PEDROSA ON TOP FOR REPSOL HONDA
Repsol Catalan Grand Prix, Catalunya
First day of practice, Friday June 6 2008
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa set an impressive pace on
the opening day of Catalan Grand Prix practice today, topping
the first two sessions, just six thousandths ahead of his
closest rival Loris Capirossi. Team-mate Nicky Hayden made
solid progress, ending the day ninth, less than six tenths
off the fastest lap of the day.
Track conditions were more slippery than usual today following
heavy rain throughout much of yesterday. Seven riders crashed
during the morning and afternoon sessions, Pedrosa sliding
off in the final minutes of the second outing, after he already
had ridden his best lap.
Dani Pedrosa, fastest, 1m 43.017s
“We started practice this morning using the set-up from
Mugello. We tried various different chassis settings and we
also tried a few different tyres for the race. This morning
the asphalt was quite dirty, and although the track conditions
improved a bit this afternoon the surface was still dirty
off-line. Also, this track is quite bumpy, from the F1 cars.
Late this afternoon I crashed at turn five. There’s
a joint in the asphalt there, I hit the bump and lost the
front. Fortunately I wasn’t hurt and I was able to continue
riding. We had two dry sessions today which was good. Tomorrow
we will continue tuning the set-up and testing tyres for the
race.”
Nicky Hayden, 9th fastest, 1m 43.614s
“Today hasn’t been the smoothest. There’s
a lot of long corners here, so we’ve been trying to
get a bit of rear traction, that’s what we’re
working on. We’ve tried a few things and we had something
we were going to try on the second bike this afternoon but
we lost a bit of time with that bike. There’s been a
lot of rain here the last couple of days, this morning the
track was a bit damp off line, with a little bit of water
sitting in the kerbs, which made them pretty slippery. This
afternoon the weather was perfect but the track was still
a little slippery off-line.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
““Dani and Nicky are working carefully towards
their race settings. The set-up here isn’t so different
from Mugello, so they are only making minor adjustments plus
doing same race tyre testing, of course. Dani crashed late
this afternoon but he is okay, no problem. The weather forecast
seems okay, so we hope for another dry day tomorrow.”
Free Practice 2
1 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team 1'43.017
2 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 0.006
3 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.073
4 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team + 0.082
5 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 0.216
6 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 0.351
7 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 0.425
8 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.462
9 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 0.597
10 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.651
11 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 0.690
12 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 0.725
13 J. LORENZO SPA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.984
14 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 1.026
15 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 1.593
16 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 1.661
17 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 1.689
18 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 1.848
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