Rossi tops Friday MotoGP practice
The Italian star has never finished outside the top three in a premier class race at the Mediterranean venue and he signaled his aspirations for victory at round six, having not won since the third race of the year at Jerez, by starting the weekend on the front foot.
Behind Rossi on the time-sheet was his factory Yamaha colleague Jorge Lorenzo who was 0.302s off the World Champion’s pace on a far better Friday than last year at his home track – where he crashed in practice and missed the race due to concussion.
Third on the timesheet was Mugello race-winner and 2007 Barcelona victor Casey Stoner who went round just over half a second slower than Rossi on his Ducati Desmosedici, despite a small crash near the end of the session.
Fourth on the timesheet, just as he has been in the last two MotoGP races, Andrea Dovizioso put in a similar time to Stoner. Dovizioso’s injured Repsol Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa was down in 14th place as he tested the condition of his injured hip.
At one of his favorite tracks Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) was fifth fastest, whilst a big improvement by Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden saw him finish sixth quickest in one of his best sessions of the season so far – around a second off the pace.
Veteran riders Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) were seventh and eighth respectively. Yuki Takahashi was number nine on the timesheet, trying to push hard after seeing new MotoGP recruit Gabor Talmacsi join the Scot Racing Team on Friday.
Talmacsi was unsurprisingly the slowest participant in his first 800cc session, four seconds behind Rossi, whilst satellite Yamaha rider James Toseland completed the top ten.
Pos | Rider | Time | Nat. | Bike | Team |
1 | Valentino Rossi | 1m 43.038 | ITA | YAMAHA | Fiat Yamaha Team |
2 | Jorge Lorenzo | 1m 43.340 | SPA | YAMAHA | Fiat Yamaha Team |
3 | Casey Stoner | 1m 43.636 | AUS | DUCATI | Ducati Marlboro Team |
4 | Andrea Dovizioso | 1m 43.684 | ITA | HONDA | Repsol Honda Team |
5 | Randy De Puniet | 1m 43.871 | FRA | HONDA | LCR Honda MotoGP |
6 | Nicky Hayden | 1m 44.152 | USA | DUCATI | Ducati Marlboro Team |
7 | Loris Capirossi | 1m 44.340 | ITA | SUZUKI | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP |
8 | Colin Edwards | 1m 44.419 | USA | YAMAHA | Tech 3 Yamaha |
9 | Yuki Takahashi | 1m 44.484 | JAP | HONDA | Scot Racing Team MotoGP |
10 | James Toseland | 1m 44.580 | GBR | YAMAHA | Tech 3 Yamaha |
11 | Marco Melandri | 1m 44.649 | ITA | KAWASAKI | Hayate Racing Team |
12 | Sete Gibernau | 1m 44.678 | SPA | DUCATI | Grupo Francisco Hernando |
13 | Chris Vermeulen | 1m 44.744 | AUS | SUZUKI | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP |
14 | Dani Pedrosa | 1m 45.043 | SPA | HONDA | Repsol Honda Team |
15 | Toni Elias | 1m 45.101 | SPA | HONDA | San Carlo Honda Gresini |
16 | Alex De Angelis | 1m 45.126 | SMR | HONDA | San Carlo Honda Gresini |
17 | Mika Kallio | 1m 45.454 | FIN | DUCATI | Pramac Racing |
18 | Niccolo Canepa | 1m 47.654 | ITA | DUCATI | Pramac Racing |
19 | Gabor Talmacsi | HUN | HONDA | Scot Racing Team MotoGP |