Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda second in first practice day for Valencia Grand Prix – MotoGP news
Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa took courageous second place on the time sheets of the wet first practice day for Valencia Grand Prix.
The MotoGP season finale will take place this weekend.
The first day of the race weekend at Ricardo Tormo circuit was affected by a brief shower that left the track wet, hampering riders from full effort.
The Spanish rider gave his best lap time in the morning’s session that was 1 minute and 45.736 seconds. In the combined timings he was still second as he ranked ninth in the FP2.
Overall, he was few fractions of a second off from his teammate Casey Stoner who led the initial practice day.
Pedrosa said, “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.”
In the morning’s practice session, Pedrosa was able to lap better times than second practice session. During the FP1, he was able to take second position.
While in the second practice session, the Spaniard faced some technical issue with his rear tyre and shock absorber. This reduced his outing for a few laps.
The temperatures were held low throughout day, the highest it went was 16 degree Celsius. The track also had some rubber laid on it from previous car racing event. It caused the riders to lose traction in wet conditions.
With intermittent rainfall, the track became slippery and greasy. It cost many riders to lose lap times.
Pedrosa commented on the wet practice session and said, “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.”
The Spaniard is looking forward for a dry third and final practice session. It will be a last chance to sort a proper race setting for the race day. The qualifying round is also very crucial and the time is short to get set for the QP.
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