Dovizioso stuns Pedrosa on first day of official 250cc tests

Andrea Dovizioso sent out an early warning shot to Daniel Pedrosa in the first
official head-to-head between the two World Champions during today's official
250cc test at the Catalunya circuit in Spain. The quarter-litre riders took over
the track from their 125cc counterparts this afternoon and Dovizioso, who lifted
the minor category title last season and is preparing for his rookie campaign in
the bigger class, was swiftly into the groove.

With current 250cc World Champion Pedrosa and last year's runner-up Sebastian
Porto dominating the time sheets for much of the day, Dovizioso posted a late
effort of 1'47.148 to confirm his status as a serious threat to the reign of his
Honda colleague. However, the Italian was quick to play down his chances.

"I'm very happy, the bike is going well and I'm pleased with the lap times, but
I don't think the fact I have lapped faster than Pedrosa today tells the whole
story," commented Dovizioso, who is nevertheless aiming to become the third
rider in consecutive seasons to win the 250cc title at the first attempt, after
Pedrosa and Manuel Poggiali.

"Dani is still the fastest rider out there and remains the clear favourite for
the championship. I'll be giving it my best shot to beat him though!"

Jorge Lorenzo, who has followed Dovizioso from the 125cc class to Honda's
official 250cc ranks this season, crashed out today but escaped uninjured and
set the seventh fastest time behind Aprilia trio Randy De Puniet, Alex de
Angelis and Casey Stoner.

The notable absentee from today's session was Australian rider Anthony West, who
is due to ride KTM's first ever 250cc road racer in the World Championship this
season. Harald Bartol, Technical Director for the Austrian factory, was present
to supervise their 125cc testing and revealed that it is unlikely the quarter-
litre project will reach the track before the fourth round of the season at Le
Mans in May.

The 125cc morning session was again dominated by Mattia Pasini and Thomas Luthi,
with the Italian topping the time sheets after playing second fiddle to his
Swiss rival yesterday. "I'm really happy with the work we've carried out here,"
commented Pasini, last season's 125cc Rookie of the Year. "We've been working
hard over the winter tests and these results are evidence of that although we
still have plenty of room for improvement."

Marco Simoncelli and Gabor Talmacsi also continued their good form from the
first day but there was bad news for fellow title hopeful Alvaro Bautista, who
cracked his scaphoid in a crash that saw the track closed for several minutes.
The Spaniard his hopeful of returning to action at the second and final batch of
official 125cc tests at Jerez next week.

INFO 2005/9. 16-03-2005
DORNA COMMUNICATIONS
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