The Repsol rider sets the fastest time in the only free practice session of the day, where Casey Stoner was third and Andrea Dovizioso, fifth
The first and only free practice session of the day at Motorland Aragon —the second was cancelled due to a power shortage—, saw an ambitious Dani Pedrosa on the Aragon track. The Repsol rider finished the day with a time of 1 minute, 50 seconds and 281 thousandths, half a second faster than Casey Stoner, who was third, and eight tenths ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who finished again in the top five.
At the start of the session, it was again the World Championship leader —Casey Stoner— took the initiative. Followed by his team mates, Pedrosa and Dovizioso, the three riders led the times sheet for most of the morning practice session, until in the final minutes the times improved again. Andrea Dovizioso reached the second position, but 5 minutes from the end, Jorge Lorenzo improved in 76 thousandths Stoner’s best time. The Spanish rider kept the lead until Dani Pedrosa chained some amazing laps, improving his own times and finishing nearly half a second ahead of his countryman.
Pedrosa’s good performance in this first contact to the Aragon track was completed by Stoner’s third position and Dovizioso’s fifth place. Tomorrow, once the power shortage is repaired in Motorland, the MotoGP riders will compete in a 75-minute free practice session and the qualifying.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP1 – 1:50.281, 17 laps, 86 km.
FP2 – Cancelled
“In the morning session we were basically trying to get the feeling from the race track and we started well, the bike was working ok. We saw that the softer compound is maybe too soft, so not really the one for the race if the high temperatures remain, so we also tried the medium compound and I felt comfortable. In the afternoon the practice was cancelled which is a shame as the weather conditions were perfect. Of course we will have a longer session tomorrow morning but you cannot take the same benefit from it. With two sessions of 45 minutes you have time to analyze the data and make the changes you need for the second practice, while in 1h15 you cannot. Anyway, it’s the same for everyone, so let’s hope everything is ok tomorrow and we can keep improving the bike and have a good qualifying”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
FP1 – 1:51.091, 19 laps, 96 km.
FP2 – Cancelled
“It was a strange day. This morning’s practice didn’t give us much indication concerning the set up of the bike because we were struggling with the tyres, the track was not so clean and we were spinning a lot, the rear tyre was destroyed after ten laps so we had to use a new one. Tomorrow we will have 1h15 minutes of free practice. It will be an important session to work on the set up and in particular we will have to work to find more grip in the rear and reduce this spinning. I’m confident that the track conditions will improve tomorrow, especially for the qualifying. This morning we finished fifth and apart from Dani [Pedrosa], we are just three tenths from Lorenzo and everybody will lap faster tomorrow. The afternoon was strange because at first the session was delayed and then finally cancelled, anyway it’s the same for everybody so there is no problem. We are now focusing on tomorrow”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
FP1 – 1:50.806, 16 laps, 81 km.
FP2 – Cancelled
“We didn’t get that much time on the track this morning, we managed to get some data from the session but nothing that great. The track was a little abrasive and destroying tyres very quickly, we went out on the soft tyre and destroyed it in three to four laps so we tried to wait for the end of the session to see if the track got better but it didn’t really change. We wanted to see how it would be in the afternoon session but it was a non event, it’s strange as usually it’s a wash out or something but for the circuit power to go down is something a little different! Although we get the time back in the morning, it’s not that great as it makes it a very long day with a lot of riding and it’s pretty exhausting. We’ve just got to focus on finding the best set up we can tomorrow, thankfully the weather has been pretty consistent here over the past few days but I’m afraid the track will act similarly, we’ll just have to wait until tomorrow”.
