Sunny in the morning with heavy rain predicted for the afternoon. The World MotoGP Championship 2008 will go down as one of the wettest, together with that of 2000, in the last few years. After yesterday`s sun and the pleasant morning – contradicting all weather forecasts – in the end the afternoon brought clouds and rain which turned very heavy for the rest of the day. Therefore the riders in the three categories had free practices in the dry in the morning and in rain in the afternoon.
In MotoGP it was a positive day for the two Repsol Honda Team riders. In the morning, on a dry track, Nicky Hayden set the 11th fastest time and his teammate Dani Pedrosa the 6th. In the afternoon, on a track that was made very complicated because of the large amount of water on it, Nicky Hayden was the fastest at the Phillip Island circuit, consecutively setting the fastest lap times on his final three laps in the second free practice session. Dani Pedrosa, gradually got faster in the rain and in the end set the 8th best time in the afternoon session.
Simón on the provisional front row of the grid, and Rabat on the second in 125cc
The Team Repsol KTM 250cc rider was just under a second away from a podium finish at Motegi last weekend, he finished 4th in the race. And today Simón showed that he is in good form again, completing the first day of practice in Australia with a very positive day`s work. He showed that he has a good pace in both the rain as well as in the dry. In the morning, on a dry track, the Spanish rider set the 4th fastest time, 0.4 seconds behind the leader, Mika Kallio, a rider with technical support from Repsol. In the afternoon and in heavy rain, Simón was 2nd, 0.3 seconds behind the fastest, his compatriot Bautista.
Esteve Rabat put in a great session at Phillip Island this afternoon during the first classification session in the rain. Rabat, who was 18th in the morning, was among the fastest from the start of the classification session. Taking advantage of the good set up he had achieved on his bike for the rain where power is not so important. The young Repsol rider was in second place five minutes from the end, although a fall after a rear wheel skid meant that he was unable to defend that good position, in the end he was 5th and so on the second row of the provisional grid.
Marc Márquez his teammate did not have such a good start to the weekend. Márquez, lost a chance to get to know the circuit in the morning as his bike developed an engine problem, then he had a fall at the end of the straight on his second lap, this forced him to go back to the pits on foot and to get on his second motorbike. In the morning Márquez set the 21st fastest time after his first contact with the Australian track. In the afternoon and in spite of his fall the young Repsol rider went back out onto the track to finish in the same position that he got in the morning. So then, second row on the provisional grid for Rabat, and fifth row for Márquez at the end of the first day`s practice before the Australian GP.
Dani Pedrosa, 1’31.161 sec, 55 laps, 245 Km. >> Audio
“I am feeling quite confident so far because we’ve had a useful first day of practice and the bike seems to be working fine. Of course, we do need to keep working hard and improve our race pace, especially in the dry, because [Casey] Stoner was really fast in the dry this morning. In particular we need to work on the balance of the bike, which is very important here. This afternoon in the wet, I started out quite cautiously, then started to push a bit harder towards the end of the session. My times improved lap by lap and I needed two or three more laps to finish in a better position. Anyway to be the first day, I’m quite happy. I hope that the weather is kind to us tomorrow, so that we can continue working in machine set-up on a dry racetrack”.
Nicky Hayden, 1’31.284 sec, 52 laps, 231 Km. >> Audio
“This morning it wasn’t great to be in eleventh, but this afternoon it was nice to be fastest in the wet and consistently really quick at the end, things were feeling really good. My best rain lap time was only seven seconds slower than my best this morning, and it was real wet, so that’s down to some good Michelin rain tyres. But honestly I could have done with some more dry track time to sort out some problems we had this morning. I was struggling with traction, and without traction here you’re not going anywhere. We have got some things to try with the bike set-up, which we couldn’t try so much in the wet, but hopefully we can use tomorrow. I need to be going faster in the dry, we’ve definitely got some work to do, so we’ll keep pushing and see what the weather does tomorrow. I love this track, I love racing at speed, it’s a great thrill, I just need to find some edge grip. If we can find that I can be fast in the dry too”.
Julián Simón, 1’44.223 sec, 45 laps, 200 Km. >> Audio
“Today we had terrible conditions. It rained a lot and as the time passed it got heavier and heavier. But things turned out positively as we got the best set up we could and I quickly felt comfortable, this meant I was always up with the fastest riders. At the end I squeezed a bit more out of the bike, but without reaching the limit, because today was not a day to fall. I saw a lot of the others falling and that made me slacken the pace a little, even so I finished on the provisional first row and tomorrow I am aiming to finish there too. If it is dry the big objective is to try and continue working the best we can so that we finish on the front row, because we were fast in the morning session too”.
Esteve Rabat, 1’50.374 sec, 33 laps, 147 Km. >> Audio
“The morning did not go too well, but in the classification things went better. This is the first time that I have got such a good classification in the wet. I do now know what has changed as I concentrated on riding the same as always, and I got a good time. I hope to carry on along these lines. The truth is that I noticed that the bike was working very well, the initial set up was a good one and I felt comfortable on the track, this is the circuit I like the most in the calendar. As always I gradually increased the pace bit by bit until I fell. When I opened the throttle the rear wheel skidded and I wound up on the ground, but I did not hurt myself, and I can say at the end of the session I was pleased. I hope things carry on like this”.
Marc Márquez, 1’52.955 sec, 35 laps, 156 Km. >> Audio
“In the first session I had some engine problems on the second lap, and so the mechanics were working on the first bike. Then I went out on the second, but I did not manage to get a comfortable ride or set a good time, although I did get to know a bit about the circuit. In the classification I went out on the first bike again, but right at the beginning I made a mistake and I fell. I went back out on the second, but without much confidence, but bit by bit I got my pace back and I was riding a little faster on the final few laps”.
