Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa rode superbly in today’s opening two practice sessions for Sunday’s season-ending Valencia Grand Prix. Fourth this morning in treacherously wet and slippery conditions, he improved his pace this afternoon when the track was slightly less wet, ending the day second fastest, less than a tenth of a second off his team-mate Nicky Hayden.
Weather forecasts suggest that conditions will improve from tomorrow, with the possibility of a few light showers on Saturday and plenty of sunshine on race day. Pedrosa will therefore have only two sessions tomorrow in which to work on the dry set-up of his RCV in preparation for Sunday’s race. Winner here last year and a podium finisher at the two of the last three races, Pedrosa is aiming to finish 2008 on a high here.
Dani Pedrosa, 2nd fastest, 1m 45.864s
“Conditions were difficult today. It rained pretty much the whole day and the asphalt was quite slippery. In these conditions we couldn’t work so much on the set-up, but anyway we were able to find a good compromise that allowed us to be quite fast. During the afternoon session the track dried out a little bit up, so we were able to improve our lap times and ride with a good rhythm. My Bridgestone wet tyres worked well today, but I hope that we can have two dry sessions tomorrow so that we can work on the set-up in preparation of the race.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“Conditions were quite tricky today, with heavy rain this morning and the track was still very wet this afternoon. Dani could ride quite fast with a good setting for these conditions, and his Bridgestone tyres worked well in both sessions. Tomorrow will be a busy day, with hopefully a dry track which will allow Dani to fine tune his machine for Sunday’s race, when he will target victory.”
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