First in yesterday’s rain, first in this morning’s second free practice session, and again this afternoon, Dani Pedrosa is the fastest of the MotoGP riders on the American track this weekend. The Repsol Honda Team rider got his second pole of the 2009 season today – the other was in the French GP – and he did in a commanding manner after dominating the three sessions held so far.
His teammate, the Italian Andrea Dovizioso, is not having such a positive time though His lack of confidence in the front end and the associated technical problems – whch he has not yet solved – stopped him from being as fast as he would have liked.
Unlike yesterday whe it rained, today the sky was completely cloud free and sunny. The practice took place as normal and in the morning Pedrosa was the fastest practically the whole session, putting the icing on the cake with a fantastic lap that left the 2nd placed rider, Lorenzo, more than a second behind.
In the afternoon, in the classification session, Pedrosa once again dominated the whole period and only lost the first position for a few minutes. He quickly got it back though. After defining the set up on his Honda RC212V for tomorrow’s race he spent the final half hour trying to set the fastest time of the day. In the end the Repsol rider was the only one to get under 1.39 seconds. The 2nd placed rider, his compatriot Lorenzo, was half a second behind him.
The other rider in the Repsol Honda pits, Andrea Dovizioso, is not having such a positive weekend. Problems with the set up on the front end, and his lack of confidence, are seriously affecting the Repsol Honda Team rider, who because of his technical skills should be higher placed on the grid. This afternoon, at the start of the classification session, he made a mistake on corner 7 where there is a change in the asphalt and he fell, fortuntely the brave Italian rider was able to continue riding. In the end Dovizioso set the 8th best time and will start on the 3rd row of the grid.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’39.730 secs, 57 laps, 240km. >> Audio
“I’m really happy with this pole position because we have been fast all weekend so far – in the we as well as the dry – so this is very positive. The lap times are quick and also consistent which should give us a good chance in the race tomorrow. I’ve been comfortable on the machine from the start and things have just clicked here – it’s not as if we’ve made any big changes for this race. We can’t relax at all though because I’m sure the other riders will improve and we know how strong our rivals have been this season. So we must make a few small adjustments to make sure we have the best possible package tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to the race because it looks like the weather should be good – a big contrast to last year – and it will be great to feel the race-day atmosphere at Indianapolis in more normal conditions than last year&rsqu o;s wash-out. Now we’ll just stay focused and concentrate on our preparation for tomorrow.”
Andrea Dovizioso, 1’41.309 secs, 55 laps, 232 km. >> Audio
“I’d like to be further forward on the grid and I think eighth doesn’t actually reflect our potential here, so we’ll be aiming to improve the set-up for the race. My qualifying session didn’t go exactly to plan because I had a small crash near the beginning of the session in Turn 7. At that point in the middle of the turn there’s a change in the asphalt and you have to be more delicate on the brakes at the point. I didn’t change the lever pressure correctly which was the mistake that caused me to lose the front. In fact my feeling from the front end wasn’t perfect today, so this is what we’ll be working to improve for tomorrow. I think the front of the race is going to be run with laptimes below 1m 41s and I’ll need to get a good start from the third row to give me a chance of competing with the leaders. I’m confident we can t ake a step forward tomorrow.”
