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Pedrosa positive with practice at Phillip Island

Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was quick off the mark in Friday's free practice session and clocked the third fastest time this afternoon - a lap of 1m 31.528s, which was less than half a second from the time of today's pace-setter, Valentino Rossi. It was a promising start for the 24-year-old Spaniard who is looking to consolidate third place in the World Championship standings ahead of Casey Stoner, who rides in front of his home crowd this weekend. Stoner placed second today, just 0.361s in front of Pedrosa.

"Finally we were lucky with the weather today and it's very good to start here in Phillip Island with a dry session and reasonable track temperatures," said Pedrosa. "It allowed us to complete some useful testing with the Bridgestone tyres and, although the surface was a little dusty, grip should improve through the weekend. We tried both the softer and harder tyre compounds today and it'll be an important choice for Sunday because the 4pm race start means the temperature could be low. So we need to analyse carefully how fast the tyres will warm up, especially on the left side because there are so many left-handers here.

"I'm pretty happy with how this first practice has gone and I'm sure the times will fall further tomorrow, weather permitting."

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