Dani Pedrosa ended the first day of the bwin Grande Premio de Portugal in 13th places on 2nd free practice. He said that he felt much better with his RC212V at Estoril during the bad weather after miss last three races.
“Straight away I felt much better on the bike here than I did in Australia and the shoulder has recovered a lot, which is very positive,” said Pedrosa, who along with the majority of the premier class opted against riding in the first practice due to the wet weather conditions.
“I feel a little bit tired now, but basically I feel okay after riding today. It was a pity that we missed the whole practice this morning because of the rain, and also at the beginning of the afternoon session the track conditions were difficult, which limited what we could achieve. To be honest I didn’t feel totally at home on the bike today but I think this is normal after so long without riding, and this situation will improve.”
With the focus on re-establishing his comfort on the bike times were not on Pedrosa’s mind, as he completed 19 laps with a best time of 1’53.592 – just over five seconds off Jorge Lorenzo’s top time.
“Usually when you ride in wet conditions you take it easy and this was especially true for me today because I certainly didn’t want to take any unnecessary risks. It was good to be on the bike again and to see that I can ride more or less normally,” he explained, before adding a comment about the rearranged Saturday schedule which will see one hour dedicated to each of the final practice and qualifying sessions.
“Tomorrow we’ll see what the weather brings, but it’s good that we have two hours instead of two 45-minute sessions, and we’ll make the most of that extra time,” he concluded.
Now let is if Pedrosa can do better on 3rd free practice session till the Sunday race to keep his position on the table