First practice day at the German Grand Prix.
Dani Pedrosa sets the second fastest time at the Sachsenring and team mate Nicky Hayden is fourth.
Satisfactory return into action for both riders of the Repsol Honda Team in Germany on this first practice day. On a twisty and narrow circuit, not very suitable for the motorbikes with the largest cylinder capacity, size and weight of the Motorcycling World Championship, Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden have been once again the reference riders in the MotoGP class.
The morning session was the perfect occasion for Nicky Hayden to definitely forget about the British Grand Prix and to get ready for a new fight for the victory. Second in the morning’s first free session, the North American rider was fourth in the afternoon, three tenths behind the fastest, Italian rider Marco Melandri.
Team mate Dani Pedrosa, winner of the British Grand Prix only one and a half weeks ago, quickly absolved the track learning process at the German circuit on his new bike. Eighth in the morning’s first free practice, Pedrosa set the second fastest time in the second session, after keeping himself in the top of the time sheets for more than half of the practice.In the 250cc, comeback for Martín Cárdenas after the collarbone injury suffered during the first lap of the Dutch Grand Prix.
The Colombian rider of the Repsol Honda Team 250cc. has obviously felt the inactivity period of the last weeks and set the fifteenth fastest time in the first qualifying practice of the class staged this afternoon. In the morning however, Cárdenas surprised everybody in the class setting the eighth fastest time. Team mate Shuhei Aoyama, on a track where he had been testing four years ago on a 125cc bike, was twelfth in the morning and fifth after the afternoon’s qualifying session.In the minor class, Bradley Smith is back into action after scoring his first points in England, setting the twenty-second fastest time in the morning’s free practice. In the afternoon, Smith repeated the position in the first qualifying practice. His fastest time places him in the sixth row of the provisional starting grid.
Rider´s comments
Dani Pedrosa,
43 laps, 157’85 Km: ‘In the morning session I spent the time warming up at this track because I haven’t ridden a MotoGP bike here before. It was cloudy and a bit wet at the start so we only really got half a session, still we made progress and it went ok. Then in the afternoon I tried to improve myself and we also worked on the basic suspension set-up, chassis and tested some Michelin tyres. I had some quite big shakes on the bike but it wasn’t a big deal and I think this kind of thing is normal for a MotoGP bike. My finishing position is quite good but there’s still a long way to go and tomorrow’s qualifying session is critical.’
Nicky Hayden,
57 laps, 209’24 Km:
‘We came out pretty strong today – definitely stronger that we’ve been on Friday in a lot of races this year – and that’s important. We’ve still got to find some time and it’s difficult to do here because a couple of tenths is a lot on a short lap like this. But I feel like we’ve got ourselves in a good position at the start of the weekend. We have to improve in some areas but right now I’m confident that we can step up overnight. This is one of the most important tracks on the calendar in terms of qualifying, so tomorrow it’s going to be really important to get a good, clean, fast lap. And because the track’s so tight, getting a good start on Sunday’s going to be really important too.’
Shuhei Aoyama,
56 laps, 205’57 Km:
‘The practices have been good today, especially considering that it’s the first day. I remember the circuit quite well thanks to the tests we had here four years ago, but I think that the asphalt is a bit bumpier. We still have to fine tune the settings of the bike, especially as regards the rear suspension in order to be faster. We’ll try to make another step forward tomorrow and get a place on the front row, which is our aim in order to prepare the Sunday race well.’
Martín Cárdenas,
49 laps, 179’87 Km:
‘I felt very well in the morning considering that it’s been my first day. I lost the pace a bit in the afternoon and wasn’t able to improve my times, so I hope to be able to improve them tomorrow to be further in the front. We are basically working on the suspensions. We’ve tested some things in the afternoon and are going to test other things tomorrow to see if it works better. What I’m having more trouble with is the slow section of the circuit, but we’re going to work to improve it tomorrow. The collar bone injury is perfect; I haven’t had any pain at all. I haven’t felt tired either, just the usual tiredness of having been off for a couple of weekends, but it will be much better tomorrow.’
Bradley Smith,
38 laps, 139’49 Km:
‘Today was interesting. The first session was difficult because I had to learn the track and it took a while. Here you need such a precise line in the first two sectors, and if you don’t have the line you end up loosing a lot of time. We improved a lot in the second session. It still wasn’t an ideal lap and we made a few mistakes, but I still got a lot more in the tank for tomorrow which is a good sign. It would be nice to be back up where we were in Donington, so that’s the aim for tomorrow. We got a few things to test so hopefully we will be there. It’s good to be back into action after Donington. You want the race to be the next weekend but it’s also nice to have a week off, get back to training and to school. We’ll see what happens tomorrow.’
Standings
MotoGP
- M.Melandri (Honda) 1’23.145
- D.Pedrosa (Honda) 1’23.486
- L.Capirossi (Ducati) 1’23.490
- N.Hayden (Honda) 1’23.525
- K.Roberts (KR) 1’23.676
250
- J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 1’25.124
- H.Barberá (Aprilia) 1’25.160
- A.de Angelis (Aprilia) 1’25.634
- Y.Takahashi (Honda) 1’25.779
- S.Aoyama (Honda) 1’25.813
15. M.Cardenas (Honda) 1’27.053
125
- M.Pasini (Aprilia) 1’27.546
- L.Pesek (Derbi) 1’27.686
- M.Kallio (KTM) 1’27.869
- P.Nieto (Aprilia) 1’27.966
- S.Corsi (Gilera) 1’27.985
22. B.Smith (Honda) 1’29.632
