Pedrosa getting to grips with Phillip Island

Tyres were the focus for Dani Pedrosa as he aims to fine tune the grip on his Honda RC212V, after Casey Stoner and Jorge Lorenzo cited similar post-practice assessments at Phillip Island.

The Repsol Honda rider – who currently sits third in the World Championship standings – posted a best time of 1'31.528s at the Australian circuit on Friday afternoon.

Coming in at 0.361s behind Stoner, who is just three points behind him in the championship standings, Pedrosa has identified the points of his machine which need adjusting ahead of Saturday’s second session and qualifying.

“I think we were lucky today at the end because finally we had good weather and it was sunny. The track temperature was rising so this was good to try some tyres on,” said Pedrosa. “I’ll just try to improve the set-up a little bit – in the first practice you always have some things you don’t like. So we’ll just try to set up the bike better, and have more grip.”

“Although the surface was a little dusty, grip should improve through the weekend. We tried both the softer and harder tyre compounds today and it’ll be an important choice for Sunday because the 4pm race start means the temperature could be low. So we need to analyse carefully how fast the tyres will warm up, especially on the left side because there are so many left-handers here.”

“I’m pretty happy with how this first practice has gone and I’m sure the times will fall further tomorrow, weather permitting.”