Pedrosa quickest in Portugal

From Repsol Honda

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was in impressive form at windswept Estoril Friday, heading a closely bunched leading group on the first day of practice. Teammate Nicky Hayden was just 0.181 seconds down in fourth place.

Strong, blustery winds and a morning rain shower complicated the day’s proceedings, but once the track was mostly dry World Championship leader and Spanish GP winner Pedrosa quickly got into the groove to set the pace, recording the fastest lap of the day at 1:38.507 and establishing a good rhythm.

Hayden, the 2006 MotoGP World Champion was also happy with his day’s work, making only minor changes to his RC212V’s set up. Last year Hayden got pole position and the lap record here, while Pedrosa finished the race in second place.

“We started today using the base setup we used at Jerez and we didn’t need to make too many changes," Pedrosa said. "This morning’s session was quite complicated because it had been raining, so conditions were constantly changing as the track dried, then we had a minor technical issue with one of my bikes, so we had to stop before the end of the hour.

"This afternoon we had a dry session which allowed us to start doing some tire testing in preparation for the race, which is especially important considering the changeable weather during the weekend. After a few laps this afternoon I began to get into the rhythm of Estoril again.”