The Italian GP, to be more exact the demanding track at Mugello, has historically been the setting for great battles in the top category of racing, a place where local riders have alweays been in the starring role. The track is 5 245 metres long and combines very fast zones with others that are very technical, and at the same time there are long fast corners, and it is here that the Repsol Honda Team did their first free practice session, but with their eyes firmly fixed on what is promising to be a very hard fought race on Sunday.
The track temperature reached 45ºC in the first free session – something that will probably be repeated over the whole weekend – and the tests with the different tyres were something decisive today on the Italian track, the right tyre selection of the Bridgestones being a very important factor in the race.
The four title contenders´ first contact with the track in Italy, in Tuscany to be exact, spent their time weighing up the situation and at the end of the first hour´s work Lorenzo was the fastest, followed by Rossi, Stoner and Pedrosa.
The Repsol Honda Team rider Dani Pedrosa, was once again among the best in the top category, once again showing the form that gave him third place in the recent French GP. He set a new speed record for a bike in the top category today, reaching the frightening velocity of 349.3 Km/h on the home straight at Mugello. However, this must be confirmed by Dorna in the next few hours by its timing specialists after small differences were found in the results produced by the telemetric systems on some bikes.
Regarding the set up on his bike Pedrosa said that he is improving the front end behaviour with his team, and that more traction is needed on the long corners at the track if he is to be more competitive.
Andrea Dovizioso, who is racing with the Repsol Honda Team for the first time on home soil, also started to show what he is capable of. He stayed up with the leaders throughout the first free session but in the end the Italian had to make do with 9th position, a little over a second behind Lorenzo. He is hoping that he can improve the set up on his bike and get a better place in qualification tomorrow.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’50.808 secs, 24 laps, 126 km >> Audio
“It was good to get a full dry practice session today and I think this is the first complete hour-long session we’ve had because we had interruptions from the weather in Le Mans. The track conditions were very good and the lap times we saw today are already fast. My feeling on the bike was not bad, though we need to work on our braking, corner entry, and direction changes because these are the areas where we’re not so strong. Neither I nor the bike are at our maximum potential yet so, although we’re quite a long way from the fastest riders, I’m confident we can close the gap tomorrow. It’s clearly a fast straight here, although I didn’t think the top speed was that high until I saw it on the timing screens. Still, top speed is not the most important thing so I’m not really worried about the record – the lap time is more critical.”
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’51.206 secs, 26 laps, 136 km. >> Audio
“It’s great to be back riding at Mugello because this place is so special. It’s a fascinating racetrack partly because it is so difficult to master – and that’s what we found today. The track is technical and also very demanding physically. You really need to use a lot of energy to get round here quickly and it can be hard to get into the rhythm immediately and find the quickest way through the chicanes. I’m still having some problems with the handling of the bike and I’m struggling to get it turning from side to side in the way I want. So our target for tomorrow morning is to improve the feeling at the front end. We’ve collected some useful information from today’s session so me and the team will be working out ways to improve our package in this area.”
