The second and definitive day of practice for the Czech GP finished this afternoon and the two Repsol Honda Team riders made sure of a good position at the start of tomorrrow’s race. Dani Pedrosa, was always among the leading three today and in the end got a first row grid position with the third best time behind Rossi and Lorenzo. His teammate Andrea Dovizioso, with a few details on the set up still completed was 6th and will start on the second row tomorrow.
In the morning, just like yesterday on the Czech track, Pedrosa was very fast in the second free session. His second best time, one tenth behind the fastest today, was a clear indication of the Repsol Honda Team rider’s good form. Andrea Dovizioso, with a few problems getting the right set up finished 7th and had the specific aim of improving in the definitive classsification session.
In the afternoon the session started with both Repsol riders occupying plaves among the first five very quickly. Until the halfway mark both Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso worked on their bikes respective set ups for the race. When there were 25 minutes left the two began to lower their times on softer race tyres, trying to get a good grid position. Pedrosa, although being very close to the pole in the end had to make do with 3rd position whilst Dovizioso, battling with the delicate stability on his bike when braking and taking corners was 6th. Tomorrow, first row start for Dani Pedrosa, and a second row start for Andrea Dovizioso.
Dani Pedrosa,1’56.528 sec, 47 laps, 254 km. >> Audio
!I’m happy enough with today because we’re on the front row and that’s the most important thing to achieve in qualifying. I think I could have gone even quicker at the end of the session, but on my final run lap I had a lot of traffic and I had to do two slow laps until I found a clear track. Still, I think we had some more potential to go faster so this is positive. For tomorrow we still have to improve the set-up and achieve a little more consistency in our lap times so that I can run at the front. I like this circuit and I’ve had some good results here previously, so I hope I can make a quick start and fight for the win tomorrow”.
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’57.108 seg, 50 vueltas, 270 km. >> Audio
“During the qualifying session we improved the race pace and reduced the gap to the leaders by about four tenths, so this is a positive move. We were further away than that yesterday and this morning so we’re going in the right direction. We are still need to go quicker if we want to fight for the lead in the race tomorrow so me and the engineers will be working on a few set-up areas that will, hopefully, give us an extra edge and allow us to compete at the front. In terms of the tyre choice we’ll be going for the hard compound Bridgestones. There’s only a small difference between the compounds but the hard tyre is the choice – no question. We’ll aim to get the most of the warm-up session and give it everything in the race”.
