The Spanish Grand Prix, Jerez
REPSOL HONDA RIDERS ON THE PACE AT JEREZ
First day of practice,
Repsol Honda riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa made a
strong start to their Spanish GP weekend today, ending the
first two practice sessions fourth and fifth fastest.
Both riders’ best lap times were around lap record
pace and less than half a second off today’s fastest
lap. Hayden used a new spec chassis to achieve his best times
of the day and prefers the new unit’s characteristics.
Pedrosa, who struggled with his recently broken right hand
during his last visit to Jerez in February, made excellent
progress today, focusing on tyres and suspension. Tomorrow
both riders will concentrate on longer tyre runs aboard their
RC212Vs to prepare for Sunday’s race, round two of the
18-event 2008 MotoGP season.
Nicky Hayden, fourth fastest, 1m 40.673s
“We’re certainly a lot closer than we were at
Qatar, which makes it a lot more fun. We were on top for part
of the session, stayed up near the front a lot and we made
a pretty big step between morning and afternoon, almost a
half second. Overall the bikes seem not so bad and Michelins
always work good at Jerez. We had a pretty good set-up from
when we here for the tests in February, so tyre-wise, bike-wise,
it’s not a lot different, though I did try a new chassis
that definitely seemed to help, and I made my best lap times
with it. We’re going to talk about running both bikes
with the new chassis tomorrow. Everything’s pretty smooth
so far, so big thanks to HRC for bringing me an improvement
and to the team for everything. But it’s still early,
there’s a lot of guys going fast, so we’ll see
where we’re at come Sunday.”
Dani Pedrosa, fifth fastest, 1m 40.813s
“Today we worked firstly on tyres and then on suspension.
We started from our Qatar setup, though the real point of
comparison was the tests we did here last month, and we’ve
made a great step forward since then. We need to do a lot
of work on tyres, not only for the race, but for this machine
in general, because it is still quite a new machine for us.
We will work very closely with Michelin when we test here
after the race. We still need to make some improvements for
Sunday, though I am feeling quite confident. My right hand
still swells up whenever I ride the bike but it’s better
than it was in Qatar and it’s constantly improving,
which is the important thing.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“We seem to be moving in a good direction, this has
been a useful day. Nicky likes the new chassis, he has made
some good comments about it and he used it more than the other
chassis today. Dani is working at fine-tuning his suspension
to improve the overall balance of his machine and he seems
to be making good progress. Both riders are happy with their
tyre selections, Michelin seem to be strong here. Tomorrow
we will start doing long runs on tyres. Our target for Sunday
is to win.”
GP of Spain
Free Practice Nr.2
1. Jorge LORENZO (Fiat Yamaha) 1:40.321
2. Valentino ROSSI (Fiat Yamaha) 1:40.364
3. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha Tech3) 1:40.584
4. Nicky HAYDEN (Repsol Honda) 1:40.673
5. Dani PEDROSA (Repsol Honda) 1:40.815
6. Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1:40.877
7. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Jir Honda Scot ) 1:40.909
8. James TOSELAND (Yamaha Tech3) 1:41.028
9. Loris CAPIROSSI (Rizla Suzuki) 1:41.157
10. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda San Carlo) 1:41.189
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