Chinese Grand Prix, Shanghai
First day of practice, Friday May 2 2008
REPSOL HONDA FIND GOOD DIRECTION ON DAY ONE
Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Nicky Hayden made a
solid start to this weekend’s Chinese Grand Prix at
Shanghai, ending the day’s two practice sessions third
and sixth fastest.
In hot and humid conditions the pair both made good progress
with their RC212Vs, fine-tuning settings for this unusual
circuit which features MotoGP’s fastest straight and
its heaviest braking demands, the penultimate corner requiring
riders to decelerate from more than 320km/h to just 50km/h.
This afternoon Pedrosa’s RC212V was the second fastest
motorcycle on that straight at 326.0km/h.
Spaniard Pedrosa, currently joint leader of the 2008 MotoGP
World Championship, focused his efforts on his RC212V’s
chassis and tyre combination. American Hayden made a big jump
forward following this morning’s outing, after which
his crew made crucial changes to rear-suspension set-up and
other detail settings, allowing him to cut an impressive eight
tenths of a second from his first session pace.
Dani Pedrosa, third fastest, 2m 00.361s
“Today’s two sessions were quite good for the
first day, but we still need to improve our overall package
here. During both sessions we concentrated mostly on chassis
set-up and tyre choice, working to improve overall performance.
My pace was faster this afternoon but not quite what we had
expected, so we need to keep on working. Tomorrow we will
aim to make another step forward, we will try to find a couple
of tenths by making some more detail chassis adjustments and
by working closely with the Michelin technicians to find the
best tyres. I’m feeling confident for Saturday”.
Nicky Hayden, sixth fastest, 2m 00.607s
“This afternoon was quite a lot better than this morning.
Even though our position isn’t a lot better, our gap
to the front has come down a lot. After the morning session
we changed the spring and made quite a lot of other small
changes. Straight away this afternoon the bike worked a lot
better and I enjoyed riding it more. I felt pretty comfortable
out there. My team did a good job to make some good improvements,
so thanks to them. We definitely found some good direction
between FP1 and FP2, so hopefully if we can keep working in
that direction we’ll be a lot closer again tomorrow.
But we need another big step if we’re to really improve.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“We started from the base set-up we worked on at Estoril,
and today the team focused on suspension settings and tyre
choice. This track is very demanding for tyres, so the Michelin
technicians are working hard to give us what we need for Sunday’s
race. Both Dani and Nicky made good improvements from the
morning session to the afternoon session, which makes us confident
that we can continue moving forward tomorrow.”
Free Practice 2 results
1 C. STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team 2'00.163
2 V. ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team + 0.052
3 D. PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team + 0.198
4 S. NAKANO JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini + 0.390
5 J. HOPKINS USA Kawasaki Racing Team + 0.428
6 N. HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team + 0.444
7 A. DE ANGELIS RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini + 0.768
8 L. CAPIROSSI ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 0.801
9 A. DOVIZIOSO ITA JiR Team Scot MotoGP + 0.864
10 C. EDWARDS USA Tech 3 Yamaha + 0.901
11 T. ELIAS SPA Alice Team + 1.163
12 C. VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP + 1.341
13 J. TOSELAND GBR Tech 3 Yamaha + 1.635
14 M. MELANDRI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team + 1.750
15 A. WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team + 1.839
16 S. GUINTOLI FRA Alice Team + 2.185
17 R. DE PUNIET FRA LCR Honda MotoGP + 2.244
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