Front row start for Pedrosa in Czech Republic

Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa will start tomorrow's Grand Prix of the Czech Republic from 3rd position on the grid, his 9th front row start of the season.

Dani Pedrosa, Repsol Honda Team

Photo by: Red Bull GmbH and GEPA pictures GmbH

In this morning's FP3, Pedrosa was fastest by over seven tenths and felt there were areas he could still improve. However, it was a difficult qualifying session for the Spaniard who had a small crash 10 minutes into the session in turn 12 on a used soft rear tyre, which left him with no other option than to use his second bike. On this bike, Pedrosa was able to maintain a similar pace to the morning session but couldn't improve as he had much more chatter. The team will work hard tonight to repair the damaged bike in time for warm up tomorrow morning.

Casey Stoner, who announced on Thursday he will undergo surgery on his injured ankle in Australia, left Europe from Geneva today with his family as planned.

Dani Pedrosa

"I had a small crash at the beginning of the session and unfortunately we were unable to use that bike anymore and had to switch to the second bike. Normally the bikes are very similar and I don't know why, but this time the second bike was much more rigid and I had more chatter, especially in the front. We tried to fix it but we weren't able to so in the end I tried to get my best out of it and finally on the last lap I was able to take a front row spot, which is always important. Anyway the bike is working well, I just hope tomorrow we can use our preferred bike, as this morning it felt very good, and have a good race."

Source: Repsol Honda Team