MOTEGI, Japan: Dani Pedrosa edged championship points leader Jorge Lorenzo in free practice sessions yesterday ahead of the Japanese Grand Prix, stepping up his bid to overtake the fellow Spaniard for the title.
The factory Honda rider clocked 1min 46.088sec in the second of the day’s two sessions to top the timesheets, just over one tenth of a second faster than Yamaha ace Lorenzo.
Italian Andrea Dovizioso, on a Tech 3 Yamaha, was the third fastest at 0.194 of a second behind Pedrosa, as sunshine drenched the 4.8-kilometre (three-mile) geometric Motegi circuit.
Pedrosa’s Australian teammate and reigning world champion Casey Stoner, who missed the last three races after injuring his ankle while qualifying for the Indianapolis Grand Prix in August, clocked the seventh best time of 1:46.978.
Pedrosa appeared to keep the momentum going after winning the last race in Aragon, Spain, for his third victory in the last four GP rounds. Lorenzo was second at Aragon.
“Today was a perfect day for practice,” he said. “The track conditions were very good. The warm temperatures helped as did the new surface, so we were able to do the job we wanted.”
The 27-year-old Pedrosa, bidding for his first-ever title in the premier class, added: “The asphalt is new and the grip is quite good, so the lap times are pretty fast from the beginning.”
Lorenzo, who has won six races so far this season against four for Pedrosa, is leading him by 33 points in his bid for his second MotoGP title.
He led the first session in the morning, with a 0.141-second gap over Pedrosa who beat him into second spot at the Japanese GP last year on Honda’s home track.
The starting grid for tomorrow’s Japanese GP, the 15th leg of the 18-round championship, will be decided in the qualifying session after another free practice today.
QMMF’s West, Rosell make steady progress
MOTEGI: QMMF Racing Team riders Anthony West and Elena Rosell finished the first day of practice for the Grand Prix of Japan on a high note.
West’s best time of 1.52,831 minutes was less than a second behind world championship leader Marc Marquez in pole position.
Since the 31-year-old Australian had a small tyre problem on his last and fastest run, he is confident about his ability to improve further today and to get the desired grid position within the top 15 of the hard-fought Moto2 category.
Team-mate Elena Rosell first had to learn her way around the challenging 4.8-kilometre Twin Ring Motegi and also lost valuable track time with a front brake problem in the first free practice session.
But the rest of the day went trouble-free for the only lady racer in the Grand Prix world championship. The 26-year-old from Valencia improved steadily, cut almost two seconds off her best lap time between the morning and the afternoon and is also confident to ride faster today
“I am quite happy with our progress so far, it’s a lot better than where we normally are,” West said.
“My goal for qualifying is to get a grid position between 15 and ten, because this will give us the chance to do a really good race,”
he added.
“At the last Grand Prix, I started from 20th place and I finished in tenth position, so with a top 15 start here at Motegi, I might be able to get an even better race result,” the Australian said. THE PENINSULA
