Andrea Dovizioso finished second in opening practice today at Motegi in Japan, just pipped for top spot late on, when Valentino Rossi went two tenths quicker. The Repsol Honda man was quickly into his stride and his best lap was a 1:48.387.
Dovizioso is now confident of further improvements in tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions, should the dry weather hold.
“I’m happy with today’s session and especially with the lap time - today we started from a good base. In fact I think that we have a margin to improve further so I’m confident for the rest of the weekend,” he confirmed.
“This is a track with particular characteristics; it has sections of strong acceleration and also parts where you brake aggressively, that’s why it’s important to find a good compromise to control the bike wheeling and get the best acceleration.
“I’m also very confident that we can improve because today we used the same tyres throughout the session and I didn’t test the front hard tyre that seems to give an advantage.”
Dovizioso’s team-mate, Dani Pedrosa meanwhile had a bad day, falling early in the session and suffering a double fracture of the left collarbone, which will require surgery.
“I’m really sorry for Dani,” Dovizioso added. “It’s always very bad for a rider when there are injuries. I was behind him and it was a bad crash. He fell quite hard. I hope he can recover soon.”
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