Pedrosa dominates the proceedings on first day at Sepang

Five days the Australia Grand Prix the MotoGP World Championship resumed the action in Malaysia. The third and last round of the Asian tour started with the clear dominance of the Repsol Honda Team riders, led by Dani Pedrosa who took the first place in both free practice sessions.

The intense heat and humidity that always accompany the Malaysian Grand Prix did not prevent the Repsol Honda Team riders from showing their most dominant side in a practice day where they set the pace. Pedrosa was the fastest in the morning, as he was the only one to ride under 2 minutes and 2 seconds, setting a time 6 tenths faster than Casey Stoner and Andrea Dovizioso, who were second and third. The rest of the riders rode above 2 minutes and 3 seconds.

In the second free session, the Repsol riders showed again that they are the fastest on the Sepang Circuit and, although Stoner led during some minutes of the session, his teammate in the Repsol Honda Team, Dani Pedrosa, set the pace again. While testing the tyres for Sunday’s race, the Spaniard focused on trying the softest tyre brought by Bridgestone, while the 2011 World Championship focused on the hard tyre.

Taking advantage of the highest grip level of that compound, Pedrosa was the first to lap in 2 minutes and 2 seconds and later the only one to lap in 2’01, stopping the clock in a definitive 2 minutes, 1 second and 250 thousandths, waiting to test the durability of this tyre for the race. In the end, he was no less than eight tenths faster than Stoner and nearly a second and a half faster than Andrea Dovizioso, who was third again after finishing 74 thousandths away from his morning time.

Dani Pedrosa FP1 – 2:01.916, 14 laps, 78 km. FP2 – 2:01.250, 15 laps, 83 km.
“Today we went pretty fast and consistent even though the track wasn’t very clean. We did a good job in both practice sessions, but I would like to improve a little more on the chassis side to feel more comfortable with the front and choose the right tyre for the race distance.

At the moment we are doing good steps but we need to keep on working with the same style and try to preform well tomorrow in qualifying. We had a bad qualifying in Australia and we want to be stronger here and do it better”.

Source: Repsol Media