Pedrosa leads Redding in damp FP2
He may have left it late but Dani Pedrosa topped the second MotoGP free practice session at Motegi with Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci second and third.
A slow session that began with the track still considerably damp, only a handful of riders emerged from pit-lane in the first 15 minutes with wet tyres fitted.
But come the session’s final third, and slick tyres were the order of the day. Pedrosa’s final lap of 1m 48.136s was the quickest of them all, with Aprilia’s Redding showing adeptness in tricky conditions, 0.499s back.
He may have left it late but Dani Pedrosa topped the second MotoGP free practice session at Motegi with Scott Redding and Danilo Petrucci second and third.
A slow session that began with the track still considerably damp, only a handful of riders emerged from pit-lane in the first 15 minutes with wet tyres fitted.
But come the session’s final third, and slick tyres were the order of the day. Pedrosa’s final lap of 1m 48.136s was the quickest of them all, with Aprilia’s Redding showing adeptness in tricky conditions, 0.499s back.
Times from FP1 were never troubled, with Pedrosa’s best just under three seconds slower than Andrea Dovizioso’s quickest lap from this morning. Dovizioso and title rival Marc Marquez were just two of the nine riders who didn’t take to the track all session.
Petrucci, who scored a podium finish here a year ago, was third, but later bemoaned his “worst Friday of the year,” referencing a disappointing 17th place in FP1.
Jack Miller, team-mate to the Italian, was the first rider to fit slicks and quickly set about hacking large chunks out of Johann Zarco’s – the pace setter for much of the session before the track dried substantially – advantage. In the end, the Australian was fourth.
Zarco was eventually shuffled back to fifth, but will nonetheless be buoyed by a strong day overall, in which he twice outpaced the factory Movistar bikes. Valentino Rossi ended the session 14th, a place ahead of Maverick Viñales.
Tech 3 Yamaha’s Hafizh Syahrin was sixth, and Bradley Smith (seventh) headed a host of unexpected names, including Xavier Simeon (eighth), Thomas Luthi (ninth) and Suzuki wildcard Sylvain Guintoli (tenth).
