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. Wednesday’s Official 250cc Test Times: 1. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Honda, 1:47.148 2. Daniel PEDROSA, Honda, 1:47.253 3. Sebastian PORTO, Aprilia, 1:47.321 4. Randy DE PUNIET, Aprilia, 1:47.824 5. Alex DE ANGELIS, Aprilia, 1:48.081 6. Casey STONER, Aprilia, 1:48.281 7. Jorge LORENZO, Honda, 1:48.332 8. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Honda, 1:48.651 9. Sylvain GUINTOLI, Aprilia, 1:48.936 10. Alex DEBON, Honda, 1:48.955 11. Hector BARBERA, Honda, 1:48.975 12. Mirko GIANSANTI, Aprilia, 1:49.320 13. Roberto LOCATELLI, Aprilia, 1:49.385 14. Simone CORSI, Aprilia, 1:49.541 15. Chaz DAVIES, Aprilia, 1:49.758 16. Steve JENKNER, Aprilia, 1:49.886 17. Taro SEKIGUCHI, Aprilia, 1:50.075 18. Alex BALDOLINI, Aprilia, 1:50.119 19. Gregory LEBLANC, Aprilia, 1:50.199 20. Jakub SMRZ, Honda, 1:50.225 21. Andrea BALLERINI, Aprilia, 1:50.376 22. Yuki TAKAHASHI, Honda, 1:50.624 23. Martin CARDENAS, Aprilia, 1:52.110 24. Radomil ROUS, Honda, 1:52.211 25. Dirk HEIDOLF, Honda, 1:52.836 26. Gabriele FERRO, Fantic, 1:54.726 27. Arnaud VINCENT, Fantic, 1:57.756