Dani Pedrosa believes tomorrow’s final practice session will take on added importance whatever weather conditions the riders are faced with at Aragon. Forecasts indicate a wet qualifying session and the Spaniard admits he will be using FP3 to improve rear grip with his RC213V to challenge the Yamahas in those conditions.
“At least we had a full wet session this afternoon to work with the bike and I felt quite good. I was catching the pace step by step, even though the grip was not very high in the rear, and we still have to adjust the setting a little more to improve in some corners. It looks like the weather forecast is also bad for tomorrow, so it will be important to take advantage of the morning practice to be well prepared for qualifying”.
As at Misano, Repsol Honda teammate Jonathan Rea didn’t have the benefit of a dry Friday to acclimatise. The Ulsterman was able to test here before his debut though and says his focus is trying to improve the set-up in the wet.
“It’s been pretty frustrating because I feel like we’ve lost another day, it’s the same story as Misano! It was the first fully wet session we’ve had and the big difference for me was with the tyres and when they lose traction you can play with the rear grip slightly. I was riding a little too cautious today and I feel I need to push the tyres more and be more comfortable with the bike moving around. I wasn’t too happy with myself as in the last few laps this afternoon I was on personal best sectors and I made a few mistakes as the front tyre didn’t feel very stable on the carcass. I guess we need to be thankful we were able to test here a few weeks ago and we completed over a hundred laps so for the dry we should be ok, but in the wet my feeling is still not 100%. Let’s see what the conditions bring tomorrow”.