MotoGP News
Date: 17/August/2012
MotoGP title contender Dani Pedrosa set the pace during a slippery day one at the Indianapolis Grand Prix.
The Indianapolis infield circuit, formerly home to the F1 Grand Prix, is rarely used outside of the annual motorcycle world championship round and the MotoGP stars faced a ‘green’ and slippery track at the start of Friday’s action.
Pedrosa was second to Repsol Honda team-mate Casey Stoner in the morning session, then lopped 2.3s off his lap time during the afternoon - with other riders managing even greater gains on the improving track surface.
Pedrosa, winner at Indianapolis in 2010 and runner-up to Stoner last season, said:
“This afternoon the track was a little better than in the morning and we were able to improve our lap times quite a lot and also try the hard tyres, which worked much better than the soft specification we tried this morning.
“As we saw today, the times will keep dropping during the weekend with more rubber on the asphalt, so we have to continue working hard on the bike.”
Pedrosa is currently second in the world championship, 23 points behind compatriot Jorge Lorenzo.
Yamaha rider Lorenzo struggled with the lack of grip on his way to eighth in the morning session and, although he marched up the timesheets to third in the afternoon, was still 0.719s behind Pedrosa.
Lorenzo said: “We were better this afternoon than this morning. I didn’t feel great on the track today so I hope we can improve the feeling for tomorrow. This track seems to be quite difficult for us to find a good set up. I’m struggling on the entry to the corners where I don’t seem to have much grip.”
Lorenzo’s team-mate Ben Spies was second quickest at a track where he has been on the podium for the last two years, while reigning champion Stoner dropped to fifth after suffering bike problems in the second session.
Stoner said: “This afternoon we knew what we wanted to do but unfortunately we had some issues with the bike. We had a problem with electronics and then a strange feeling in the rear, perhaps a stone got into the chain or something, we're not sure yet.
“Due to the fact we couldn't identify what the problem was, we decided to use the second bike and I only managed a few laps. A slightly disappointing afternoon and we know what we want to work on tomorrow morning.”
Stoner, last year’s Indianapolis winner, is 32-points from Lorenzo in the standings.
Final practice and qualifying takes place on Saturday.
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