Pedrosa Sets Blistering Pace On Friday Afternoon

Dani Pedrosa - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com

Dani Pedrosa had already dominated the first practice session on Friday morning in Malaysia but the Spaniard managed to put in an even stronger performance in the afternoon leaving everybody, including teammate Casey Stoner with no answer.

As in the second 125cc session, the riders took the best part of 25 minutes to match the lap times set earlier on and unsurprisingly, Pedrosa was the man to do it, setting a 2:01.930 to lead the field by over half a second. Stoner's response was encouraging as he gradually got closer and closer to the Spaniard on his second run, getting to within 0.140s before heading for the pits.

As everybody poured out on track for their final runs though, it became abundantly clear that Pedrosa had more speed in his pocket, particularly in the final sector, and the Barcelona rider set a 2:01.250, just seven tenths shy of the outright lap record and the thick end of a second quicker than anyone else.

Stoner had to settle for a distant second while Andrea Dovizioso ended the afternoon in third despite failing to beat his FP1 time at any stage. Marco Simoncelli managed to improve but stayed in fourth with the stand-out performance coming from Hiroshi Aoyama who finished a stunning fifth, just a tenth behind his Gresini teammate.

Just half a second covered the six riders behind Aoyama with Tech 3's Colin Edwards next up on the fastest Yamaha. Alvaro Bautista was seventh for Rizla Suzuki ahead of Randy de Puniet, top Ducati for the second session running.

Ben Spies battled through the pain barrier to take ninth on the factory Yamaha M1 while teammate Katsuyuki Nakasuga brought up the rear after crashing for the second session running. Meanwhile, Karel Abraham completed the top ten on his satellite Ducati, upstaging his factory counterparts who finished 11^th in the case of Nicky Hayden and 13^th for Valentino Rossi.

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