Pedrosa aiming to find better setup for mixed track conditions

By gb

Posted November 4, 2011

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The Ricardo Tormo circuit saw the rain marring the first day of the fourth Spanish Grand Prix of the year. The Repsol Honda Team riders, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, were the ones to adapt themselves better to the weather conditions during the whole day and took the first and second positions at the end of the two first free practice sessions.

The first contact of the MotoGP riders with the Ricardo Tormo track was complicated. Under threatening dark clouds, the Valencian track offered areas with wet tarmac and others with dry surface. Some minutes had to go by before the riders adapted themselves to these difficult conditions and set times that, at the end of the day, would be the fastest. It was not until the last part of the session when Casey Stoner took the lead of the classification, improving the fastest time until setting a time of 1 minute, 45 seconds and 513 thousandths. The Australian saw in the last lap how his team mate, Dani Pedrosa, got closer and finished only 223 thousandths behind him. Andrea Dovizioso, meanwhile, set the ninth fastest time.

If the weather conditions were complicated in the morning, in the second free practice session they were even worse. It started to rain intermittently at the beginning of the session. The Repsol rider who felt more comfortable on the Ricardo Tormo wet track was Andrea Dovizioso. The third placed in the MotoGP Championship set the sixth fastest time of the session, followed by Valentino Rossi and his Repsol Honda Team mates, Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa, who set the eighth and ninth fastest time, respectively.

For tomorrow, the weather forecast indicates an improvement. The Repsol Honda Team riders will try to achieve the fourteenth pole position for the team in the eighteen rounds of the year. If it is the new World Champion of the premiere category who achieves it, Casey Stoner will match the record of pole positions in one year —twelve— set by Mick Doohan in 1997 in 500cc and equalled by Marc Márquez in 125cc last year.

Dani Pedrosa FP1 – 1:45.736, 20 laps, 80 km. FP2 – 1:49.820, 17 laps, 68 km.
“This morning we had a very good run, but in the afternoon we had some issues on the bike with the rear shock and I only managed a few laps, spending a lot of time in the garage making changes. The track surface is quite old and very slippery, even when the track was drier it was still tough.

The feelings are not so bad and I think we need to be ready for mixed weather conditions, improving the set up step by step. Let’s wait and see if tomorrow we have some dry sessions to get out on slick tyres, this would be important to better understand the direction to take on the set up of the bike”.