Repsol Honda's Dani Pedrosa took the fastest lap in practice by more than half a second from teammate, Andrea Dovizioso.
In the opening day of practice at the Misano circuit Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa completed the fastest lap ahead of teammate, Andrea Dovizioso, and Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo. The Spaniard took the fastest lap on Friday by more than half a second from Dovizioso, and was the only rider to reach below the 1’35 mark in the entire free practice session.
Meanwhile, Dovizioso claimed second in what was a good first practice for the Italian at his home circuit. With a time of 1'35.384, Dovizioso was followed by Lorenzo with a time that was 0.672 seconds adrift of Pedrosa’s best lap.
"Today was quite difficult for us, more so than we expected," said Lorenzo. "It's not my physical condition, I feel completely recovered from the hard weekend in Indianapolis, but we really struggled today and I didn't have enough confidence in my bike or in the tires. We have some small problems in braking, corner speed and acceleration so I don't feel like I can ride how I want to at the moment."
Behind Lorenzo by 0.095 seconds was Lorenzo’s Yamaha teammate, Valentino Rossi, who snagged the number four spot after taking a best lap of 1'35.539 around the Italian circuit.
"I'm quite happy because we did a good job during today's practice, especially towards the end when we made a big improvement to the setting of the bike and I was able to make some faster lap times," Rossi said. "We have some more things to try, some electronics and some tire settings, but I already feel confident so this has been a good way to start."
Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Colin Edwards and Ben Spies placed fifth and sixth respectively in the books, with Edwards being just three tenths of a second behind Rossi and Spies trailing him teammate by less than six-hundredths of a second. Following the American duo were Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner in seventh and eighth respectively. Hayden suffered an innocent run off the track near the end of the session while his Aussie teammate struggled with bike setup for the majority of practice. San Carlo Honda’s Marco Melandri took the ninth-best time and Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi, who will be making his 200th premier class start on Sunday, rounded out the top-10 times in 10th.
“It has been a long time since we have had a Friday like that," Capirossi said. "I am not happy about the position, but I am very happy with the bike today. We did a really good job with the bike and didn’t have to make too many changes from the original setting, but what we did change also seemed to work well."
2010 MotoGP Misano Practice Results:
1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1'34.772
2. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1'35.384
Andrea Dovizioso made it a good day for Honda by securing second on the timesheet and giving Honda the top-two positions in Friday's practice session at Misano.
3. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1'35.444
4. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1'35.539
5. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1'35.834
6. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 1'35.892
7. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1'36.028
8. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1'36.072
9. Marco Melandri (Honda) 1'36.126
10. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki)1'36.277
11. Hector Barbera (Ducati) 1'36.293
12. Randy DE Puniet (Honda) 1'36.454
13. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 1'36.533
14. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati) 1'36.716
15. Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 1'37.001
16. Mika Kallio (Ducati) 1'37.697
17. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 1'37.900
Moto 2
JIR Moto 2 substitute rider Alex De Angelis was the fastest rider in the Moto 2 field on Friday. The San Marino native took the fastest time of 1’40.064 at Misano while filling-in for injured Yusuke Teshima. Mapfre Aspar’s Julian Simon was second on the timesheets after running 0.147 seconds adrift of De Angelis’ pace, followed by Technomag-CIP’s Shoya Tomizawa in third with a time of 1’40.374.
Forward Racing’s Claudio Corti earned the fourth-best time on Friday at his home circuit, and came just 0.043 second shy of making it into the top-three. Championship leader Toni Elias rounded out the top-five times in fifth and was 0.424 seconds adrift of De Angelis’ pace. Wild card rider Mattia Pasini made a strong return to racing action this weekend by securing the sixth-quickest time of 1’40.493, and trailing Elias by only five-thousandths of a second.
Marc VDS Racing Team’s Hector Faubel took seventh with a time of 1’40.564 and was followed by Forward Racing’s Jules Cluzel, who ran more than half a second adrift of the leader’s pace. Rounding out the top-10 times were JIR Moto2’s Simone Corsi and Fimmco Speed Up’s Gabor Talmacsi in ninth and tenth respectively. Runner-up in the championship, Andrea Iannone, could only muster the 11th-best time of the day after struggling with pain from his injured wrist.
Toni Elias was fifth on the timesheets at Misano and trailed Alex de Angelis' pace by nearly half a second.
1. Alex De Angelis (Motobi) 1’40.064
2. Julian Simon (Suter) 1’40.211
3. Shoya Tomizawa (Suter) 1’40.374
4. Claudio Corti (Suter) 1’40.417
5. Toni Elias (Moriwaki) 1’40.488
6. Mattia Pasini (Suter) 1’40.493
7. Hector Faubel (Suter) 1’40.564
8. Jules Cluzel (Suter) 1’40.586
9. Simone Corsi (Motobi) 1’40.607
10. Gabor Talmacsi (Speed Up) 1’40.714
11. Andrea Iannone (Speed Up) 1’40.744
12. Scott Redding (Suter) 1’40.768
13. Alex Baldolini (I.C.P.) 1’40.863
14. Ferruccio Lamborghini (Suter) 1’41.106
15. Stefan Bradl (Suter) 1’41.150
