The Spaniard leads the day with an advantage of more than eight tenths over the already new World Champion, Casey Stoner, second. Andrea Dovizioso, third, completes the Repsol Honda Team success in this first day.
Five days after securing the MotoGP title in Australia, the new Motorcycling World Champion resumed the action in Malaysia. The third and last round of the Asian tour started with the clear dominance of the Repsol Honda Team riders, led by Dani Pedrosa that took the first place in both free practice sessions. After him, Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso completed a positive day for the Repsol Honda Team, signing the second and third place, respectively.
The intense heat and humidity that always accompany the Malaysian Grand Prix did not prevent the Repsol Honda Team riders from showing their most dominant side in a practice day where they set the pace. Pedrosa was the fastest in the morning, as he was the only one to ride under 2 minutes and 2 seconds, setting a time 6 tenths faster than Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso, who were second and third. The rest of the riders rode above 2 minutes and 3 seconds.
In the second free session, the Repsol riders showed again that they are the fastest on the Sepang Circuit and, although Stoner led during some minutes of the session, his team mate at the Repsol Honda Team, Dani Pedrosa, set the pace again. While testing the tyres for Sunday’s race, the Spaniard focused on trying the softest tyre brought by Bridgestone, while the 2011 World Championship focused on the hard tyre.
Taking advantage of the highest grip level of that compound, Pedrosa was the first to lap in 2 minutes and 2 seconds and later the only one to lap in 2’01, stopping the clock in a definitive 2 minutes, 1 second and 250 thousandths, waiting to test the durability of this tyre for the race. In the end, he was no less than eight tenths faster than Stoner and nearly a second and a half faster than Andrea Dovizioso, who was third again after finishing 74 thousandths away from his morning time.
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
FP1 – 2:01.916, 14 laps, 78 km.
FP2 – 2:01.250, 15 laps, 83 km.
“Today we went pretty fast and consistent even though the track wasn’t very clean. We did a good job in both practice sessions, but I would like to improve a little more on the chassis side to feel more comfortable with the front and choose the right tyre for the race distance. At the moment we are doing good steps but we need to keep on working with the same style and try to preform well tomorrow in qualifying. We had a bad qualifying in Australia and we want to be stronger here and do it better”.
Andrea Dovizioso >> Audio
FP1 – 2:02.590, 17 laps, 94 km.
FP2 – 2:02.664, 16 laps, 89 km.
“This morning we started with a good base and we worked on the set up to improve the feeling with the front. The small changes we made worked well, but I’m struggling quite a lot in the middle of the corner with the bike leaning at the maximum angle, because on this track there is not so much grip, we need to continue working on the set up of the engine brake. Today we tested the rear hard tyre in both session, but it seems possible to race also with the soft so tomorrow we will test also the soft rear to understand how it works and to decide the tyre for the race. Today it was very hot, on Sunday the race will be at 4pm so it could be cooler, this is another element to consider. All in all, I’m positive, I really like this track and this is only the first day”.
Casey Stoner >> Audio
FP1 – 2:02.557, 15 laps, 83 km.
FP2 – 2:02.070, 16 laps, 89 km.
“Everything went pretty well today, we’re not too far off the pace with race tyres, we did over race distance and were pretty happy with the lap times we were doing on the soft tyre. We then went to the hard tyre and found it a little better and more consistent, we’ll have to see what the conditions are like tomorrow but so far we’re pretty pleased and the bike feels ok. We have some areas to improve on, we need to get the bike turning a little better into the corners, better braking stability and a little more rear grip in the traction area, if we can improve these then we’ll move a step closer”.
