The two Repsol riders, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, had contrasting luck during the second night practice session at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar. Dovizioso made a big improvement on his Repsol Honda RC212V, setting the fourth fastest time today, and at the same time working on improvements to the electronics on his motorbike. Dani Pedrosa on the other hand fell on corner number 10 at ten o`clock and after 28 laps, this has seriously affected his training plans.
There was a strong wind blowing today and so with sand being transferred onto the track the times set by the best riders today were nowhere near those recorded a year ago. Under these difficult conditions Andrea Dovizioso did 60 laps of the Losail circuit, setting the fourth fastest time just 0.74 seconds behind Casey Stoner, the quickest rider today.
His teammate, who did not get on his bike yesterday owing to rain and a wet track, did 28 laps and was finding a good pace under the floodlights in Qatar. But when there were two hours left in the second session he fell on corner number ten hurting his left wrist and knee. He was taken to the circuit`s medical centre to be checked by Dr. Macchiagodena working for the Mobile Clinic. After looking over the Repsol rider he said that Pedrosa had “received a strong blow on his left wrist but without any obvious injury. After a preliminary checkup and two X-rays I have recommended a more thorough investigation to rule out the possibility of a small fracture. Moreover the rider had a small cut on his left knee, this required three stitches. After an X-ray of the affected knee, a more serious injury has been ruled out.”
Pedrosa will return home tomorrow so that his personal specialists can carry out the relevant medical tests.
Dani Pedrosa
“The early part of the session went quite well and I was happy with the progress we were making. The conditions weren’t ideal with the sand blowing on the track, but this was an unexpected crash. I was entering Turn 10 and I had a high-side and then the bike came down on top of me. It’s a shame because we also lost testing time yesterday, but now I will go home for some more scans and hopefully they won’t show anything more serious”.
Andrea Dovizioso
“This was an interesting day and I’m happy with how it went. We tried many settings with the electronic systems on the machine to enhance the power delivery. The results were pretty positive and now we’ll have a meeting to decide how to move things forward tomorrow. The track conditions were not so bad – not as good as the race here last year, but considering how windy it was today, it was OK. The lap times were not as fast as the race lap times, but it was a good test today and we’re moving forward.”
