Dani quickest

Spaniard Dani Pedrosa topped the timesheets at the end of the IRTA test in Qatar today as he saved Honda red faces in the Middle East.

The triple world champion set a blistering best of 1.55.471 on a Michelin qualifying tyre to beat injured John Hopkins by 0.4s. Pedrosa’s best lap was 0.2s faster than Casey Stoner’s 2006 990cc pole position as Pedrosa blew away his fellow RC212V riders.

Next best Honda behind the Repsol Honda rider was Marco Melandri who finished 10th quickest overall, and Pedrosa was also massively impressive in his first full race simulation of winter testing on board Honda’s new V4.

He ran a full 22-lap distance this afternoon and only once did he drop out of the 1.57 barrier, clocking a best of 1.57.16 to finish fastest of those riders who completed long distances including Valentino Rossi and Colin Edwards.

He said: “I am very happy because we have some good progress. I spent this morning testing tyres to find one from Michelin for the race distance and I was happy with my pace.”

TIMES

1. Dani Pedrosa 1.55.471
2. John Hopkins 1.55.825
3. Valentino Rossi 1.55.954
4. Alex Hofmann 1.56.315
5. Colin Edwards 1.56.371
6. Randy de Puniet 1.56.753
7. Loris Capirossi 1.56.807
8. Casey Stoner 1.56.834
9. Alex Barros 1.56.950
10. Marco Melandri 1.56.980
11. Shinya Nakano 1.56.980
12. Makoto Tamada 1.57.232
13. Toni Elias 1.57.246
14. Nicky Hayden 1.57.269
15. Chris Vermeulen 1.57.365
16. Kenny Roberts 1.57.408
17. Carlos Checa 1.57.497
18. Sylvain Guintoli 1.58.379
19. Shinichi Ito 1.58.974
20. Andrew Pitt 2.00.455
21. Olivier Jacque 2.02.081
22. Jeremy McWilliams 2.02.612