfortable with, so we’ll analyse the data with the team and I’m confident that tomorrow I can make a big step forward. It’s good to have these weather conditions straight away here in Le Mans because usually we lose some set-up time with bad weather.
Andrea Dovizioso, >> Audio
“I’m happy about how we started here at Le Mans. I didn’t do the maximum number of laps this afternoon because we were working in the garage to make some changes to the settings – but I had three laps where I could push and I’m happy with my lap times and the feeling with the bike. At the beginning of the session we were working on the power control settings and making some adjustments to improve the rideability, and I’m confident we’re working in the right direction. Le Mans is a track that I like and it’s really a pleasure to ride with this nice weather. Long may it continue”.
