The Spaniard ended the first practice session of the Qatar GP on Thursday night in the runner-up position, more then 6 tenths of a second behind Stoner. While clearly disappointed with his pace, and not necessarily his 2nd place in the timing reports, Pedrosa pointed at the strange level of tire wear for his poor lap times.
“I had a problem with the rear tire that we need to understand,” said Pedroda after the P1. “It's the first issue we've had this winter with the tires, so I hope it's an exception to the rule.”
Like Stoner, Pedrosa used the softer Bridgestone compound throughout the practice session, the same that was fitted to his Honda during the 2-day test at the same Losail International Circuit earlier this week.
“Even if I used the same compound during the winter test without any problem for several laps, today already in the second round I felt it dropped down a lot, and in the third and last one it was even worse,” he added.
“Maybe the tire had a problem, maybe it dropped down a lot because with 125cc and Moto2 bikes on track the conditions were very different comparing with the test of few days ago, we don't know exactly.”
The Thursday night action in the MotoGP class was preceded by 45-minute practice sessions for each of the 125cc and Moto2 classes, meaning the track was cleaner and probably harder on the tires as compared to the 2-day test this week, when grip levels were down to a minimum for all MotoGP bikes.
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