MotoGP Friday Results
The MotoGP weekend began this Friday morning with four teams and their set of riders topping the top eight spots at the Misano Circuit in San Marino. Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa posted the quickest time of 1.34.772, which was also set a new fastest lap at Misano. Third was series leader, Fiat Yamaha rider Jorge Lorenzo. After Friday's practice results, here's what the riders were saying:
We need to keep working towards the race distance, and for lap times."
Andrea Dovizioso says: "I'm happy with the work done during this session and I'm satisfied to be second. At the end I was able to improve my lap times with the tires I used for the whole session, so I'm confident we can move forward tomorrow. "Tire selection for the race will be very important, and both the harder and softer option Bridgestones look like possible choices at the moment. I think there are many of riders who can be strong this weekend so we have to work hard tomorrow and do a good job in qualifying"
Tomorrow we will try to find some tenths and improve our time a bit. Colin Edwards says: "That was a good start to the weekend and I'm really happy with the bike. I kept the same rear tyre for the whole session and it felt really good. "It performed really well over a long distance and my fastest lap was on lap 26, so we've got no worries about it being good for the whole race. Like Colin, I stayed on the soft tire for the whole session and while I'm happy with the lap times, I know we can find some more time. We can make the rear better because I was just missing a bit of grip and stability that would allow me to go that little bit faster. So with a couple of minor issues I'm happy it was a solid session. There's definitely not one second we can find in the bike but there's definitely a few tenths we can find with some different settings we'll try tomorrow."
I hoped to start out a bit closer to the top than that. I am not happy about the position, but I am very happy with the bike today. I than changed the bike and managed to reduce my lap. Tomorrow I'm sure that with the changes made on my bike, I will certainly obtain a better lap time. "
Indianapolis's track setting that allowed me to go very fast during that race, was unfortunately not good for this track. During the tests we changed the bike trying to increase the weight on the front tire, because we didn't have enough grip on that tire."
Tomorrow we will try new solutions that should allow me to reduce my gap."
It will be important to have a good qualifying session tomorrow."
Some things worked well and some not so well and at the end of the session I tried a different tire, which was quite interesting. I am a little down on the time sheets but confident that I can improve tomorrow and close the gap to the top, although maybe not Pedrosa. We have some ideas about what to change and we'll experiment tomorrow."
The reigning world champion ended the session with the fourth-quickest time, a 1.35.539 on his 30th and final lap moving him ahead of Monster Yamaha Tech 3 duo Colin Edwards and Ben Spies. Rossi clearly has work to do with Spaniard Dani Pedrosa dominating the session with a best lap of 1.34.772, putting him a massive 0.767s clear of the nine-time world champion. Today the pace and the lap time of Pedrosa was quite impressive.”
After scoring his worst result of an outstanding MotoGP campaign in Indianapolis last weekend, Jorge Lorenzo suffered another tough day in practice at Misano this afternoon. The Spaniard finished outside of the top-two in a race for the first time last weekend in America with third-place behind compatriot Dani Pedrosa and rookie sensation Ben Spies. The Fiat Yamaha rider was eclipsed by bitter rival Pedrosa again today, the 23-year-old finishing third-fastest in the opening practice session in Italy. Yamaha remains confident a deal for the double world 250GP champion will be signed imminently, given Lorenzo has little option but to ride a factory YZR-M1 next season. Lorenzo, who leads Pedrosa by 68-points going into Sunday’s Misano clash, said: “My manager Marcos (Hirsch) is coming to Misano this weekend to speak with Yamaha.