Lorenzo leads practice at Assen

From motogp.com

Jorge Lorenzo was immediately on the pace as the TIM TT Assen got underway on Thursday afternoon, setting the fastest time in the first free practice.

The historic Dutch track has had some modifications since the Fiat Yamaha rider finished second in last year’s race, but he displayed a sound knowledge of its revised layout as he set a best lap of 1:35.169 to top the session.

"I am happy with today and I feel very good on the bike; the weather is perfect and I love Assen,” said the 23-year-old, who took his 50th career podium with second place in last year’s race and has also tasted victory on three occasions at the Dutch track (twice in 250cc, once in 125cc). “The new corner is very fast and I really like it, it's great fun to ride through the chicane at such speed.”

His opening hour on the circuit left Lorenzo with some areas to concentrate on in Friday morning’s second practice, but the Spaniard is confident the team spirit in his Fiat Yamaha team garage will aid his preparations for an attempt at a fourth win of the season in Saturday’s race.

“We could probably have a bit more traction but we have two more sessions to work on this and then we will try to get the best possible grid position again,” he explained. “The team is working so well and the ambience and atmosphere in our garage is amazing at the moment."

Team Manager Wilco Zeelenberg, who himself scored three podium finishes at his home track in his days as a 250cc rider, believes there is another second of pace to be gained from the track after Lorenzo already shaved almost a second off Valentino Rossi’s pole position time from last year, which of course came before the layout modification.

“We tried both the soft and hard Bridgestone tires and worked a bit on the front, where Jorge had some issues last year, but it looks good so far,” said the Dutchman. “We think the track will be about two seconds faster in the end so we can definitely find some more pace tomorrow, but we've made a good start here.”

Ducati Team’s Casey Stoner is searching for his first podium of the season this weekend and got his GP off to a solid start. The Australian was only 11-thousandths of a second off Lorenzo’s pace on his Desmosedici GP10, as he kept a close check on the Championship leader.

Feeling the gradual improvements of some changes to his front suspension, the Australian feels that he is slowly reaching the level he wants to, but that there is still some way to go.

“It’s been one part we’ve been struggling with this year and in the last few races that we have changed the fork we’ve made some good progress,” said Stoner, who has been using a 2009 front suspension fork. “The progress unfortunately has been a little bit slow. In Mugello we were never competitive, at Silverstone by race day we were feeling much better but then we weren’t able to make the start with the bike we had.

"So I’m a little disappointed because we should have had a podium result this year, quite a few I think, but it’s the way things have gone for us this season and we just need to keep focused for each race.”

A further half-second back on the timesheet was Stoner’s team-mate Nicky Hayden, as the American ended the session third fastest. He stayed upright during a run off at Turn 5 towards the end of the hour as he pushed hard to improve on his time.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider Colin Edwards was next up in the order and was just 0.013 secs. off Hayden as he found an improved feeling on his machine. Repsol Honda pair Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa were separated by just five-hundredths of a second in fifth and sixth places respectively.

Aleix Espargaró’s season continues on its promising path and the Pramac Racing rider was hot on Pedrosa’s heels (+0.005 secs.), with Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) completing the highest number of laps of the session with 29 and both had minor detours off track in the session.

Marco Simoncelli and Marco Melandri (both San Carlo Honda Gresini) completed the top 10.

Riding in place of the injured Hiroshi Aoyama for the Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team, Kousuke Akiyoshi was 16th fastest, 6.163 secs. off Lorenzo’s time.

The opening day of action at the TIM TT Assen concluded on Thursday afternoon with the Moto2 first practice, and Italian rider Andrea Iannone was the man who led the intermediate hour-long session with a best time of 1:39.573.

The battle for supremacy raged for most of the practice, with the lead time swapping hands on numerous occasions right up until the final minutes. Iannone’s time on his 24th of 26 laps eventually put him 0.222 secs. ahead of Championship leader Toni Elías (Gresini Racing Moto2), a healthy gap in Moto2 terms.

The 125cc riders got the TIM TT Assen underway on Thursday and it was Nico Terol who went fastest in the first practice session on the modified Dutch track. The Bancaja Aspar rider set a time of 1:43.208.

Marc Márquez (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport), who is this weekend going for a third consecutive win, and Pol Espargaró (Tuenti Racing) – who leads the current Championship standings by a single point ahead of Terol – followed in second and third positions respectively, and were the final two riders to join Terol under the 1:44 barrier.

MotoGP Practice Times
1. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha 1:35.169
2. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati 1:35.180
3. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati 1:35.686
4. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha 1:35.699
5. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda 1:35.868
6. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda 1:35.922
7. Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Ducati 1:35.927
8. Ben SPIES (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha 1:35.942
9. Marco SIMONCELLI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda 1:36.002
10. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda 1:36.269
11. Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda 1:36.294
12. Hector BARBERA (SPA) Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati 1:36.735
13. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki 1:36.786
14. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Ducati 1:37.261
15. Alvaro BAUTISTA (SPA) Rizla Suzuki 1:37.384
16. Kousuke AKIYOSHI (JPN) Interwetten Honda 1:41.332