First contact with the Misano circuit for the Repsol riders on a hot first day of practice in preparation for the San Marino GP. For the two Repsol Honda Team riders the first day was spent on testing and getting the set up right on their bikes, and at the same time choosing the tyres for the race on Sunday.
Nicky Hayden returned to racing today after missing the recent Czech Republic GP because of an injury he got while riding a Supermotard bike. Helped by a walking-stick and with his right foot protected so that the heel injury was not aggravated, the American completed the two sessions of free practice with differing results. In the morning session Hayden began strongly and was seen in the leading positions throughout the practice session, finishing in a deserved 6th position, a little over a second off the best time set by the Australian Casey Stoner. In the afternoon the rider from Kentucky improved on his earlier time by almost half a second, but in the end he dropped down the standings to 11th. A fall on the final lap prevented him from setting a better time, but the good news was that he was unscathed after his fall.
Dani Pedrosa completed the two sessions without any surprises and quite satisfied, not so much because of the times, but because he rode at competitive level without any pain or physical problems. With Czech Republic GP now forgotten Dani concentrated on setting up his Repsol Honda RC212V and selecting the tyres for the race. The Spanish rider set the 14th best time in the morning and the 11th in the afternoon.
In 250cc, the first day was positive for Julián Simón, who finished in 6th position in the first classification session. The Repsol rode at a high level in both the free sessions, where he was 4th, as well as in the classification session; although he must improve when entering corners as this is where he loses ground with respect to the leader, the Italian Marco Simoncelli. Hiroshi Aoyama, a rider with technical support provided by Repsol, was 4th, and his teammate, Mika Kallio, 7th.
For Esteve Rabat and Marc Márquez, the first day on the Italian track was not as positive as had been expected as they finished well down the leaderboard in 16th and 23rd positions respectively. In the first free practice, with quite good sensations, Márquez was 9th but when the classification began the Repsol rider was affected by problems on the suspension set up and so he was not able to ride so fast. His teammate, Esteve Rabat, also felt uncomfortable in the morning, and although he was able to lower his time by more than two seconds, finishing 16th, he was not satisfied with the performance of his KTM 125 FRR.
Dani Pedrosa, 12th fastest, 1m 36.219s >> Audio
“It’s been a difficult but important day. We’re not happy with the result but I am happy because we are working to get me back into my rhythm which I had lost after missing Laguna, doing no real training in the summer break and then having lots of problems at Brno. We had a long debrief at the end of today, analysing all the data, and for sure we can improve our lap times tomorrow. Conditions here are quite extreme, it’s very hot. We have been testing some new tyres and we still have more to test tomorrow, when we will see what kind of shape we’ll be in for the race. We will keep working hard. Qualifying will be extra important because the first corner is so close to the grid and tricky too. Last year another rider took me out at the first corner and I want to avoid any probems there on Sunday, so I want to get the best grid position possible. I am feeling positive that I can regain my usual rhythm.”
Nicky Hayden, 11th fastest, 1m 36.189s >> Audio
“Things went pretty decent, considering. Not fantastic or nothing, but the bike was working pretty good, the tyres were working a lot better than they have the last couple of weeks, so a big thanks to Michelin for doing a good job here. It’s not the most pleasant ride of my life, but I expected that. In some of the right-hand corners I’m probably not as quick as I should be, but in T2 and T4 which are pretty much all left-hand corners I’m one of the quickest. In some of the rights the injury is a little bit of a hindrance, but it’s not a big deal. I don’t want to be a drama queen and make a big deal of it, I’m not the first guy who’s ridden injured. It’s just the way it is and the main thing is that it’s good to be back. I crashed in the last left, it was an easy little crash, I just held my foot up so it didn’t touch the ground. I was pushing hard, it was my best lap so far, I just hit a bump and lost the front. I’ve been pushing the front a bit most of the day, so I wasn’t really shocked by it.”
Julián Simón, 1’39,476 secs, 49 laps, 207 Km. >> Audio
“We tried to put the finishing touches to the set up the best we could, although we still have tomorrow to get it even better. I think we set some decent times and so I am on the second row. tomorrow my objective is to set a time that puts me on the first row and we are going to fight to do that. We are going to carry on developing the bike, both the engine and the chassis so that we can get a bit closer to the Aprilias. For the time being I am happy with the work the team has done, and I am making a special effort to try and be up with the leaders. We will see if tomorrow is another positive day, we still have to improve on some corners and above all with some of the braking, with respect to Simoncelli who at the moment is the fastest. In general this circuit suits my riding abilities. I also think that the bike is better, so we are going to work hard to take the best advantage of it.”
Esteve Rabat, 1’45.924 secs, 33 laps, 139 Km. >> Audio
“I like this circuit a lot. There are some points where you have to brake strongly, very fast corners and I am really enjoying it, but this morning things did not go so well. At the beginning things were fine, I even got up to 5th place, but for the second half of the practice we used a rear tyre that was not up to it. In the afternoon session you could see a big difference between the KTMs and the Aprilias because they are a little faster and they get away from us when they accelerate. But I think that this difference can be reduced. We had some problems with the chassis, because it does not let me go as fast as I would like at some points of the circuit. We have to work so that tomorrow is a good day and get the best possible classification position we can and so have better options in the race and be up with the leaders.”
Marc Márquez, 1’46.451 secs, 35 laps, 148 Km. >> Audio
“In the first session I went out to get to know the circuit and see how I felt. Right away I found that I was comfortable and I rode fast. In the afternoon it was harder for me and I wound up at the back of the field. I will try to improve tomorrow, in fact the suspension was not set in the best possible way and I think we can improve my time a lot. This is a circuit with many bumps and that makes riding more difficult, but that is the same for all of us. It seems that a change we made between the first and second session did not work out, and so we will have to modify the set up.”
