This lunchtime saw the start of the first day of the Italian Grand Prix at the Mugello Circuit, in which Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso finished in fifth and eighth place respectively. The Spanish rider of the Repsol Honda Team, who battled from the start with the top three classified riders, was beaten by several other riders in the final moments and finished a little more than a second away from Valentino Rossi, holder of the best time of the day. Andrea Dovizioso, further back all session while working hard with his technical team to move forward with the set-up of his bike, was eighth at this meeting which is so special to him.
The first outing at the Italian track has been, as was expected, a day of hard work in the Repsol Honda Team box. Luckily, the rain and storm clouds which the Continental Circus experienced yesterday morning at the Tuscan circuit, did not return and the good weather allowed good progress to be made in the first free practice session.
The fourth meeting of the season is very important for both the Repsol Honda Team riders. For Andrea Dovizioso, riding at home, in front of the Italian fans, always gives an extra level of motivation and, after achieving a valuable podium in France, the Italian rider wants to repeat and even improve on this performance in front of his countrymen. But, he and his technical team must improve the set-up of his Honda RC212V if they hope to be as competitive as in France. Right now, eighth best time for Dovizioso in Italy.
On the other side of the box, Pedrosa has shown that what happened in France – fifth after losing two positions in the last lap – is now forgotten and that he arrives in Italy with the intention to again do battle for a place on the podium. He started very well today and remained amongst the three fastest riders of the class during the free practice session, although in the closing minutes he was overtaken by a few riders, finishing in fifth place.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’50.773 sec, 23 laps, 121 km. >> Audio
“We didn’t go crazy testing many things on the first day here in Mugello. We were focused mainly on testing Bridgestone’s tyre options because it’s very important to get that selection right to find the performance for race distance. The track conditions weren’t bad today although the surface was quite slippery, so times will improve. Stability and agility are very important at this circuit and we still need to work on the chassis set-up side to improve these areas. We were not especially fast today, but we were not looking for an ultimate lap time either. For the first day of practice we are going in the right direction and tomorrow we can move forward”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’51.255 sec, 26 laps, 136 km. >> Audio
“It’s my home race and already we can feel the atmosphere building – it’s a special event for the Italians here at Mugello. To be honest I’d have preferred to have finished closer to the front because it’s quite a big gap to the leaders, but with some work on the machine set-up I’m sure we can move forward. I was slow mid-corner pretty much everywhere today, and you spend a lot of time leaned over here so that’s why we are quite a way off at the moment. The bike feels like it wants to run-on as I’m exiting the corner so this is the area we’ll focus on tonight. I’m confident we can improve from this position”.
