Dutch TT, Assen
First day of practice, Thursday June 26 2008
REPSOL HONDA RIDERS MAKE SOLID START
Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa made a
solid start to this week’s Dutch TT at Assen today,
placing fourth and ninth fastest after the first two practice
sessions.
In sunny but blustery conditions Hayden and Pedrosa were
second and third fastest this morning. Both riders improved
their times this afternoon, though Pedrosa dropped several
places while trying out different settings. Hayden is using
the pneumatic-valve RCV engine for the second time this weekend
while Pedrosa sticks with the conventional spring-valve engine.
This year’s Dutch TT is a particularly historic event.
Assen is the only MotoGP track surviving from the World Championship’s
inaugural year in 1949, making this the 60th consecutive World
Championship event at the Dutch venue.
Nicky Hayden, 4th fastest, 1m 37.012s
“It’s nice to finally see a little bit of summer
weather starting to hit Europe. The track is in great condition,
they did a great job of having it clean, so we were able to
get up to speed a lot faster than last year. All in all it’s
been a pretty solid day. We made a little bit of an improvement
this afternoon. I wasn’t able to improve my best time
by much but I was able to be a lot more consistent out there.
I was hoping to go a little quicker at the end which didn’t
happen. The bike’s working pretty well here but we’re
certainly going to have to step it up a bit to get in there
and be really competitive. We’ve got a few ideas to
try and make it a little bit better tomorrow, the rider too.”
Dani Pedrosa, 9th fastest, 1m 37.280s
“During the afternoon session we tried a different settings
solution for the chassis in an effort to improve my feeling
thorough all the changes of directions here, but it didn’t
give the results we had expected, so I couldn’t be fast
as I wanted this afternoon. We also tested some tyres, looking
for the best solution for Saturday. But the big question mark
is once again the weather; we can’t be sure about what
the weather will do tomorrow but it looks like it may be wet
so we tried to get as much work as possible done during the
course of today’s two sessions. Tomorrow, weather permitting,
we will keep on working on the set-up to improve our race
pace.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“We started off with normal settings today and both
riders have been making small steps forward throughout both
sessions. It seems like maybe we will have some rain here
tomorrow, so we hope we can have some more track time so that
our riders can keeping working on set-up and tyre choice towards
Saturday’s race.”
FREE PRACTICE 2 - LAP TIMES
1. 1 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 1'36.087
2 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.732
3 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.844
4 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 0.925
5 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.039
6 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 1.050
7 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 1.100
8 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 1.164
9 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 1.193
10 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.195
11 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 1.239
12 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 1.270
13 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 1.751
14 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 1.873
15 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 2.326
16 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 2.569
17 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 2.580
18 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 3.127
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