News

pedrosa heads the timesheets at motegi

21/09/07

Honda's Dani Pedrosa set a scorching pace at Motegi go fastest in both of the opening sessions in Jgapan in the early hours of this morning. lHe was a full four tenth faster than Kawasaki's Randy De Puniet and more than half a second quicker than Casey Stoner.

It was a poor first day for Valentino Rossi who again suffered from engine failure and had to complete the second session on his number two bike. This is the second time his YZR-M1 has let go in three weeks.

He said: "This morning and early this afternoon things were not looking good at all! We couldn't find the right setting or the right tyre and we were crossing our fingers that something was going to work out for us. Mid-way through the afternoon however we tried our last tyre and we were immediately one second faster, so at least there's no doubt now that's the right direction to follow.

"We've got a lot more work to do, both on setting and with the tyres, so we need to have a good look at the situation tonight to make sure we make the most of the time we've got left to us. We were two seconds off the pace and now we've closed that gap to one but that's still way too much and we're really going to have to pull out all the stops tomorrow."

Pedrosa, who signed a two-year deal to stay with Honda (click here) is happy with the day's efforts: "I like this track and we must continue to improve the set-up tomorrow because this is only the first day and for sure our rivals will be working hard to overtake us. I am very happy to have signed for Honda again today and I hope we can continue this weekend in the positive way we have started.”

World champion-elect Casey Stoner ended the day in fifth and seemed pragmatic about his efforts. "I'm a bit disappointed with today because we couldn't find a good set-up and we just went around in circles. This afternoon we tried something with the chassis but it didn't work and we didn't have enough time to go back to the same settings we had this morning, so we spent a lot of time making a lot of changes and it definitely wasn't a great day. To be honest there isn't one area where we have a big problem, we just need to generally improve in a lot of areas."

MotoGP free practice two - conditions dry

1 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'47.865
2 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'48.254
3 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'48.351
4 21 John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'48.361
5 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'48.444
6 64 Kousuke AKIYOSHI JPN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'48.457
7 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'48.499
8 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'48.529
9 1 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'48.552
10 6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'48.581
11 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'48.614
12 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Konica Minolta Honda HONDA 1'48.697
13 7 Carlos CHECA SPA Honda LCR HONDA 1'48.715
14 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'48.782
15 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'48.881
16 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'49.383
17 4 Alex BARROS BRA Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'49.392
18 71 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'49.555
19 87 Akira YANAGAWA JPN Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'50.229
20 72 Shinichi ITO JPN Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'50.769
21 80 Kurtis ROBERTS USA Team Roberts KR212V 1'51.563

MotoGP free practice one - conditions dry

1 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'48.249
2 27 Casey STONER AUS Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'48.491
3 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'48.679
4 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'48.689
5 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'48.736
6 21 John HOPKINS USA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'48.766
7 1 Nicky HAYDEN USA Repsol Honda Team HONDA 1'48.826
8 24 Toni ELIAS SPA Honda Gresini HONDA 1'48.827
9 7 Carlos CHECA SPA Honda LCR HONDA 1'48.847
10 56 Shinya NAKANO JPN Konica Minolta Honda HONDA 1'48.986
11 64 Kousuke AKIYOSHI JPN Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'49.127
12 50 Sylvain GUINTOLI FRA Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'49.207
13 5 Colin EDWARDS USA Fiat Yamaha Team YAMAHA 1'49.368
14 65 Loris CAPIROSSI ITA Ducati Marlboro Team DUCATI 1'49.527
15 13 Anthony WEST AUS Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'49.960
16 4 Alex BARROS BRA Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'50.037
17 71 Chris VERMEULEN AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP SUZUKI 1'50.210
18 6 Makoto TAMADA JPN Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 YAMAHA 1'50.237
19 87 Akira YANAGAWA JPN Kawasaki Racing Team KAWASAKI 1'50.606
20 80 Kurtis ROBERTS USA Team Roberts KR212V 1'51.167
21 72 Shinichi ITO JPN Pramac d'Antin DUCATI 1'52.374