Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa was the fastest during practice in Germany, setting a best lap of 1'22.521.
Repsol
Honda rider Dani Pedrosa was the fastest rider on the Sachsenring circuit during Friday practice. The Spaniard flew ahead of
Ducati’s Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden, out-pacing the Australian and the American by more than two-tenths of a second. Meanwhile championship leader Jorge Lorenzo settled for sixth, with Fiat
Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi making his return to the
MotoGP paddock seventh-fastest on the practice timesheets.
Pedrosa set his best time of 1’22.521 on his final lap, with the Honda rider 0.274 seconds faster than Stoner and 0.462 seconds ahead of Hayden. As for American Ben Spies, the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider spent most of his session trying to get acquainted with the German circuit. The Texan had a run-off at Turn 10 only a quarter of the way into the session, but in the final laps of practice he went on to post an impressive time of 1’23.189, which was fast enough for fourth-place. Rookie Marco Simoncelli of San Carlo Honda also posted a decent time of 1'23.204 to earn the fifth-best time of the day.
Lapping 0.703 seconds off Pedrosa’s pace was Lorenzo, who earned the sixth-quickest time after struggling slightly to find front-end grip on his M1. The Mallocran has usually been up at the front in practice and qualifying during his dominating 2010 campaign.
Ducati's Casey Stoner took the second-best time in Germany behind Dani Pedrosa.
"Today wasn't a good session for me and I didn't feel so good on the bike,” said Lorenzo. “This isn't one of my favorite tracks and it's very different to the ones where I've won lately, so I think I need to make some changes to the way I'm riding the bike. I was fast at the start but then we didn't improve from the middle to the end and everyone else did. We have some work to do and our goal is to be competitive by Sunday."
Adding much excitement to the start of the German round was the return of Valentino Rossi, who announced officially on Thursday that he would be taking part in Round 8. After being out for more than six weeks with a broken leg, Rossi made his comeback on his Fiat Yamaha M1 in seventh-place after an hour-long session.
"I am really happy today,” Rossi said. “Especially because I am a lot more agile on the bike than I was in the tests. I feel good and this track is helping me because a lot of it turns to the left. I am feeling quite confident on the bike and also my shoulder is good and not giving me problems. Now I have some pain in the leg and ankle but it's not too bad, I was able to do some laps in a row and I was quite fast so things seem OK.”
LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet recovered from a horrific wobble early in the session to take eighth in the timesheets. Simoncelli’s San Carlo Honda teammate, Marco Melandri, and Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso rounded out the top-10 times with ninth and tenth, respectively.
2010 MotoGP Sachsenring Practice Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1'22.521
FIat Yamaha's Valentino Rossi returned after more than six weeks off to place seventh in the timesheets at Sachsenring.
2. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1'22.795
3. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1'22.983
4. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 1'23.189
5. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 1'23.204
6. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1'23.224
7. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1'23.244
8. Randy de Puniet (Honda) 1'23.260
9. Marco Melandri (Honda) 1'23.290
10. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1'23.400
11. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1'23.422
12. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 1'23.430
13. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1'23.440
14. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki) 1'23.589
15. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 1'23.599
16. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 1'24.020
17. Alex de Angelis (Honda) 1'24.101
Moto2
JiR Moto2’s Simon Corsi took first on the timesheets in what was a chaotic Moto2 practice session. Corsi led Fimmco Speed Up’s Gabor Talmacsi by more than two-tenths of a second in a session that saw numerous crashes. Rounding out the top-three times was Caretta Technology Race Department’s Alex Baldolini, who took third with a time of 1'26.612.
Mapfre Aspar’s Julian Simon took the fourth-best time and was one of the riders who fell during the session. Championship leader Toni Elias also went down at the beginning of the session, but he got up and returned with the fifth-fastest time.
Aeroport de Castello-Ajo’s Alex Debon managed to avoid falling when he had a run-off to take sixth in the timesheets ahead of Tenerife 40 Pons rider Sergio Gadea in seventh. Italtrans STR’s Roberto Rolfo, Technomag-CIP’s Shoya Tomizawa and Fimmco Speed Up’s Andrea Iannone rounded out the top-10 times with the three riders taking eighth, ninth and tenth respectively. Swiss rider Thomas Luthi, who is currently second in the championship, took 15th.
JiR Moto2’s Simon Corsi took first in Friday practice after a wild session that saw numerous crashes.
1. Simone Corsi (Motobi) 1'26.306
2. Gabor Talmacsi (Speed Up) 1'26.524
3. Alex Baldolini (I.C.P.) 1'26.612
4. Julian Simon (Suter) 1'26.758
5. Toni Elias (Moriwaki) 1'26.826
6. Alex Debon (FTR) 1'26.860
7. Sergio Gadea (Pons Kalex) 1'26.869
8. Roberto Rolfo (Suter) 1'26.873
9. Shoya Tomizawa (Suter) 1'26.892
10. Andrea Iannone (Speed Up) 1'26.918
11. Karel Abraham (FTR) 1'26.939
12. Mike di Meglio (Suter) 1'26.966
13. Damian Cudlin (Pons Kalex) 1'26.986
14. Stefan Bradl (Suter) 1'27.011
15. Thomas Luthi (Moriwaki) 1'27.093
