Bushiee46
26-02-2007, 21:17
http://www.gixerjunkies.net/forum/attachment.php?attachmentid=7898&stc=1&d=1172520990
In what could well have been a glimpse of the upcoming 2007 racing season, Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi rose head-and-shoulders above their rivals during the 40-minute 'qualifying' shootout at Jerez on Sunday.
The session marked the first competitive outing of the year, with a new BMW sports car rather than a grand prix pole position up for grabs, and soon developed into a straight fight between former triple world champion Pedrosa and former seven times world champion Rossi.
The young Spaniard was on flying form in front of his home fans, but was toppled by Rossi with five minutes to go. Dani then fought back on his final lap - only to finish just 0.133secs behind the Italian at the chequered flag. However, third placed Colin Edwards was almost 0.8secs slower than Pedrosa.
"I'm very happy with the 40-minute timed session because I really didn't expect to be this fast," said Pedrosa. "I improved the lap time on qualifying tyres by a lot from the last time I rode here. This was the goal for the session and I did it, so I'm happy. It's been a really good test for me because we will only have limited time in which to test tyres this season.
"It was a good competition with Valentino today but I was not focused on his times, I just wanted to put these tyres on the limit and concentrate on myself, which is what I did," claimed the #26, perhaps eager to extinguish any early rivalry talk. "It's been a valuable three days, we have made progress with the set-up of the bike for the race and also qualifying, so I'm hoping we're ready for the first round at Qatar."
Pedrosa also completed a continuous run of 28 laps - one more than race distance - in the afternoon, consistently lapping in the 1min 41secs bracket. The next time that Pedrosa and Rossi will be on track together will be at the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on March 10.
Dani's Repsol Honda team-mate and reigning world champion, Nicky Hayden, was fourth fastest at the test.
In what could well have been a glimpse of the upcoming 2007 racing season, Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi rose head-and-shoulders above their rivals during the 40-minute 'qualifying' shootout at Jerez on Sunday.
The session marked the first competitive outing of the year, with a new BMW sports car rather than a grand prix pole position up for grabs, and soon developed into a straight fight between former triple world champion Pedrosa and former seven times world champion Rossi.
The young Spaniard was on flying form in front of his home fans, but was toppled by Rossi with five minutes to go. Dani then fought back on his final lap - only to finish just 0.133secs behind the Italian at the chequered flag. However, third placed Colin Edwards was almost 0.8secs slower than Pedrosa.
"I'm very happy with the 40-minute timed session because I really didn't expect to be this fast," said Pedrosa. "I improved the lap time on qualifying tyres by a lot from the last time I rode here. This was the goal for the session and I did it, so I'm happy. It's been a really good test for me because we will only have limited time in which to test tyres this season.
"It was a good competition with Valentino today but I was not focused on his times, I just wanted to put these tyres on the limit and concentrate on myself, which is what I did," claimed the #26, perhaps eager to extinguish any early rivalry talk. "It's been a valuable three days, we have made progress with the set-up of the bike for the race and also qualifying, so I'm hoping we're ready for the first round at Qatar."
Pedrosa also completed a continuous run of 28 laps - one more than race distance - in the afternoon, consistently lapping in the 1min 41secs bracket. The next time that Pedrosa and Rossi will be on track together will be at the season-opening Qatar Grand Prix on March 10.
Dani's Repsol Honda team-mate and reigning world champion, Nicky Hayden, was fourth fastest at the test.