Positive first day in Sachsenring for Pedrosa and Marquez

Repsol Honda riders Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez have enjoyed a productive first day at the GP of Germany. Track conditions weren’t very good in this morning’s cold FP1 session – only 15ºC with a track temperature of 21ºC, both Dani and Marc opted to use the soft compound front and rear Bridgestone tyres. On his last exit, Marc used a hard front tyre and improved his time slightly.

In the afternoon the sun appeared and the ambient temperature rose to 21ºC and the track to 37ºC, and both riders chose to run the whole session with the hard front tyre. Dani spent some laps with the hard rear tyre but unsurprisingly posted his fastest time on the soft option with 1’22.239 on his final lap of 25. Marc, visiting Sachsenring for the first time on a MotoGP machine, remained on the soft rear for the whole session and was just 0.012 off Dani with 1’22.251 on lap 19 of 23.

Dani Pedrosa – 2nd – 1’22.239
“Today we focused on tyres, in order to find out what the ideal choice will be for Sunday’s race and lately we have had some problems with the compounds being a little harder than normal. I had time to test all the options and in general things went well. However, tomorrow we have to find a slightly better setup for cornering. As for Jorge, let’s see how his condition is before commenting -we still don’t know details. At the moment it doesn’t look good for him, so I wish him well”

Marc Marquez – 3rd – 1’22.251
“The day has been very positive and I’m very happy with how practice has gone so far, as I have been slowly improving. From the start I felt very comfortable – with it being a smaller circuit, the speed isn’t so different compared to when you’re riding a Moto2 bike. Of course, you reach your braking markers quicker and you have to use new references, but it isn’t that different to other circuits. This helps me to adapt a little more quickly. We have been working hard, but there are still some places on the track where I have to improve, be more consistent and find a good setup. Tomorrow we will try to continue in the same way, just as focused. I am sorry to see Jorge suffer another big crash, we wait to hear news and I send him my best wishes”

Source: Repsol Honda Team