Today was not a day for taking unnecessary risks. Persistent heavy rain fell on the German track just before the start of the this morning`s 250cc free practice session, that is when the MotoGP riders left the asphalt. From then on rain fell constantly almost flooding the track making the riding conditions really difficult. This was seen in the MotoGP classification where there were many falls, the total number was nine – 7 of them at the same point, corner number 8 a left-hander – a high figure for this category where there are fewer falls overall.
The morning session for the MotoGP riders was in the dry and Dani Pedrosa set the 3rd best time behind Lorenzo and Stoner. His teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who did not feel comfortable at any time when out on the track, finished in a disappointing 12th position.
In classification, in the afternoon, Dani Pedrosa experienced the same situation that he faced last year – heavy rain and an almost flooded track – and which saw him end up with several fractures and he ahd to say farewell to the world title fight. In these awful conditions the Spanish Repsol Honda Team rider opted to take things calmly and not take any unnecessary risks. That meant he finished in 8th position and so tomorrow he will start on the third row of the grid. His teammate Andrea Dovizioso was also careful and set the 11th fastest time, he will start from the fourth row.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’34.725 secs, 64 laps, 235 km >> Audio
“Qualifying in eighth isn’t ideal, so I’ll be trying to make another good start tomorrow. That’s going to be important here because the first turn is quite close to the start line, plus it’s difficult to overtake at this track. The conditions were quite difficult this afternoon, they were changing all the time and I was struggling to get into a good rhythm. There were a lot of riders crashing out there and I don’t have a lot of experience on this year’s wet tyres because I missed some testing earlier in the season. This was why I wasn’t going so quickly this afternoon. It wasn’t because if my crash in last year’s wet race. It was good that we had a dry practice session this morning and of course I’d prefer a dry race tomorrow. The forecast is not certain so we’ll aim to improve our set-up for both wet and dry conditions”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’34.892 secs, 59 laps, 216 km >> Audio
“The grip levels were quite low this afternoon which meant the machine was sliding a lot – this was the same for everyone of course. We were working on wet settings and the area we primarily need to improve is the stability of the rear on the entry to the corners. This is where the bike was tricky to control in the slippery conditions. It was raining throughout the session and this meant the track got was getting increasingly wet. If I had the choice, I’d prefer the less wet conditions from earlier in the session – and ideally fully dry of course. We’ll have to see what the weather does tomorrow and aim to make a fast start and make up some places quickly”.
