Estoril MotoGP: Dani Pedrosa continues early season charge

MotoGP world championship leader Dani Pedrosa continued his impressive start to the 2008 campaign by clocking the fastest time in today’s opening free practice in Estoril.

The Spanish GP winner topped the timesheets with a best of 1.3.507 set in the closing stages to edge out early title rival and 2007 Estoril winner Valentino Rossi.

Pedrosa, who led the way with 20 minutes gone before Colin Edwards took charge, said: “We started today using the base setup we used at Jerez and we didn’t need to make too many changes.

“This morning’s session was quite complicated because it had been raining, so conditions were constantly changing as the track dried, then we had a minor technical issue with one of my bikes, so we had to stop before the end of the hour.

“This afternoon we had a dry session, which allowed us to start doing some tyre testing in preparation for the race, which is especially important considering the changeable weather during the weekend. After a few laps this afternoon I began to get into the rhythm of Estoril again.”