Dani hits back
REPSOL Honda’s Dani Pedrosa silenced the critics after topping the timesheets as the world championship returned from its summer break.
As the series hit Brno in the Czech Republic, the Spaniard – who recently confirmed he will retire at the end of this season after being dropped by Honda – clocked the fastest lap of the day, 1min 55.976 secs.
“Today was good because we were able to keep a good pace, especially in FP2 on hard tyres,” he said. “We did a good job there and also in the final part of the session when we fitted a soft rear. But we’ll keep our feet on the ground because not every rider put the soft tyre on.” Second quickest was Alma Pramac Ducati’s Danilo Petrucci, just 0.123secs adrift, with Alvaro Bautista third on the Angel Nieto Team Ducati. Peter Hickman topped the timesheets in both Bennetts British Superbike Championship practice sessions at Thruxton. This year’s Isle of Man Senior TT winner set a hot lap of 1min 15.461secs on his Smith’s BMW in free practice two, having been quickest earlier in the day. ENGLAND’S Tommy Fleetwood and Ian Poulter claimed a share of the clubhouse lead as low scoring continued to be the order of the day in the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational in Akron.
Overnight leader Poulter added a second round of 67 to his opening 62 at Firestone Country Club for a halfway total of 11 under par.
That was matched by Fleetwood and world No3 Justin Thomas.