RAIN CONDITIONS THE SECOND DAY OF PRACTICE AT THE CZECH
REPUBLIC GP
Dani Pedrosa suffered in the wet and with his wet tyres today
and finished 12th in the classification round. Julián
Simón sixth in 250cc. and Marc Márquez 12th
in 125cc.
The heavy rain that fell incessantly on the Czech track today
made the riders` work very difficult, above all in the second
and definitive session. In MotoGP, once again there were tyre
problems (mainly the front wheel) and these affected Dani
Pedrosa`s chances of a good classification.
The Repsol Honda Team rider made progress in the morning session,
in the rain, recovering form and speed bit by bit. The last
time Pedrosa rode in the rain was in the recent German GP
where he fell when he was the clear leader. Pedrosa was 8th
in the morning at the end of the third free practice session.
In the afternoon the Repsol Honda Team started the classification
with a steady pace and the times got better lap by lap, but
the rain got heavier and the track became flooded in some
parts, and so practically all the riders chose to wait in
the pits for better conditions. Almost 30 minutes were left.
Ten minutes from the end the MotoGP riders sprang into action
again but only Melandri and Guintoli were able to lower their
times on the rising water level. Pedrosa, who was 10th at
that moment was overtaken towards the end by these two riders
and in spite of his efforts to set a faster time he will start
from the fourth row of the grid with the 12th best time.
In 250cc, Julián Simón took another step forward.
The Repsol rider felt much more comfortable on the wet track
today. He rode the bike with the new chassis today, Simón
was able to set his KTM 250 FRR up well enough to set the
sixth fastest time. Simón had been among the fastest
in the free practice, finishing second behind the Finn Mika
Kallio, and in the afternoon, in spite of having problems
with the visor on his helmet, moved up two positions. At his
side on the grid will be Mika Kallio, 7th, whilst Hiroshi
Aoyama – both sponsored by Repsol – will be in
16th position.
In 125cc better times than those from yesterday were not
possible due to the rain, and so the Repsol KTM Team 125cc.
riders will start from the third and fourth rows, this is
because Marc Márquez set the 12th best time yesterday,
and Esteve Rabat the 15th. First thing in the morning the
riders found the track totally wet after overnight rain. In
spite of the fact that it was not raining at that moment the
track had not dried and the bikes and tyres used were those
for rain.
Classification began with the track almost dry but light
rain began to fall, and then it got heavier, two laps later
Marc Márquez decided to return to the pits. The team
thought it was too risky to stay out on the track with the
surface getting slippier and slippier. A little later Esteve
Rabat returned to the pits after doing four laps and setting
the second fastest time in the session.
Quotes
MotoGP
Dani Pedrosa >> 2’16.032 secs, 33 laps, 178 Km.
“I wore a heavier strapping on my left hand today, for
better support, but anyway the cold weather gave me more pain.
The track was very wet this afternoon.
I tried to improve my lap time, even though the rain got
heavier, but I couldn’t improve, so I will start the
race from the fourth row. Of course, I’m not happy about
starting from there, because it won’t help us in the
race. If the race is run in the dry I hope we will have a
dry warm-up so that we can work on our suspension set-up and
tyre choice. If it is dry in the morning we will work hard
to make improvements so we can have the best-possible race.”
250cc
Julián Simón >> 2’13.074 secs, 39
laps, 211 Km.
“Today was quite a bit better than yesterday. We found
a better set up and I was much better in the wet. I changed
the way I took the corners and the gear change, and that quickly
brought me faster laps. It is a pity that I could not go faster
but that was due to the problem I had with the helmet.
We will have to look at that because my visor was steaming
up and I was not riding comfortably and I was not able to
set better times. However I am pleased although I could have
got a place on the front row, tomorrow is when I will have
to do things right. The team has done some good work today;
I hope we get a good result tomorrow.”
125cc
Esteve Rabat >> 2’11.676 secs, 20 laps, 108 Km.
“Today was a strange day even before the morning practice
it rained a lot and the track was flooded in places. We slid
around a lot and I had a lot of problems as I did not get
a lot of feeling from the bike.
In the afternoon it seemed that it would be dry, but it began
to rain again a little and I did not improve on yesterday`s
times. I still did not have a lot of confidence and I don`t
have a lot to say. If it rains tomorrow during the warm up
we will have to get a better set up. If not we have yesterday`s
set up for the dry. My race plan is to get a good start and
really concentrate on the first few laps, keep up with the
leaders and do the best I can.”
Marc Márquez >> 2’11.353 seg,
18 laps, 97 Km.
“Today was complicated, because it was raining intermittently.
The free practice was in the wet and I had a consistently
good pace. I was very confident and now we know that in both
the wet and the dry we can get a good result.
The classification was more complicated because when we went
out it began to rain. I did two laps but we decided not to
carry on as it was taking a risk for nothing, because it was
not possible to improve on the times we set yesterday. I think
that tomorrow I can have a good race; I will try to learn
and have a good time.”
Official Results
MotoGP
1. Casey STONER (DUCATI) 2:11.657
2. Valentino ROSSI (YAMAHA) at 1.189
3. John HOPKINS (KAWASAKI) at 1.302
4. Chris VERMEULEN (SUZUKI) at 1.345
5. Alex DE ANGELIS (HONDA) at 1.695
12. Dani PEDROSA (REPSOL HONDA) at 4.375
250cc
1. Marco SIMONCELLI (GILERA) 2:10.723
2. Alex DEBÓN (APRILIA) at 0.766
3. Héctor BARBERÁ (APRILIA) at 0.855
4. Mattia PASINI (APRILIA) at 1.445
5. Thomas LUTHI (APRILIA) at 2.039
6. Julián SIMÓN (REPSOL KTM) at 2.351
125cc
1. Gabor TALMACSI (APRILIA) 2:09.870
2. Nicolás TEROL (APRILIA) at 0.718
3. Andrea IANNONE (APRILIA) at 0.719
4. Bradley SMITH (APRILIA) at 0.782
5. Mike DI MEGLIO (DERBI) at 0.921
12. Marc MÁRQUEZ (REPSOL KTM) at 1.483
15. Esteve RABAT (REPSOL KTM) at 1.806
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