Jorge Lorenzo - Fiat Yamaha: “It’s a great thing to start the weekend in such a strong way and I’ve had a good sensation and feeling with my bike from the first moment today. This isn’t usually the case so I’m really happy! I like this track a lot; I’ve had three wins here in the past and I always feel confident riding here. We need to work a little to improve the feeling with the front tire on the entry to the corner and also we have a bit of work to do for the anti-wheelie, but I think we’re in very good shape. I am happy to be back on my bike and to be back to full fitness, but we must keep focused and keep improving.”
The championship-leading Fiat
Yamaha duo wasted no time establishing supremacy over the MotoGP paddock at Brno, with Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi placing a respective first and second in Friday’s practice session. The front-runners are joined on the provisional front row by Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, the closest rider to overtaking the Yamahas in the championship now that Ducati’s Casey Stoner is skipping rounds because of his strange medical malady.
Lorenzo paced the Czech circuit nearly a full-second ahead of Pedrosa, with Rossi four-tenths behind his young Mallorcan teammate. Both Yamaha pilots expressed confidence in their immediate speed aboard the M1 and seem primed for a positive Sunday result, Rossi a multiple GP winner at Brno with Lorenzo having scored victories in the support classes. As for Pedrosa, Friday was a good day, with HRC announcing its intentions to stick with Pedrosa and Andrea Dovizioso as its factory
Honda riders.
Yamaha satellite rider Colin Edwards was fourth-fastest, the American followed on the timesheet by Repsol’s second rider, Andrea Dovizioso, who also follows Edwards in the overall points - Edwards fifth, Dovizoso sixth. San Carlo Honda’s Toni Elias claimed the six spot, 1.7 seconds behind the leader’s pace.
Leading a provision Row 3 is Mika Kallio, the Finn riding his temporary Marlboro Ducati to seventh on the grid, replacing the aforementioned Stoner. Alex de Angelis was eighth for the San Carlo team, with veteran Loris Capirossi lapping the Rizla
Suzuki to ninth.
Marco Melandri rounded out the top 10 aboard the Hayate
Kawasaki, followed by embattled GP riders James Toseland (Tech 3 Yamaha) in 11th and Nicky Hayden (
Ducati Marlboro) in 12th. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki) and Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) also struggled, in respective 13th- and 14th-place. Meanwhile the Niccolo Canepa (Pramac Ducati), Gabor Talmasci (Team Scot Honda) duo managed to better SBK replacement rider Michel Fabrizio, who lapped the Pramac Ducati nearly four seconds slower than the speedy Lorenzo.
Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha: “Jorge and I were very fast from the start of this session which shows how good our bike is and what a great job Yamaha has done back in Japan. We’ve worked well and we’ve already shown some interesting lap times today. The setting isn’t perfect yet though so we need to work more, especially on the tires because this track is very hard on both the front and rear. I hope the surface improves as more rubber is laid down because at the moment the grip isn’t great. I’m really sorry that Stoner isn’t here, I would always rather have my rivals to race against and I would like to wish him all the best; I hope he’s back soon.”
1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'56.595
2. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'56.994
3. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'57.584
4. Colin Edwards (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'57.741
5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) Repsol Honda 1'58.172
6. Toni Elias (SPA) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'58.295
7. Mika Kallio (FIN) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'58.302
8. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'58.497
9. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'58.582
10. Marco Melandri (ITA) Hayate Racing Team 1'58.739
11. James Toseland (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'58.764
12. Nicky Hayden (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team 1'58.821
13. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'59.041
14. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'59.055
15. Niccolo Canepa (ITA) Pramac Racing 1'59.531
16. Gabor Talmacsi (HUN) Scot Racing Team MotoGP 1'59.979
17. Michel Fabrizio (ITA) Pramac Racing 2'00.423
MotoGP Brno Practice Rider Quotes:
Mika Kallio - Ducati Marlboro:
"It has been a really exciting day for me and to wear the famous red colors of Ducati Marlboro Team for the first time was a great honor, although once I got out on track I wasn’t thinking about what I was wearing! We started out with my setting from Donington on one bike and something similar to what Casey ran here last year on the other, with a few changes to suit my preferences. Both settings had different strengths but the same weakness, which was a lack of rear grip on the left side. It was the same problem with both the softer and harder tire so we’re a little confused about what is causing it at the moment, but we’ll sit down this evening and work out a plan for tomorrow. They tell me the bike is virtually the same as my satellite machine but I can’t help but feel it has a little extra! Usually I struggle a little on the first day because even though I know the circuits I am riding them all for the first time on a MotoGP bike this year so to finish seventh today, with such a small gap to third place, is really positive."
Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro:
“Twelfth place isn’t a particularly great start for us but we made progress with every run and I was getting faster and faster as the session went on so I can’t say it was a complete disaster. Obviously we are going to have to do a lot better tomorrow but I think we’ve found a bit of a direction with the bike. We’re struggling a little with the rear on corner entry, it feels really loose, so our main target is to fix this problem. I was pushing the front a lot early in the session so we made a change, got it steering a lot better and we were able to progress from there. Now we need to work on the rear and try to make a big step forward tomorrow.”
Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki:
"It has not been too bad today with the new engine we have received here from Suzuki, but we can certainly go a lot quicker. At the end of the session I made several changes and when I went back out I suffered with some vibration problems which we will need to look at tonight to see what has caused that. The latest engine seems good and I think it will give us a great opportunity from here until the end of the season to get some good results."
Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki:
"I feel fit this weekend here at Brno and I felt really comfortable on the bike today after my injuries. The team did a good job again today and we tried a lot of things, including all the tire compounds and two very different set-ups. I am not happy with the lap-time and the position, but the potential in the bike when we put the right pieces together looks very promising. We will make those adjustments first thing tomorrow and hopefully they'll make us go a lot quicker."
Niccolò Canepa - Pramac Racing:
"I didn't push to the limit today. I had some difficulties to find the right rhythm, but at the end of the session after making some modification to the set up of the bike we understood there is some margin to improve. It seems like we have found the right direction to follow. Tomorrow I will surely push more to conquer a good lap time to start in a good position on the starting grid."
Michel Fabrizio - Pramac Racing:
"The Ducati Desmosedici GP9 Sat is surely a completely different bike compared to mine and one hour of practice it's not enough to understand our potential. The bike is much lighter, the engine much more powerful and also the traction control is really good. I still can't manage to brake as I would like to because I am used to Superbike reference marks, but from tomorrow I should improve. I found the biggest difficulties in the front part of the bike and it will be there where I will have to concentrate tomorrow morning to be able to feel the bike more mine."
