Pace setter Pedrosa pleased with Misano start

The confidence of Dani Pedrosa is high following the first session at Misano in which the Spaniard lapped at over half a second quicker than anyone else. The Repsol Honda rider, fresh off the back of a third win of 2010 last weekend in Indianapolis, was the pace setter by some distance on Friday in San Marino and was extremely satisfied with how his hour had gone.

“It’s been a really good start here in Misano compared to last year and I'm very happy about that,” said the 24 year-old. “We are coming from a strong result at the last race and it's important to keep the momentum going, which we have done so far. But we need to remain very concentrated and focused because we still have some areas to improve, and I'm sure our rivals will also go quicker tomorrow.”

Pedrosa’s best lap of 1’34.772 placed him 0.612s clear of the rest of the field, with team-mate Andrea Dovizioso completing a Repsol Honda one-two in what was a promising session for the team.

“Our pace has been quite fast today and Andrea is close to the front as well, so this is a good sign for the team,” observed Pedrosa. “Here the grid positions are very important again because the first corner is close to the start and it’s a tight bend. Because of this we need to make sure we have a good pace tomorrow so that we can qualify well, and also so that we are ready for another long and tough race. I can say this was one of my best Friday practices, but I'm not going to relax at all. We need to keep working towards the race distance, and for lap times.”

Pedrosa occupied the final step on the podium in last year’s race, and this weekend is going for his first back-to-back premier class victories having already achieved a best-ever win tally in a single season in the elite class.