Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa clocked an astonishing 217.04mph along Mugello's start/finish straight during the first MotoGP free practice in Italy today.

In a day of massive top speeds, Pramac Ducati's Mika Kallio topped 216mph, Valentino Rossi clocked in at 214mph and Kallio's team-mate Nico Canepa went through the trap at 213.3mph.
"It’s clearly a fast straight here, although I didn’t think the top speed was that high until I saw it on the timing screens. Still, top speed is not the most important thing so I’m not really worried about the record - the lap time is more critical," said Pedrosa.

Rossi's Fiat Yamaha team-mate Jorge Lorenzo tied with Hayate's Marco Melandri at 212.7mph. The previous quickest top speed was 213mph by Makoto Tamada at the Chinese GP in 2006 on a 990cc RC211V. The first rider to ever crack the 200mph barrier was Shinichi Itoh on board a fuel-injected NSR500 at Hockenheim in 1994.