Lorenzo fastest on opening day

From motogp.com

Jorge Lorenzo’s hot lap of 1:32.690 at the end of the second free practice at Valencia on Friday handed the Fiat Yamaha rider the best time of the session and day, as the World Champion set about preparing himself for an attempt at an eighth pole position of the season on Saturday.

The site of the 18th and final round of the season is just one of three tracks on the current calendar at which the 23-year-old is yet to win on in any class.

“It’s been a very good first day here. I’m very motivated to ride here and I feel much better than last year, a little bit faster so the results are perfect at the moment,” said Lorenzo. “We started strongly from the first moment and I am feeling so confident, plus my bike is working very well here.”

Following Lorenzo on the timesheet in the afternoon was Casey Stoner, who had been the fastest rider in the morning run.

The Ducati man was the only rider in the session who did not improve on his time from earlier in the day and ended FP2 at 0.314 secs. off Lorenzo’s pace. However, thanks to his earlier time he and the Spaniard were the only two under the 1:33 marker on Friday.

“Not too bad a day today,” said the Ducati rider. “We had some problems over the two sessions with a small vibration in one of the bikes and we lost some time trying to work out what it was. We changed to the other one and we started to improve the setting a little bit but we hadn’t really got enough time or laps to really improve it. I needed basically one more run to be happy with what we have but in general we feel quite good.

“We have had two sessions with very good weather so no problems. We just need to wait and see what the weather does tomorrow but if we can improve the situation of my preferred bike we would be happy.”

In third position Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was almost half a second off Stoner by the end of the session with his time of 1:33.466, with Italians Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) both within four-thousandths of a second of the American as they completed the top five.

The 36-year-old Edwards was only 11th quickest in the morning but a series of modifications to improve turning performance with his YZR-M1 machine helped him challenge for the top three throughout the second 45-minute session.

Edwards was also able to gain crucial information on the harder compound Bridgestone rear and set his best time on the 20th lap of his 23-lap stint in mild but cloudy conditions in the afternoon.

“I'm really happy to have made such a good start," Edwards said. "I was only 11th this morning but knew my guys had a handle on how to improve the bike and this afternoon it just felt so easy.

"All the problems I've had all year with the bike not turning and running wide disappeared. I could get into the corner hard on the brakes, carry lots of lean angle, open the throttle and the bike would just turn like it should do. It's all too little too late but I didn't feel like I was out there taking a lot of risks and I was nearly six-tenths faster this afternoon.”

Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was back on his M1 after a fall during the morning, and the American placed sixth in the order, with Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda) and Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini) – who had an early run-off – in the top eight.

In unfamiliar territory in ninth position was Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha), who was almost a full second off Lorenzo’s pace. Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) completed the top 10.

Dani Pedrosa was 12th as he made a gradual improvement of almost two-tenths of a second on his morning effort whilst establishing a more comfortable feel on his RC212V.

Following up on his fastest effort from the morning session at Valencia on Friday German rider Stefan Bradl was the quickest in the second Moto2 free practice, topping the timesheet with a best lap of 1:36.666 to underline his pace on the Spanish track.

The Viessmann Kiefer Racing rider, who won his first intermediate category race in the previous round in Portugal, led Julián Simón in the final order for the day by 0.181 secs., with Karel Abraham (Cardion ab Motoracing), Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) and Scott Redding (Marc VDS Racing) completing the top five and all within three-tenths of a second of the leader.

Bradley Smith’s best lap of 1:40.116 in the second practice at Valencia made the Bancaja Aspar rider the quickest of the 125cc class on Friday, as he beat Marc Márquez to top spot on the timesheet by 0.103 secs.

Red Bull Ajo Motorsport rider Márquez and his only remaining title rival Nico Terol (Bancaja Aspar) were separated by 0.295 secs. in the session, as the latter showed no repeat signs of the engine problems that had marked his first practice earlier in the day.