Daniel Pedrosa today began his quest to discover the new secrets of the modified Assen circuit, where he took his first 125cc World Championship victory in 2002.
The double World Champion concentrated on finding the best possible chassis set-up and, even though he had a problem with a tyre that was sliding too much at the end of the session, he made the most of a warm and sunny day at ‘The Cathedral’. Dani, fastest in the morning free practice, lines up on the second row of the provisional grid after completing 16 laps in the afternoon qualifying practice.
His team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama set the fourth fastest time of the day, just three tenths off the provisional pole time set by the Argentinean rider Sebastián Porto.
DANI PEDROSA (6th, 2’06”200): “The weather was fantastic today, probably the best we’ve ever had at Assen, and we tried to make the most of it. In the morning we tried out the changes to the track and in the afternoon we basically worked on the chassis set-up. At the end of the practice we had a problem with the tyre, which was sliding around too much. The new chicane is a difficult point because even though the corner is in the same place the chicane itself is much tighter than before and you have to brake earlier. It’s so flat that when the sun is shining you can hardly distinguish the asphalt from the grass and it’s easy to miss your braking marker because you don’t have any reference point on the ground. Anyway, we’ve gathered a lot of important information for the two sessions we have left and let’s hope the weather stays good for the race so that we can make the most of the work we are doing.”
HIROSHI AOYAMA (4th, 2’05”906): “To start off with fourth place at a track like Assen is very good. With the changes that have been made we were all starting from scratch and that worked well for us. I did my fast lap behind Barberá and the truth is that I found it easy to follow his pace. The new chicane is difficult because it is very flat and it’s not easy to get any sort of reference.”
LAP TIMES
1. Sebastian Porto (Arg/Aprilia) 2’05”530
2. Jorge Lorenzo (Esp/Honda) + 0”135
3. Casey Stoner (Aus/Aprilia) + 0”161
4. Hiroshi Aoyama (Jap/Honda) + 0”376
5. Alex de Angelis (RSM/Aprilia) + 0”452
6. Dani Pedrosa (Esp/Honda)+ 0”670
7. Héctor Barberá (Esp/Honda) + 0”725
8. Andrea Dovisiozo (Ita/Honda) + 0”781
9. Simone Corsi (Ita/Aprilia) + 1”279
10. Randy De Puniet (Fra/Aprilia) + 1”354