Repsol Honda Portuguese Grand Prix, Estoril
First day of practice, Friday April 11 2008
REPSOL HONDA TO THE FORE:
PEDROSA ON ‘PROVISIONAL POLE’, HAYDEN
A CLOSE FOURTH
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was in impressive form at
windswept Estoril today, heading a closely bunched leading
group on the first day of practice, team-mate Nicky Hayden
just 0.181 seconds down in fourth place.
Strong, blustery winds and a morning rain shower complicated
the day’s proceedings, but once the track was mostly
dry World Championship leader and Spanish GP winner Pedrosa
quickly got into the groove to set the pace, recording the
fastest lap of the day and establishing a good rhythm.
2006 MotoGP World Champion Hayden was also happy with his
day’s work, making only minor changes to his RC212V’s
setup, and is looking forward to further progress tomorrow.
Last year Hayden got pole position and the lap record here,
while Pedrosa finished the race in second place.
Dani Pedrosa, fastest, 1m 38.507s
“We started today using the base setup we used at Jerez
and we didn’t need to make too many changes. This morning’s
session was quite complicated because it had been raining,
so conditions were constantly changing as the track dried,
then we had a minor technical issue with one of my bikes,
so we had to stop before the end of the hour. This afternoon
we had a dry session which allowed us to start doing some
tyre testing in preparation for the race, which is especially
important considering the changeable weather during the weekend.
After a few laps this afternoon I began to get into the rhythm
of Estoril again.”
Nicky Hayden, fourth fastest, 1m 38.688s
“Everything went pretty well, it’s been quite
a positive day, I think we had a pretty good start to things.
Sure we’re gonna have to improve a little bit, but seems
like in the wet and dry we got a bike working relatively well,
so if we can sweeten up a few things tomorrow, hopefully we
can really be up there come Sunday. More or less the bike
was working okay without a lot of big changes, so we’re
running a pretty similar setup to what I ran at Jerez, just
a few little clickers here and there. Conditions were not
easy, the morning was wet, then half and half and the afternoon
was a little bit patchy and windy, so sure it was quite challenging,
but the team’s done a good job and we’ve got a
pretty decent setup, so we’ll see tomorrow.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“This has been a good day for the team, thanks to everyone’s
hard work. Both riders haven’t had to make any big changes
to their settings since Jerez. This suggests that they have
a good base setup with their RC212Vs, which is a good thing.
Really, they have only made small changes to the suspension
and also to the transmission, despite today’s weather
conditions being quite complicated, with this morning’s
session half wet and strong
Qualifying session results
1 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'38.507
2 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'38.547
3 Colin EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'38.632
4 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'38.688
5 Jorge LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'38.868
6 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP HONDA 1'39.171
7 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'39.202
8 Shinya NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'39.309
9 Randy DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP HONDA 1'39.332
10 John HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'39.474
11 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'39.591
12 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'39.946
13 James TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha YAMAHA 1'40.055
14 Alex DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini HONDA 1'41.033
15 Marco MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'41.112
16 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'41.572
17 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team DUCATI 1'41.875
18 Toni ELIAS SPA Alice Team DUCATI 1'43.262
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