Honda wings it at Sachsenring
2012-07-07 08:05
FLYING FINN: Finn Niklas Ajo of the TT Motion Events Racing team crashes during the second practice session ahead of the Moto3 of Germany at the Sachsenring Circuit on July 6, 2012. Image: AFP
Sachsenring, Germany – Honda’s Dani Pedrosa and Casey Stoner topped the times at the end of Friday's two free practice sessions here ahead of Sunday's German MotoGP.
Pedrosa was quicker of the two in both sessions with Stoner taking second on the combined times.
Pedrosa, winner at the Sachsenring circuit in 2010 and 2011, exploited the early dry weather to post a time of 1min22.357 with Stoner only 0.087 slower. In the afternoon, with rain hitting the track, Pedrosa continued to dominate with a fastest lap of 1min32.228, 0.180 ahead of Stoner.
'PRETTY HAPPY'
Pedrosa said: "The weekend has started pretty good for us. I felt comfortable in both the dry and wet conditions but we only managed half of our plan today. We wanted to test the hard rear tyres in the afternoon because, in theory, the hardest compound should be working better on this track where you are leaning to the left a long time.
“With the soft, the bike slides a lot."
Stoner commented: "We were pretty happy in both conditions today. In the dry we felt comfortable and had a consistently higher pace than the others. We're confident we can go quite a bit faster so that was definitely a positive.
"We were struggling a little at the beginning in the wet, we needed to find more rear traction, but the conditions weren't perfect as they were changing throughout the session with some parts of the track drying out and then more rain arriving."
Stoner, winner last time out in Assen, is neck-and-neck with Yamaha ace Jorge Lorenzo on 140 points in the overall standings with Pedrosa 19 points back in third.
