DIFFERENT DOSES OF LUCK FOR THE REPSOL RIDERS ON THE FIRST
DAY OF PRACTICE FOR THE GERMAN GP
Dani Pedrosa had a slight fall in the afternoon and finished
fifth. Nicky Hayden finished eighth and Esteve Rabat confirms
his improving form with the eighth best time in 125cc.
Today, the first day of practice at the German Sachsenring
circuit, brought diverging results for the Repsol riders.
In spite of a good start for Dani Pedrosa on the first day
of free practice for the German GP, a slight fall prevented
the Repsol Honda Team rider from setting one of the the fastest
times in the top category. In the morning, Pedrosa set the
fourth best time in the first free session, just 0.4 seconds
behind Stoner, who was the fastest.
Pedrosa had his fall in the afternoon on corner number 12,
a left-hander - the second to last before the home straight
- just 10 minutes after the start of the second free practice
session. Ten minutes later he was out on the track with his
second motorbike, but with a different set up, and this is
what prevented him from improving his best time from the morning,
and so the Repsol Honda Team rider finished seventh in the
second session and an average of fifth after the two free
sessions.
His Repsol Honda teammate, the American Nicky Hayden, continued
with his work of completing the new Honda HRC engine with
pneumatic valves. The American set the eighth best time in
the morning and finished in the same position in the afternoon,
improving his times in the second free practice session by
a little over 3 tenths of a second.
In 250cc, Julián Simón ended the day quite
satisfied in spite of finding himself overtaken on the leaderboard
moment at the very end of the first timed session by several
rivals. The Repsol rider rode consistently at very competitive
times, almost always on a provisional first row, as can be
seen from the second position he got in the first free session.
In the timed session Simón continued to improve but
traffic on the track, due to the short length of this circuit,
did not let him set a faster time by the end of the session.
In the end he finished seventh on the provisional grid for
Sunday`s race, with a time of 1' 24,747 seconds. Mika Kallio
and Hiroshi Aoyama, riders with technical support from Repsol,
finished the day occupying third and fourth places respectively.
In the 125cc category a provisional second row position for
Esteve Rabat, who in the timed practice set the seventh fastest
time, confirming the progress that was seen in the recent
Dutch GP, where he was in the fight for the victory. The Repsol
rider put in a discreet performance in the morning, above
all because he had to bed the engine down on his bike and
because of a short shower which made him take extra care.
But once the timed session began Rabat was quickly among the
fastest, and at the same time he tried to complete the set
up on his KTM 125 FRR.
His teammate, Marc Márquez, was not able to do better
than set the twenty fifth best time, after not feeling comfortable
on the twisty German track. The Repsol rider set his fastest
time on his sixth lap of the seventeen that he did, which
proves that the changes made during the timed session did
not bring the expected results. On his last attempt to improve
before the end of the session he had a small fright, something
that made him go off the track, fortunately though he did
not fall. Márquez had been improving his times and
he went off the track on the last corner of the circuit due
to the problems he had controlling his motorbike.
Quotes
MotoGP
Dani Pedrosa >> 1’22.759 secs, 56 laps, 206 Km.
“This morning we started out working on set-up and tyre
choice, as usual. I had a good feeling and the tyres were
working well with a track temperature of 29 degrees.
In the afternoon I crashed at Turn 12, maybe because I braked
too late, but the crash was without any real consequence.
After that I used my second bike but I couldn’t find
the same feeling, so I couldn’t go as fast as I wanted.
Tomorrow we will try to improve our settings and do some longer
runs on tyres. We have to see how hot it will be, because
the track temperature can get very hot here, this afternoon
it was already more than 40 degrees.”
Nicky Hayden >> 1’22.975 secs, 60 laps,
220 Km.
“Today was pretty average, really. I certainly hoped
to be nearer the top in both sessions. We made some little
improvements this afternoon, got the bike to steer a bit better,
and dropped the lap time a bit which helped, but we’re
still down in eighth. It’s a short little lap here,
so a couple of tenths is a lot.
We’ve got a couple of ideas to improve tomorrow, but
it’s not easy to figure out how we’re going to
get down to where we need to be. We need to find a big chunk
from somewhere. In the past I’ve had some good results
here but it’s a track where I always struggle a bit
on the first day and then pull it together, so let’s
see if we can’t do the same this year. Lap time-wise
we’re already quite a bit quicker than last year which
we have been everywhere, in fact I’ve already gone faster
than I qualified last year.”
250cc
Julián Simón >> 1’24.747 secs, 55
laps, 202 Km.
“This was quite a positive day. From the very first
moment I felt really good. The bike is responding very well
at this circuit. Last year it already demonstrated its potential
by having a very good race, one which Aoyama won and where
Kallio was second.
This year we are up with the leaders again and personally
I am very pleased because the set up worked well, and that
is positive. This morning we finished second, with a good
time. In the afternoon things also went well; it is a pity
that on the last few laps I came across a lot of traffic,
since it is a very small and tight circuit, and I did not
have enough space to do a good lap. But I am pleased and I
really do know that I can improve quite a bit.”
125cc
Esteve Rabat >> 1’28.499 secs, 36 laps, 132 Km.
“The morning session was complicated, because it rained
during the practice and so it was not possible to go very
fast, or at least I did not have enough confidence and as
it was Friday morning I did not want to risk having a fall.
In the timed session I tried to speed things up. The set
up on the bike was good, although we tried to improve certain
things. This is a circuit that requires a lot of concentration,
with fast corners and slow ones. I felt quite comfortable,
but we need to carry on working for tomorrow to make me feel
even more comfortable. I think that we can improve on the
final part of the circuit, sections 3 and 4, since we can
gain a few tenths tenths of a second in these zones.”
Marc Márquez >> 1’29.284 secs,
40 laps, 147 Km.
“Today was my first day at this circuit and the morning
session was complicated since there was a short shower but
not enough to require rain tyres. The track stayed dry, but
it was insecure and I could not ride comfortably, even so
we went quite well.
In the afternoon, both me and the bike improved, but still
we need to make progress for tomorrow, and also to polish
my own riding. We still have not found the right set up for
the suspension, but this afternoon we will work with the telemetrics
to look for the best adjustment and then we will try it out
tomorrow. The most complicated at this circuit are the first
two sections, but that is where you can gain time. It is a
very technical part and it is quite tough.”
Official Results
MotoGP
1. Casey STONER (DUCATI) 1:21.582
2. Alex DE ANGELIS (HONDA) at 0.411
3. Colin EDWARDS (YAMAHA) at 0.881
4. Valentino ROSSI (YAMAHA) at 1.035
5. Dani PEDROSA (REPSOL HONDA) at 1.177
8. Nicky HAYDEN (REPSOL HONDA) at 1.393
250cc
1. Marco SIMONCELLI (GILERA) 1:23.953
2. Héctor BARBERÁ (APRILIA) at 0.181
3. Mika KALLIO (KTM) at 0.637
4. Hiroshi AOYAMA (KTM) at 0.726
5. Fabrizio LAI (APRILIA) at 0.750
7. Julián SIMÓN (REPSOL KTM) at 0.794
125cc
1. Gabor TALMACSI (APRILIA) 1:27.623
2. Bradley SMITH (APRILIA) at 0.310
3. Stefan BRADL (APRILIA) at 0.473
4. Simone CORSI (APRILIA) at 0.625
5. Joan OLIVÉ (DERBI) at 0.849
7. Esteve RABAT (REPSOL KTM) at 0.876
25. Marc MÁRQUEZ (REPSOL KTM) at 1.661
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