Pedrosa takes charge in Saturday morning session

Dani Pedrosa was the early beneficiary of a drier day in Mugello, recording the fastest MotoGP time of the weekend so far at the Italian circuit on Saturday morning. The Spaniard undertook the most laps of any rider in the morning session, the fastest of which was a 1´49.975 run that moved him to the head of the timesheets.

Behind the Repsol Honda rider, reigning World Champion Casey Stoner also put together a series of mercurial laps, although his quickest time was some four-tenths of a second down on that of his rival.

Despite rainfall with just a quarter of the session gone, most riders tried their luck with slick tyres in order to prepare for any condition. However, the fastest laps by and large were recorded at the end of the run, indicating that things were not too uncomfortable on-track.

Loris Capirossi was the third fastest in the morning outing, ahead of Alex de Angelis, whilst the biggest improvement came from Tech 3 Yamaha´s Colin Edwards. The American experienced difficulties on Friday, but managed some overnight progress to claim the fifth quickest time.

Six-time Mugello MotoGP winner Valentino Rossi was the only other rider to go round within the same second as Pedrosa, ahead of San Carlo Honda Gresini´s Shinya Nakano, Alice Team man Sylvain Guintoli, yesterday´s fastest rider John Hopkins and 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden. Hopkins and Hayden both ran off track during the session.

Using the Honda RC212V pneumatic valve engine, Tadayuki Okada was unable to perform more than two laps of the Mugello circuit, after a breakdown sent his bike back to the pits for work.