Wherever MotoGP goes this year, the rain usually follows, and Australia is proving to be no exception. Changeable springtime weather dominated proceedings at Phillip Island today, Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa ending the first two practice sessions sixth overall. This morning’s opening session was run in bright, sunny conditions, while strong winds and heavy rain affected this afternoon’s outing.
Pedrosa made a steady start to his Australian GP weekend, placing sixth this morning and eighth this afternoon. Like the rest of the MotoGP grid, the Spaniard is hoping for better weather tomorrow, to allow him to continue fine-tuning the balance of his RC212V for Sunday’s race. Pedrosa is currently third in the 2008 World Championship with three races remaining.
Dani Pedrosa. FP1 (dry): 6th fastest, 1m 31.161s. FP2 (wet): 8th fastest, 1m 41.638s
“I am feeling quite confident so far because we’ve had a useful first day of practice and the bike seems to be working fine. Of course, we do need to keep working hard and improve our race pace, especially in the dry, because [Casey] Stoner was really fast in the dry this morning. In particular we need to work on the balance of the bike, which is very important here. This afternoon in the wet, I started out quite cautiously, then started to push a bit harder towards the end of the session. My times improved lap by lap and I needed two or three more laps to finish in a better position. Anyway to be the first day, I’m quite happy. I hope that the weather is kind to us tomorrow, so that we can continue working in machine set-up on a dry racetrack.”
Kazuhiko Yamano - Team Manager
“The weather conditions have been so changeable here today on the Island, so Dani and everyone got the chance to ride in both dry and wet conditions. Dani’s start to the weekend hasn’t been so bad. Now we need to work some more to improve his machine set-up and increase his race pace in the dry.”
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