Pedrosa tops German MotoGP practice times

AFP
Spain´s Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda Team steers his bike

SACHSENRING, Germany (AFP) –

Spain´s Dani Pedrosa of Repsol Honda Team steers his bike during the second training session of the MotoGP of the Grand Prix of Germany at the Sachsenring Circuit in Hohenstein-Ernstthal, eastern Germany. Pedrosa and Casey Stoner topped the times after two free practice sessions ahead of Sunday’s German MotoGP.

Honda duo Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner topped the times after Friday’s two free practice sessions here ahead of Sunday’s German MotoGP.

Pedrosa was quickest in both sessions with his Australian teammate taking second on the combined times.

Pedrosa, winner at the Sachsenring circuit in 2010 and 2011, exploited the early dry weather to post a time of 1min 22.357sec with Stoner just 0.087s off the pace.

In the afternoon, with rain hitting the track, Pedrosa continued to dominate with a fastest lap of 1:32.228, 0.180 ahead of Stoner.

Pedrosa said: “The weekend has started pretty good for us.

“I felt comfortable in both the dry and wet conditions, but we only managed half of our plan today.

“We wanted to test the hard rear tyres in the afternoon, because in theory the hardest compound should be working better in this track where you are leaning to the left a long time, and with the soft the bike slides a lot.”

Stoner commented: “We were pretty happy in both conditions today.

“In the dry we felt comfortable and we had a consistently higher pace than the others and we’re confident we can go quite a bit faster so that was definitely a positive.

“We were struggling a little at the beginning in the wet, we needed to find more rear traction but the conditions weren’t perfect as they were changing throughout the session with some parts of the track drying out and then more rain arriving.”

Stoner, a winner last time out in Assen, is neck and neck with Yamaha ace Jorge Lorenzo on 140 points in the overall standings, with Pedrosa 19 points back in third.

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Edited by Staff Editor