Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso know they must improve as MotoGP world champion Valentino Rossi proved he’s still the rider to beat on the first day of the final pre-season test.
The test sought to replicate the unique conditions of the curtain-raising Qatar Grand Prix – it’s the only race on the calendar that is held at night and a high level of humidity reduces the level of grip on the asphalt even more as the evening progresses – so practice at the Losail circuit began at 6pm local time.
Dovizioso finished sixth on the timesheet and Pedrosa tenth, as Rossi's Yamaha topped the test times ahead of Casey Stoner's Ducati.
'We can take further steps and get closer to the front' – Dani
Dovizioso completed a total of 65 laps of the Qatar track, clocking up his best time in lap 52, while Pedrosa completed a total of 60 laps, clocking up his best time in the penultimate lap.
"We made some progress today and moved forward from where we were at the last test in Malaysia - this is positive. I’m confident that tomorrow we can take some further steps and get closer to the front," said Pedrosa.
The Spaniard's thoughts were echoed by his team-mate Dovizioso: "Compared to the Sepang test I’m more satisfied with where we are and we could lap well in the first part of the session, although after 10pm the grip changed each time we went out on track.
"We didn’t reach our full potential today, so I think that tomorrow we can improve further."
Testing continues ahead of the first grand prix of the new season on April 11. Keep up with all the test action from Qatar at motogp.com
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