Complicated start of the Malaysian Grand Prix for the Repsol Honda Team.
Dani Pedrosa injures himself after a heavy crash and it is not sure yet if he will be able to take part in the Saturday practice and Sunday race. Nicky Hayden finishes in a back eleventh position.
Bad start of the Malaysian Grand Prix for the interests of the Repsol Honda Team, leader of the overall teams and riders standings in the 2006 World Championship. While the solid leader of the standings, Nicky Hayden had to settle for a back eleventh place after this first practice day, things went even worse for his team mate Dani Pedrosa, who had a heavy crash 28 minutes before the end of the second free session, while he was leading the time sheets with an advantage of almost one second. The crash caused him a strong blow, injuring his right knee and a toe of his left foot. It happened on turn 13 of the Sepang layout and the Repsol rider was riding at 192 Km/h when he crashed.
The front tyre of Danis bike lost grip on that fast right-hander and the rider, who was leaning his knee on the ground, had the bad luck of hitting with the knee against the inner kerb, causing him a spectacular cut. According to the statement of Doctor Claudio Macchiagodena, Medical Director of the Championship, who examined Pedrosa after the crash, Dani has an incision with loss of substance in his right knee that fortunately has not affected the joint.
He has got four stitches to reduce the wound but since it is in such a delicate place due to the continuous movement of the area and the flexed position of the leg on the bike, it is not sure whether he will be able to take part in tomorrows practice and the race on Sunday. Moreover, Dani has a tiny little fissure in his left big toe. If we would be talking of a normal person I would completely rule out the chance of taking part in the activities of the rest of the weekend, but since were talking about a rider, we have to wait for the evolution of the injury along the next 24 hours to make a further statement. Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa will be back at the Clinica Mobile tomorrow morning to see how the injuries have evolved during the night.
The 250cc practices went quite better for both of Alberto Puigs pupils in this first practice day at the Malaysian Grand Prix. Young Shuhei Aoyama was fourteenth fastest this morning in a circuit the Repsol rider had never been before. Team mate Martín Cárdenas, on his second time at the Malayan circuit, finished right behind him setting the fifteenth fastest time. In the afternoon at the first qualifying practice of class, making up the provisional starting grid, Aoyama moved up to seventh and team mate Cárdenas to eight.
In the minor class, with the absence of Bradley Smith who is still recovering from the injury suffered during the practices of the Czech Grand Prix, Repsol sponsored rider Joan Olivé had an outstanding performance today on the first practice day at the Malayan circuit. Olivé set the eighth fastest time in the mornings free practice and the fourth fastest in the first qualifying practice of the afternoon, getting a place on the provisional front row. Also Repsol-sponsored rider Pablo Nieto was eleventh in the morning and thirteenth in the afternoon.
Rider´s comments
Dani Pedrosa:
Today things were going pretty well. I had a good feeling from the bike and felt comfortable with the pace I was running. But then I had a crash in Turn 13 and landed heavily. It started with a small slide from the front tyre and the bike dropped a little which made my right knee hit the kerb. Im pretty sure its this impact that caused my injury. I can remember the whole crash, which is a good I suppose, and I was able to walk away, although it was quite painful. Well see how it feels tomorrow and decide if I can take part in the morning session I really hope so.
Nicky Hayden:
It wasnt as positive as wed have liked it to be today. If we were just a few tenths faster wed be a lot further up because its close just ahead of me although a few guys up front are really fast so weve definitely got some work to do. We were using the new chassis that we tested on the two days after the Brno race. It worked really well there but hasnt helped us so much here. Also the clutch issue has come back a little bit today. Tomorrow weve got two more hours of practice to come so well definitely try to find a good race tyre and get the bike working a little better.
Shuhei Aoyama:
Im not completely happy today, despite having improved from the morning to the afternoon session, because Im still 1.2 seconds from the fastest time. This morning I had some trouble because I still had to learn the circuit and in the afternoon it was better though not perfect yet. I had no problems with the heat today because its been quite similar to the heat in Japan, maybe even less. The bike is doing well but we still have to improve because our lap times are not fast enough, and we have to work on the suspensions and the general set-up as well. Weve also tested some tyres today but we havent made any decision yet.
Martín Cárdenas:
Things didnt work out very well in the morning but we did some changes in the afternoon that helped us improve a lot and I was able to do my best qualifying so far, so Im really satisfied with my position. The set-up of the bike is very good after the changes we made in the afternoon. The weather conditions are not being so hard so far. The sky was cloudy this afternoon, but we’ll see what the weather does tomorrow.
Standings
MotoGP
- L.Capirossi (Ducati) 2’01.711
- D.Pedrosa (Honda) 2’02.021
- K.Roberts (KR) 2’02.563
- J.Hopkins (Suzuki) 2’02.710
- C.Stoner (Honda) 2’02.847
11. N.Hayden (Honda) 2’03.174
250
- H.Barberá (Aprilia) 2’08.266
- J.Lorenzo (Aprilia) 2’08.404
- H.Aoyama (KTM) 2’08.556
- R.Locatelli (Aprilia) 2’08.902
- A.Dovizioso (Honda) 2’08.945
- S.Aoyama (Honda) 2’09.414
- M.Cárdenas (Honda) 2’09.415
125
- A.Bautista (Aprilia) 2’12.846
- M.Kallio (KTM) 2’13.974
- M.Pasini (Aprilia) 2’14.121
- J.Olivé (Aprilia) 2’14.681
- H.Faubel (Aprilia) 2’14.711
