Pedrosa happy with lucky qualifying, but expecting tough race

As it happened yesterday, the weather had his part again today in the second day of practice for the Italian Grand Prix. The other protagonist of the day was Casey Stoner, who set the fastest time of the weekend in the official qualifying session few minutes before it started raining. His team mates at the Repsol Honda Team, Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa, will start from the second and third row, respectively, after setting the fourth and eighth fastest times.

The day started again with sun and high temperatures, although it did not take long before the clouds arrived. Nevertheless, the last free practice session was held on a dry track and with a temperature over 30ºC. When the all-important qualifying session started, the high probability of rain, which was falling lightly since the 125cc session, caused that all riders took the track determined to set their fastest times as soon as possible, as it was more than likely that the rain would intensify.

Dani Pedrosa started the qualifying with a strong pace, looking for the best possible position and, in the first part of the session, he took the seventh place. The Repsol rider improved steadily and was finally able to ride almost a second faster than in the free sessions. His effort and outstanding performance today allowed him to take a position in the third row of the starting grid, despite not being in full physical form.

Dani Pedrosa FP3 – 1:50.296, 18 laps, 94 km. QP – 1:49.398, 8 laps, 42 km.
“I was pretty lucky because the session was only 30 minutes old when the rain arrived and this is good for my injury. I made a few nice laps at the beginning of the session and I’m impressed with my lap time, eighth place on the grid is very good given my physical condition. I know that in the race it will be hard but I will try my best.

I’ll try the maximum during the 23 laps, 100% in my situation and we will see how much I can achieve. This morning I felt better because I had a good rest last night, but for sure lap by lap the shoulder is getting more and more sore and this afternoon it’s been harder. I want to save energy during the warm up tomorrow morning to try to give the rest in the race”.

Source: Repsol Media