A day of introductions for Dani Pedrosa at the Italian track, just 24 hours after the San Marino GP. Today the Spanish rider had his first ever ride on Bridgestone tyres, the ones he will race with the rest of the 2008 season. Moreover his team had a second motorbike prepared in the pits, the latest one with pneumatic valves, ready to go out on the track when the moment arrived. The first task was to slightly adjust the set up on his Honda RC212V for the new tyres, so that afterwards when Dani was used to the new responses from the bike he could move on to testing the engine with pneumatic valves.
The Repsol Honda Team rider went out onto the track for the first time at 13.00, and he did an initial set of 6 laps so that he could try out the new tyres for the first ever time. From then on Dani`s team carried out an in-depth test schedule that went on, without a break, until 18.15. The original plan was to finish at 18:00, but the team asked the circuit management for another 15 minutes so as to complete the tests. Sets of between 6 and 8 laps went on all afternoon until the day`s work ended.
The first practice sessions for Pedrosa with the new tyres were on the bike he rode yesterday, Sunday, at the same ciruit. With this bike and with the essential adjustments having been made to make allowance for the new wheel set up, Pedrosa set a best time of 1’35.555 secs, a lap time that was close to his best in the race yesterday, when he set a 1’35.479 secs.
A little before 17:00 Dani went out on to the track for the first time riding the Honda RC212V that mounts the engine with pneumatic valves and at the same time with Bridgestone tyres. From the very first moment, Pedrosa got positive sensations on the new bike, setting on lap 76, out of a total of 81 that he did at the Italian track, a best time of 1’34.652 secs, 8 tenths faster than his best time in yesterday`s race. This lap set by the Repsol Honda Team rider was with race tyres.
Pedrosa`s best time in the three free practice sessions in the San Marino GP was a 1’35.520 secs., and in the race – the fifth fastest- Dani set a 1’35.479 secs. lap
Dani Pedrosa >> Audio
“This has been a day with many changes and I am satisfied. It was a tough day for me, as we worked a lot and I almost never took my helmet off the whole time, but this was necessary because we did not have much time. Luckily it was sunny today and we were able to ride as we liked, with a slow start and then buiding up, and that is important. We tried to find a set up we liked, as the tyres are very different and the handling on the bike changed drastically, it feels like another bike. Right now it is difficult to say what it is that I most liked about the new tyres, as I still do not have much experience with them and we have not tried a lot of compounds. I just tried to get used to them, find their limits and to get to know them and their response. I tried to find out if they are good when you start off, or whether you have to warm them up more or less time. At the beginning the first thing you aim for is security, to feel comfortable and to find out how the stability is on the bike. From then on the most important thing for me is to begin to discover where their limits are and to find out how they react at certain moments. The bike that has the engine with pneumatic valves is very different, something I am not used to because it is a bit more aggressive and and I do not have so much touch. It is not so gentle. It has other strongpoints, although there is still work to do on the set up, because the other bike is more tuned. I did not do a lot of laps, but the sensations have not been bad at all.”
