Submitted by David Emmett on
Dani Pedrosa's domination of the MotoGP class continues, the Repsol Honda rider setting the fastest lap early and controlling the session throughout. Pedrosa quickly got in to the 1'56 bracket and was over half a second faster than the rest until the final few minutes. Casey Stoner was the only man to get near to his Repsol teammate, the Australian cutting the gap to under four tenths towards the end, while San Carlo Gresini's Marco Simoncelli ended the session in 3rd after just sneaking ahead of Jorge Lorenzo.
Third Repsol Honda man Andrea Dovizioso split the factory Yamaha riders, finding a later burst of speed to match Ben Spies' late burst of speed. The final moments of practice also brought some relief for Marlboro Ducati, Valentino Rossi picking up the pace to finish 7th, after languishing outside the top 10 for most of the session. Alvaro Bautista ended the session in 8th, just a few hundredths ahead of Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow and Bautista's temporary Rizla Suzuki teammate, John Hopkins.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Previous |
| 1 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 1'56.454 | ||
| 2 | 27 | Casey STONER | HONDA | 1'56.831 | 0.377 | 0.377 |
| 3 | 58 | Marco SIMONCELLI | HONDA | 1'57.136 | 0.682 | 0.305 |
| 4 | 1 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 1'57.174 | 0.720 | 0.038 |
| 5 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | HONDA | 1'57.535 | 1.081 | 0.361 |
| 6 | 11 | Ben SPIES | YAMAHA | 1'57.631 | 1.177 | 0.096 |
| 7 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | DUCATI | 1'57.745 | 1.291 | 0.114 |
| 8 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SUZUKI | 1'57.857 | 1.403 | 0.112 |
| 9 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | YAMAHA | 1'57.859 | 1.405 | 0.002 |
| 10 | 21 | John HOPKINS | SUZUKI | 1'57.880 | 1.426 | 0.021 |
| 11 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | DUCATI | 1'58.120 | 1.666 | 0.240 |
| 12 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | YAMAHA | 1'58.313 | 1.859 | 0.193 |
| 13 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | DUCATI | 1'58.454 | 2.000 | 0.141 |
| 14 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 1'58.568 | 2.114 | 0.114 |
| 15 | 65 | Loris CAPIROSSI | DUCATI | 1'58.573 | 2.119 | 0.005 |
| 16 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | HONDA | 1'58.607 | 2.153 | 0.034 |
| 17 | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | DUCATI | 1'58.999 | 2.545 | 0.392 |
| 18 | 24 | Toni ELIAS | HONDA | 1'59.157 | 2.703 | 0.158 |
Comments
Maverick
Love Lorenzo's "Maverick" Top Gun helmet. He really knows how to play to the fans...
A difference of .377 is a lot
A difference of .377 is a lot closer to four tenths than two tenths.
Corrected
Corrected, thanks for that. Was typing in a hurry.
Now that Dani is returning
Now that Dani is returning to full fitness and the honda(casey) is being pushed hard by another factory honda will the different chassis designs that Dani and Casey have choosen play apart, no doubt unlike Ducati they will be able to swap frames over in an afternoon and still use th esame engine.. but could be very disruptive to anyone of them.. Dani looks to be finding it easier and looks a lot smoother with the softer chassis.
It could be argued that Dani
It could be argued that Dani is in better shape than Stoner at the moment. Considering Stoner has no data whatsoever he's doing very well to be so fast on Friday.
Data is the issue
Dani obviously has the advantage of his crew being able to start from previous settings, essentially picking up from where they left off last year.
Stoner's crew has to do those hard yards at each race this year, of finding the setup that works best for him, at this track.
Stoner's crew is pretty good at dialing it in for him, so you would expect they will get a lot closer to Dani by QP, but even at Laguna it took them until the Warmup session to find it.