The Malaysian Grand Prix began today with two hours of MotoGP free practice in typically tropical conditions at the Sepang circuit near Kuala Lumpur. The Repsol Honda Team riders Nicky Hayden and Dani Pedrosa used the morning session to begin tailoring the set-up of their factory RC212Vs to the newly-laid surface at the World Championship’s longest circuit. A rain shower curtailed the final moments of the morning hour with Dani Pedrosa lying in a promising second place and Nicky Hayden just behind in third.
Heavy rainfall at lunchtime saw the afternoon session starting with a partially wet track and the MotoGP field progressing from full wet tyres to intermediates to slicks as the surface slowly dried. Dani Pedrosa was quick again and spent a significant portion of the session at the head of the timesheets, before slipping to fourth when the chequered flag came out just before 3pm. Hayden improved his pace from the morning by a full second, though the 2006 World Champion felt he delayed the switch to slick tyres for too long and wasn’t fully satisfied with his finishing position of tenth.
With new asphalt covering several sections of Sepang’s 5.548km (3.447-mile) lap, the track’s surface grip is expected to increase throughout the weekend. Practice continues on Saturday morning with the one-hour qualifying session beginning at 1.50pm local time, when the Repsol Honda Team will be looking to record their fourth consecutive pole position. The 21-lap Malaysian Grand Prix begins at 3pm local time on Sunday (9am CET, 8am UK).
Dani Pedrosa – 4th Fastest lap: 2m 03.767s “The day went pretty well and we’ve made a lot of progress with the set-up today. The new surface here seems ok. There are some sections of the new track where there are many small bumps but they are not too severe so we should be able to deal with them. Also the grip is not bad, although the feeling is slightly strange through some sections of the track – I think because it is a new surface. We’re expecting the grip to improve as more rubber is laid down over the course of the weekend. I think we were pretty lucky with the weather today. We lost some time in both sessions, but we missed the worst of the rain. Tomorrow we’ll continue with the set-up work and hopefully get a good starting position in qualifying. It would be nice to have three pole positions in a row of course, but our rivals look strong again so we’ll have to work very hard for it.”
Nicky Hayden – 10th Fastest lap: 2m 04.752s “This morning wasn’t bad at all and we got on the pace straight away. This afternoon wasn’t that stellar though. I probably wasted too much time on full wets and intermediates. In those conditions, especially on intermediates, is where I need to step up my game because we could get these conditions really easily on Sunday. Once we got going we improved our speed from this morning but we’re quite a way from where we need to be. Parts of the track feel ok but we’ve got to find something more with the tyres if we want to be competitive, otherwise we could be in a little bit of trouble. Maybe the track will clean up and start being kinder on the tyres. It’s quite strange coming here with a completely new surface because we’ve done so many practice laps on the old surface and we were very familiar with it. The surface was quite dirty and slippery this morning to start with. It’s definitely getting a bit better so it would be nice to get some more dry weather tomorrow, put down some rubber and move things forward.”
Makoto Tanaka – Repsol Honda Team Manager
“We had 50 minutes of dry practice this morning and 40 minutes this afternoon and we should be grateful for this considering the rain that fell at lunchtime. Dani went quite well today and his feeling from the new surface and the machine was good. Nicky went well this morning but struggled to get a rhythm this afternoon after perhaps staying out on wet and intermediates a little bit too long. Some of our rivals look strong again today so we must examine the data from today’s sessions and prepare to make some adjustments to the machine settings we use tomorrow. The afternoon weather here is so unpredictable, but we expect the track surface condition to continue to improve and our lap times to come down further.”
Combined Free Practice Times
1. Randy de Puniet - Kawasaki Racing Team 2m 02.917s
2. Casey Stoner - Ducati Marlboro Team 2m 02.928s
3. Marco Melandri - Honda Gresini 2m 03.661s
4. Dani Pedrosa - Repsol Honda Team 2m 03.767s
5. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing Team 2m 03.825s
6. Toni Elias - Honda Gresini 2m 04.031s
7. Sylvain Guintoli - Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3 2m 04.094s
8. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2m 04.455s
9. John Hopkins - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2m 04.494s
10. Nicky Hayden - Repsol Honda Team 2m 04.752s
11. Carlos Checa - Honda LCR 2m 04.770s
12. Alex Barros - Pramac D’Antin 2m 04.774s
13. Loris Capirossi - Ducati Marlboro Team 2m 04.940s
14. Colin Edwards - Fiat Yamaha Team 2m 05.162s
15. Nobuatsu Aoki - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 2m 05.234s
16. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 2m 05.421s
17. Chaz Davies - Pramac D’Antin 2m 05.897s
18. Shinya Nakano - Konica Minolta Honda 2m 05.939s
Free Practice Conditions:
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 29ºC
Track: Dry / 31ºC
Humidity: 70%
Circuit length: 5.548km – 3.447 miles
Lap Record: Loris Capirossi : 2m 02.127s (2006)
