Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa has expressed surprise at the laptime he managed in qualifying for tomorrow’s Sepang MotoGP clash as he said the high temperatures don’t usually make for a quick time.

The Spaniard, along with team-mate Marc Marquez, were the only riders to go under the two-minute barrier - which is no mean feat with a track temperature of 56°. Marquez, who set pole, was only two tenths off his fastest ever lap of the track, a 1’59.557 set in winter testing in much cooler conditions, while Pedrosa was faster than his test time from February.

“It was really a good laptime considering the conditions. Normally here we don’t go that fast with those temperatures because the engines and tyres are not at that level so I was surprised with the laptime,” said Pedrosa, speaking at Sepang.

“We did try the setup of the bike quite well so tomorrow we are hoping to do a good race either wet or dry. I have had two different races in the last two years. We don’t know how it will be tomorrow. We have to be ready for both conditions. In the last couple of races, I wasn’t really good.”

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