Pedrosa fastest in practice

From Repsol Honda

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa set an impressive pace on the opening day of Catalan Grand Prix practice Friday, topping the first two sessions with a time of 1:43.017, just six thousandths ahead of his closest rival Loris Capirossi. Teammate Nicky Hayden made solid progress, ending the day ninth, less than six tenths off the fastest lap of the day with a 1:43.614.

Track conditions were more slippery than usual following heavy rain throughout much of Thursday. Seven riders crashed during the morning and afternoon sessions, Pedrosa sliding off in the final minutes of the second outing, after he already had ridden his best lap.

“We started practice this morning using the set-up from Mugello," Pedrosa said. "We tried various different chassis settings and we also tried a few different tires for the race. This morning the asphalt was quite dirty, and although the track conditions improved a bit this afternoon the surface was still dirty off-line. Also, this track is quite bumpy, from the F1 cars.

"Late this afternoon I crashed at turn 5. There’s a joint in the asphalt there, I hit the bump and lost the front. Fortunately I wasn’t hurt and I was able to continue riding."

“Today hasn’t been the smoothest," Hayden said. "There’s a lot of long corners here, so we’ve been trying to get a bit of rear traction, that’s what we’re working on. We’ve tried a few things and we had something we were going to try on the second bike this afternoon but we lost a bit of time with that bike.”