Repsol Honda trio conquer the first day of the French GP weekend - MotoGP news
Repsol Honda boys have already shown the blasting pace of their 2011 RC212V, by dominating the third round at Estoril, early this month. The free practice sessions saw their stunning performance ahead of Monster Energy Grand Prix de France at Le Mans.
The triple-rider squad consisting of Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso maintained their momentum throughout the first day. Repsol team is gathered back at Le Mans to resume the good work they have been doing from the season start. The riders
used the same setup with their respective RCVs, which they sorted for the Portuguese race.
Casey Stoner was originally the fastest rider of the day, when he set the limit on the time sheets in both free practice sessions. The first FP session was filled by the Repsol Honda trio, Casey Stoner, Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso, in 1-2-3 position,
respectively. The Australian set his best lap time of 1: 33.782 seconds in the final session of the day.
Repsol Honda rider, Casey Stoner said, “The track has quite good grip and we have a better feeling than in the past few years in this track and we are very happy. We went out this morning and didn't change so much from Portugal as the tracks are pretty similar
for us.”
Despite of his painful victory at the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal, Pedrosa was able to hold decent pace in both the practice sessions. The first session secured him second place on the time sheet, but his second session’s pace dropped him to be third
fastest rider of the day.
In the morning, Pedrosa was lacking grip on his bike due to low temperatures, but by the afternoon the weather got better and warmer. Despite the improvement in conditions, the rider’s performance lacked expectations. The team has made some ideas to implicate
in the next FP session.
Dani Pedrosa said, “We need to work on the front and rear suspension to get a better feeling, the bike was moving a lot this afternoon entering and at the exit of the corners.”
The sixth fastest rider of the day was Andrea Dovizioso, who made a stunning fourth place swap with Valentino Rossi at the Estoril round, during the last lap.
Another Repsol Honda rider, Andrea Dovizioso said, “This morning we started well and we continued working on the set up of the bike in the afternoon. We tried a different setting on the other bike to improve the stability under braking but we didn’t get
the results we expected.”
After the first two practice sessions, the riders were confident to improve their pace and sustain their performances on the grid.
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