Pedrosa takes over at the front on first day at Aragon

The first and only free practice session of the day at Motorland Aragon — the second was cancelled due to a power shortage — saw an ambitious Dani Pedrosa on the Aragon track. The Repsol rider finished the day with a time of 1 minute, 50 seconds and 281 thousandths.

At the start of the session, it was again the World Championship leader Casey Stoner who took the initiative. Followed by his teammates Pedrosa and Dovizioso, the three riders led the times sheet for most of the morning practice session until in the final minutes the times improved again. Andrea Dovizioso reached the second position, but 5 minutes from the end, Jorge Lorenzo improved in 76 thousandths Stoner’s best time. The Spanish rider kept the lead until Dani Pedrosa chained some amazing laps, improving his own times and finishing nearly half a second ahead of his countryman.

Tomorrow, once the power shortage is repaired in Motorland, the MotoGP riders will compete in a 75-minute free practice session and the qualifying.

Dani Pedrosa FP1 – 1:50.281, 17 laps, 86 km.
“In the morning session we were basically trying to get the feeling from the race track and we started well, the bike was working ok. We saw that the softer compound is maybe too soft, so not really the one for the race if the high temperatures remain, so we also tried the medium compound and I felt comfortable.

In the afternoon the practice was cancelled which is a shame as the weather conditions were perfect. Of course we will have a longer session tomorrow morning but you cannot take the same benefit from it.

With two sessions of 45 minutes you have time to analyze the data and make the changes you need for the second practice, while in 1h15 you cannot. Anyway, it’s the same for everyone, so let’s hope everything is ok tomorrow and we can keep improving the bike and have a good qualifying”.

Source: Repsol Media