Daniel Pedrosa was looking forward to getting back on his bike after a break of over three weeks and he immediately felt comfortable on the first day of practice for the British Grand Prix.
Likewise Hiroshi Aoyama, who continued his recent run of form and, after a strong performance in the last round in Holland, started off in similar fashion today.
Pedrosa lines up in fourth place on the provisional grid after today’s first qualifying session, just behind Aoyama, who took advantage of the Spaniard’s slipstream to edge ahead of him on the time sheets in the final seconds. Dani had a small scare in the morning when the low temperature of the track and the tyres caused him to crash. The World Champion recovered quickly to lap second fastest this morning just 0.075 seconds off the fastest time.
In the afternoon he focused on improving his lap time and chasing a good grid position in case the rainy weather forecasts come true tomorrow. The Movistar rider set a consistent pace and, despite conceding pole position in the final few minutes, was satisfied with the compromise found with the bike. Hiroshi Aoyama spent the whole day in the top eight positions and used his extra confidence, as well as Dani’s rear wheel, to record an excellent third position.
DANI PEDROSA (4th, 1’32”887): “It has been a bit of a difficult day because the track was cold and it was hard to get the tyres up to temperature, especially the front. There were a lot of crashes in some pretty dangerous places and I had a bit of a scare myself this morning. There are only two or three left corners at this track and when you arrive at the first one, which is downhill, the tyre is colder than usual and it is easy to crash. Despite everything it has been a positive day all round and I know we have to be ready for anything because they say the weather could get worse. At least we have had use of the dry circuit to set the bike up”.
HIROSHI AOYAMA (3rd, 1’32”826): “This morning the track was very cold and I decided it was better to take things slowly and get a feeling for the bike after three weeks away. In the afternoon we continued working on the front end, which I’m still not too comfortable with, and in the end I was able to hang on to Dani’s back wheel and clock a good time. Now I’ve got to set these lap times by myself on a consistent basis.”
LAP TIMES
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Esp/Honda 1’32”609
2. Alex De Angelis (RSM/Aprilia+ 0”104
3. Hiroshi Aoyama (Jap/Honda) + 0”217
4. Dani Pedrosa (Esp/Honda) + 0”278
5. Casey Stoner (Aus/Aprilia) + 0”476