Motegi MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa finds form on Bridgestone tyres

Dani Pedrosa made a positive start to his second appearance on Bridgestone tyres today, with the Spaniard clocking the second best time on a rain-hit start to the Japanese GP.

The Repsol Honda rider was only 0.073s off the best time set by impressive Casey Stoner, who might have only two days remaining of his reign as MotoGP champion.

Pedrosa clocked a best time of 1.48.510 and he said: “Track conditions were quite difficult this morning, so I struggled a bit. This afternoon everything improved. The track dried out, so we were able to start working towards the race, improving our machine set-up and especially trying the different tyres from our allocation.

“We found some good grip out there, but we need some more time to find the ideal combination for this track, because I am still finding the limit of the Bridgestone tyres.  I am feeling better and better, and we want to keep working hard to get the best set-up because this is such an important race for us.”

It was confirmed by Honda today that Pedrosa will be joined by Italian Andrea Dovizioso in the Repsol-backed factory team.