Rapid Pedrosa maintains momentum at The Brickyard

Ahead of qualifying later today at the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa has been the fastest rider in both free practice sessions thus far.

The Spanish rider was the top man in the rain yesterday and in dry conditions on Saturday morning he lapped faster than any of his rivals once again, taking his factory RC212V round the Indianapolis MotoGP track in 1’40.271 on his last lap in the session. That was more than half a second quicker than the time which gave Valentino Rossi pole at The Brickyard last year.

No-one was able to get within a second of Pedrosa’s pace, with his compatriot Jorge Lorenzo lapping second fastest - thanks to a best effort 1.015s behind the Honda man.

Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) caused something of a surprise in third place with a time very similar to Lorenzo’s, whilst the Spaniard’s Fiat Yamaha team-mate Rossi was just a tenth of a second behind him in fourth.

With Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) placing fifth and sixth respectively there were three Yamahas and three Hondas in the top six.

Next came the three Ducatis of Nicky Hayden, Niccolò Canepa and Mika Kallio, ahead of final top ten representative Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing).

Pramac Racing’s replacement rider Aleix Espargaró impressed again in 14th place, in front of regular riders such as Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3).