Pedrosa fastest on wet Friday

From motogp.com

It was no hurricane but there was rain on Friday afternoon as the MotoGP riders practiced at Indianapolis.

The man setting the best lap of the opening MotoGP practice session of the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix was Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who went round the 4.216km track in 1:51.507 in wet conditions.

With the riders lapping more than 10 seconds off the sort of pace that would be expected on a dry track, it was Pedrosa who adapted best to the conditions on his factory RC212V as he produced his best time on the sixth of just 16 laps.

Late charges from Pedrosa’s former team-mate Nicky Hayden (Ducati) and the reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) saw them place themselves in second and third positions on the timesheets, with times respectively 0.155 and 0.307 behind the Spaniard.

Like Hayden and Rossi, the Italian’s Yamaha colleague Jorge Lorenzo also produced his fastest pace on his final lap, putting himself fourth with a 1:51.894 time.

Satellite pair Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) were fifth and sixth, with both hoping for good results this weekend as they attempt to secure 2010 rides.

The top 10 was completed by Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), home rider Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing).

Aleix Espargaró got his first ever MotoGP ride in the session and did well to end up in 15th place, lapping ahead of Gabor Talmacsi and his temporary team-mate Niccolò Canepa.