Lorenzo leads Catalunya practice

From motogp.com

The sun was beating down on Montmeló on Friday afternoon (37ºC air temperature, 52ºC track surface) as the opening MotoGP practice session of the Gran Premi Aperol de Catalunya got underway, and by the end of the hour it was Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo at the top of the timesheet thanks to a best lap of 1:43.259.

The Fiat Yamaha rider, who is going for a third straight win this weekend in front of a home crowd, was 0.153 secs. faster than Casey Stoner.

“From the beginning of the practice I felt quite comfortable and the lap times were quite fast,” Lorenzo said. “I didn’t really struggle to get on the fastest lap time of the session.”

The only issue encountered by Lorenzo was one with rear grip, but he put that largely down to the extremely hot conditions.

“The only problem was that the track was so slippery and I couldn’t improve so much on the lap time I set in the middle of the session," he continued. "The rear was sliding a lot, which was partly to do with the heat, but we will try to improve this tomorrow.”

The Ducati Team rider had a run-off early on in the session at Turn 1 but it was a minor event, as he went on to time in second fastest on board his Desmosedici GP10 at a track he enjoys.

“So far everything feels quite good on the track. The grip is good and there are not too many bumps so I’m quite impressed with that,” started Stoner’s assessment of the session. “The bike was slowly starting to feel better the more laps we did and each step we made seemed to make a small improvement.

“Now I’m looking forward to getting out there tomorrow and seeing if we can make a few more improvements, and then maybe we can be competitive for the race. For the last two races we have definitely been fast enough but unfortunately had a bad start in one race and in the other there was too much arm pump. So I need no more excuses, I need to find the best set-up we can for the race and see what we can do.”

Stoner has been treating his case of arm pump throughout the week as he aims to push on from his first podium of the season at Assen last Saturday.

Completing the top three was Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa at almost four-tenths off Lorenzo as he attempts to fight his fellow Spaniard for victory this weekend. Seeking a consistency in results on his RC212V Pedrosa started his quest in promising fashion on a track he has won races in three different classes.

“I’m quite happy with the first session today," he said. "It’s not going to be easy to improve our lap times but for the first practice I’m reasonably happy with the bike.

"We started with the hard option Bridgestone tire and then on the last outing we changed to the soft one, and this was the opposite way of working to most of the other riders so it’s natural that we moved forward towards the end of the session. We can see that we have to improve the grip and so we have to work a little bit more on the chassis set-up for this."

Team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was 0.094 secs. further back in fourth and will challenge Pedrosa for second spot in the Championship standings in round 7.

Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Ben Spies meanwhile put in a hot penultimate lap to shoot up from 15th to fifth inside the final minutes of the session, as he set about learning another new track.

Aleix Espargaró’s improvements continued on board the Ducati of the Pramac Racing team as he set the sixth fastest lap of the session, just under nine-tenths off Lorenzo, while Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) will also aim for another consistent result at Catalunya – the Frenchman was seventh, just 0.06 secs. behind Espargaró.

Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) made a step up towards the end of the session to move into eighth spot, with Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech3) and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) also taking top-10 times.

The only crash of the session occurred 23 minutes in when Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) fell on his 10th lap while running fifth fastest, spraining his already injured left shoulder. The rookie was back out shortly after and completed a further 10 turns, as he showed a determination to not let his injured left shoulder hinder his progress any further, and placed 12th, one spot behind team-mate Loris Capirossi.

San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Melandri was 14th, as he made his return after sitting Assen out with a dislocated left shoulder.

Wataru Yoshikawa started his first GP weekend as Valentino Rossi’s substitute on the Fiat Yamaha team and was 17th fastest, just behind Kousuke Akiyoshi, who continues to fill in for the injured Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team).

Eager to delight a strong home support this weekend at Montmeló and with a Championship lead to maintain, Toni Elías set off on the right foot on Friday afternoon by topping the opening Moto2 practice session with a best time of 1:48.425. The Gresini Racing Moto2 rider posted his effort on the 23rd of 25 laps, placing him 0.107 secs. clear at the head of the timings.

Following him was Sergio Gadea (Tenerife 40 Pons) who is looking to return to the scoring positions this weekend after his run of registering points in every race so far was broken at Assen.

At just over a tenth off Elías, Gadea was 0.09 secs. faster than Shoya Tomizawa (Technomag-CIP), and it is the Japanese rider who lies second in the Championship standings ahead of Sunday’s race.

Marc Márquez matched the scorching weather conditions in Barcelona on Friday afternoon by setting the hottest lap of the opening 125cc session of the weekend with a best time of 1:51.219. The Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider is seeking his fourth straight win of 2010 at his home GP.

MotoGP Practice Times
1. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha 1:43.259
2. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati 1:43.412
3. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda 1:43.631
4. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda 1:43.725
5. Ben SPIES (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha 1:43.854
6. Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Ducati 1:44.136
7. Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda 1:44.196
8. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati 1:44.440
9. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Tech 3 Yamaha 1:44.551
10. Marco SIMONCELLI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda 1:44.634
11. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki 1:44.641
12. Alvaro BAUTISTA (SPA) Rizla Suzuki 1:44.692
13. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Ducati 1:44.745
14. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) San Carlo Gresini Honda 1:44.806
15. Hector BARBERA (SPA) Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati 1:45.004
16. Kousuke AKIYOSHI (JPN) Interwetten Honda 1:47.757
17. Wataru YOSHIKAWA (JPN) Fiat Yamaha 1:48.015