Pedrosa predicts tough race from second grid position
Saturday, 31 May 2008
Second on the grid, Dani Pedrosa is predicting a none-too-easy race in Mugello.
Repsol Honda line up three riders on the Mugello grid this weekend. They will start from varying points on the grid, with Dani Pedrosa predicting a hard time from the front row. He was less than two tenths of a second slower than poleman Valentino Rossi in qualifying.
Dani Pedrosa - Second
` Conditions weren´t so good this morning, the track was dirty after all the rain, so it wasn't easy to work on set-up. This afternoon the track was completely dry and better, so we were more focused in our work. We still need to improve, so the warm-up session will be very important. We still haven't decided which tyres to run, and this choice will crucial because the race is long and there are a lot corners that require an aggressive riding style, so we need to look for a good compromise. Starting from the front row is very important here, so I'm happy to be there. Tomorrow it will be a tough race with many competitive riders."
Nicky Hayden - Sixth
`We´ve basically only had one completely dry session all weekend – so we´ve tried out a lot of tyres: rains, intermediates and qualifiers and just a couple of race tyres. So that´s certainly a big issue for tomorrow, we don´t know a lot about what race tyres to run, so we´ll definitely let Michelin help us a little there. We made a bit of progress this afternoon and ended up on the second row. I´m not going to fool myself though, it´s certainly going to be a hard one tomorrow, some guys going really quick. It´d be nice to improve in warm-up, we´ve got some work to do to try and get closer to the front. Then we´ll just try to get a start and go for it.´
Tadayuki Okada - Fifteenth
`This morning we had an electrical problem which was caused by yesterday´s crash. We couldn't fix it quickly, so this afternoon was my only chance to ride in the dry. We still have to work on set-up for this track. With more time to improve suspension set-up, traction and gearing I think we could improve top speed by at least 5km/h. Tyre choice is another big issue because I´ve only tested one race tyre, so it will be difficult to choose.´
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