Pedrosa hoping to make it through the Valencian race okay, starting from third row

The two Repsol Honda Team riders will close the 2010 season tomorrow from the third row of the starting grid, after Dani Pedrosa registered the eighth best time in the qualifying session and his team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, the ninth. The Spanish rider surprised with second place in this morning’s free practice session, in which Andrea Dovizioso, still working on improving the set-up of his machine, was sixth.

After yesterday’s impressions, the performance of Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso took another step forward today. Pedrosa, riding short stints to avoid putting too much stress on his still recovering left shoulder, was second in this morning’s free practice session, with a time of 1 minute, 32 seconds and 664 milliseconds. In the qualifying session, the Repsol rider shaved another three tenths of his best time this morning to finish 0.804 seconds off the pole position achieved by Casey Stoner.

Dani Pedrosa, 1’32.603 sec., 45 laps, 180 KM.
“I would like to be a bit higher in the standings but considering my physical condition eighth is not so bad. This is a short track and the lap times are very close, and so two tenths means two or three positions higher or lower on the grid. This is the position we have achieved and we will deal with it. This morning we did a good job with the set-up of the bike and this afternoon we didn’t touch much in the session – improving by a couple of tenths. Anyway we need to be ready for a very tough race, and it’s the endurance over race distance that will be the key point – 30 laps is a lot. Now I will try to rest as much as possible, and tomorrow I will aim to make a great start and keep the rhythm in the race for as long as I can”.

Source: Repsol Media Service