Pedrosa, Stoner and Dovi hungry for more at Motorland

The first and only free practice session of the day at Motorland Aragón —the second was cancelled due to a power supply failure—, served to show an ambitious Dani Pedrosa on the Aragón track.

The 26 finished the day with a time of 1 minute, 50 seconds and 281 thousandths, half a second faster than Casey Stoner, who was third, and eight tenths ahead of Andrea Dovizioso, who once again finished among the top five.

At the start of the session, it was once again the championship leader —Casey Stoner— who took the initiative. Followed by his teammates, Pedrosa and Dovizioso, the three led the timing charts for much of the morning session, until in the final minutes the times were lowered again. Andrea Dovizioso came close to second place, but with 5 minutes remaining, Jorge Lorenzo lowered Stoner’s best time by 76 thousandths. The Spaniard held the top spot for as long as it took Dani Pedrosa to string together several devastating laps, beating his own times, and finishing almost half a second ahead of his compatriot.

Pedrosa’s strong performance in this first acquaintance with the Aragón track was complemented by Stoner in third and Dovizioso in fifth. Tomorrow, once the power supply problem at Motorland has been repaired, the MotoGP riders will take part in a second 75-minute free practice session and qualifying.

Statements from Dani Pedrosa:

This morning we went out to look for the first references on this circuit —which is very particular— and we started with good feelings; the bike worked well. We found that the softest tyre may be too soft to last the whole race if these temperatures continue, so we also did some laps on the medium compound and I felt good.

In the afternoon they cancelled the session, and it’s a shame given the good track conditions for riding and the good weather. Of course tomorrow we will have a longer session in the morning, but it’s not the same, you can’t work in the same way. With two 45-minute sessions you have time to analyse the data and make the changes to the bike you consider necessary, whereas in 1 hour 15 minutes you can’t.

Anyway, it’s the same for everyone, so let’s hope there are no problems tomorrow and we can keep improving the bike and get a good qualifying result.

Statements from Andrea Dovizioso:

It has been a strange day. The morning sessions didn’t give us much information about the bike’s set-up because we struggled with the tyres, the track wasn’t very clean and it was slipping a lot; the rear tyre was destroyed after 10 laps, so we had to fit another one.

Tomorrow we will have a 1 hour 15 minute session. It will be an important session to work on the bike and mainly we have to try to get more grip at the rear, so that it doesn’t slide so much. I hope the track conditions improve tomorrow, especially for the official session. This morning we finished fifth and, apart from Dani [Pedrosa], we are only 3 tenths behind Lorenzo, although everyone will improve tomorrow.

In the afternoon it was strange because they first delayed the session and then cancelled it. Well, it’s the same for everyone and we must concentrate on tomorrow.

Statements from Casey Stoner:

We didn’t have much time to ride this morning, we were able to gather some information, but nothing extraordinary. The circuit was very abrasive and destroyed tyres very quickly. We went out on the soft tyre and destroyed it in 3 or 4 laps, so we tried to wait until the end of the session to see if the circuit would improve, but it didn’t change.

We wanted to see how it would go in the afternoon session, but it was cancelled; it’s strange, because normally it’s cancelled when the track isn’t in condition due to a storm or something similar, but due to a power cut it’s something different. Anyway we will make up the time in the morning, although it’s not the same because you have a very long session and it’s quite exhausting.

We have to concentrate on getting the best set-up tomorrow. Luckily the weather has been stable in recent days and I hope the track conditions don’t vary too much either. We’ll see tomorrow.