As predicted by all the forecasts of the previous days, the first day of practices for the Portuguese Grand Prix featured an expected protagonist: the rain. The black clouds threatening in the Estoril sky from the start of the day, opened and it began to pour with rain during the first 125cc practice which, combined with a strong wind, increased in intensity until flooding the Portuguese track with huge puddles. It was impossible to go out for the first practice, only a couple of riders did more than a complete lap and the majority stayed in their pit-boxes.
This was the case for Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, both opting to shelter from the storm in their pit-boxes and it was not until the session which began at two in the afternoon, that they went out for the first time onto the asphalt of the Estoril circuit. The second session of free practices began with light rain falling on the Portuguese track and, although gradually easing off and even allowing the first rays of sun through, it was not enough to dry the track.
Under these conditions, Pedrosa completed 19 laps as his first outing on his return to competition, the results of which proved positive. The Spanish rider of the Repsol Honda Team said that he felt physically much better from the injuries to his left shoulder and confirmed that, although far from his optimum level of fitness, he could make a progressive improvement this weekend in each session he climbs onto his Honda RC212V.
His team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, who slowly improved on the Portuguese track throughout the free practice session, suffered a minor fall on turn 8, crossing the white line that delimits the asphalt of the Portuguese track, while braking. Despite the spectacular nature of the fall, Dovizioso returned to the track on his second bike to carry on working on the set-up with a view to Sunday’s race.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’53.592 sec, 19 laps, 79 km. >> Audio
“Straight away I felt much better on the bike here than I did in Australia and the shoulder has recovered a lot, which is very positive. I feel a little bit tired now, but basically I feel ok after riding today. It was a pity that we missed the whole practice this morning because of the rain, and also at the beginning of the afternoon session the track conditions were difficult, which limited what we could achieve. To be honest I didn’t feel totally at home on the bike today but I think this is normal after so long without riding, and this situation will improve. Usually when you ride in wet conditions you take it easy and this was especially true for me today because I certainly didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. It was good to be on the bike again and to see that I can ride more or less normally. Tomorrow we’ll see what the weather brings, but it’s good that we have two hours instead of two 45-minute sessions, and we’ll make the most of that extra time”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’52.294 sec, 16 laps, 67 km. >> Audio
“Everything was going quite well in the session and we were making progress and finding the best set-up for the track in these difficult conditions. I was on a fast lap when I made a mistake at turn eight and I had to brake on the white line at the edge of the track, and I crashed. Fortunately I wasn’t injured which is the important thing, but this cost us time and prevented us from being further up the timesheets. We need to make some more improvements to the set-up of the machine and the electronics for these conditions – and this is really important at this track because Estoril is quite tight and you need to manage the power really well. So we are not as close to the front as we need to be, but we have a lot of potential to improve from here and we know the areas where we have to work. It was a strange day with the lost morning session so let’s hope tomorrow brings more stable weather”.
