Dani Pedrosa ended up the fastest rider on the first day of a two-day private test that also includes Yamaha factory team riders Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies and satellite LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl.
The Repsol Honda rider who won the last two consecutive MotoGP races, completed a total of 35 laps and set a blistering lap of 1.
47.
983 at the Motorland Aragon circuit and the only rider to break the 1.
48 barrier and also shatter Casey Stoner’s 2011 800cc pole position record of 1.
48.
451 as he worked on suspension and electronics.
Jorge Lorenzo was the second fastest rider, but he ended up almost five tenths adrift and was once again testing the 2013 chassis that he used during the Brno post-race test and tomorrow will also test a new engine, while Ben Spies took third and he was +0.
664s from Pedrosa and he also revealed that this week we’ll find out he’ll confirm where he’ll be riding in 2013, while the rumors of his signing with Ducati are getting stronger.
Stefan Bradl was fourth fastest and more than 1.
5 seconds from his factory counterpart, while Jonathan Rea who is standing in for recovering Casey Stoner and is expected to replace him at the Misano and Aragon GPs.
brought up the rear in his second test on the RC213V trying to familiarize and adapt to the prototype machine.
He completed 69 laps with a best time of 1’50.
678.
Lap times and rider quotes after the jump.
MotoGP Motorland Aragon Day 1 test times:1.
Dani Pedrosa 1.
47.
983 (35 laps)2.
Jorge Lorenzo 1′48.
471 (38 laps)3.
Ben Spies 1′48.
647 (56 laps)4.
Stefan Bradl 1′49.
570 (42 laps)5.
Jonathan Rea 1′51.
410 (69 laps)Rider Quotes:Dani Pedrosa:“In the morning we did some laps to get back into the rhythm and remember the lines on this track, then in the afternoon we really started to work on the bike set up.
We worked a lot with the suspension trying to improve the rear grip especially and with the mapping and electronics to make the bike smoother.
The track conditions will be better tomorrow, so the target is to stick with the same plan, try the same things and see if we can improve a little more with the suspension because the configuration today was not perfect.
This is the last test of the season, so it’s important to take advantage of it for the upcoming races and see if we can get something else from the bike.
”Jorge Lorenzo:“We tried the new chassis.
So far we haven’t found a positive or a negative thing.
We have to keep trying and do more laps to see.
Tomorrow we are going to try the new engine.
Maybe this will give us a little bit more power on the straight.
This is our weaker point – we are loosing almost 5kmh to Dani.
Dani is also very light, but for sure his engine is a little bit faster.
But in general we are quite happy because we improved our lap time by half a second compared to the previous one a few months ago.
”Ben Spies:“We have a lot of different settings with the bike.
Mainly with the front-end, with the forks, to get me a little bit more comfortable with the hard braking.
We’ve equalled our fastest lap time over here this morning quite easily.
We have some more test parts for tomorrow.
”Jonathan Rea:“Today I was just getting a good feeling between me and the machine because it still feels very strange.
I had to work a lot on my brake style today; normally in Superbike I don’t use so much rear brake but here it seems that I have to learn to use it in every corner! Just concentrating on this and getting a better setting on the brakes and trying to do longer runs on the tyres because for me it’s very different at the end.
I feel comfortable on the bike, the riding position is good, but I just need to understand how the traction control is working, what happens when the tyres drop down and be more comfortable with the setup.
”
