MotoGP: Pedrosa fastest at Donington

Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa fired the opening shot for this weekend’s British Grand Prix, finishing on top of the timesheets at Donington Park in a session that started very wet and ended almost dry. His factory Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was also on the pace, recording the fourth fastest time with a lap just 0.442s behind Pedrosa.

Rain fell for the first half of the practice this afternoon before sunshine allowed a dry line to slowly develop around the 4.023km (2.500-mile) circuit. Pedrosa used the initial part of the session to work on the wet settings on his RC212V and then began to up the pace, extracting the absolute maximum from Bridgestone’s treaded wet tires on his final flying lap. The surface never fully dried however, and Pedrosa’s fastest lap was 10s off his own lap record at Donington – a time of 1m 28.714s set in 2006.

Dovizioso also took advantage of the ever-changing conditions to analyze the performance of the Honda RC212V in a wide range of grip levels. Once again displaying his prowess in tricky marginal conditions by picking his was around the damp patches that remained on the circuit, Dovizioso climbed steadily to fourth place by the checkered flag and felt he could have gone quicker still at the close of the session. Like Pedrosa, he is confident of a strong showing tomorrow.

Both Repsol Honda riders have previously won two Grands Prix apiece at Donington Park and will be gunning for the hat-trick of wins on Sunday. Qualifying for the 30-lap race takes place tomorrow at 13.55, local time.

Results