Submitted by David Emmett on
After the morning rain, the sun came out in the afternoon at Silverstone, drying the track out quickly for the second session of free practice at the circuit. Despite a quick shower which fell in the middle of the session, the track stayed in pretty good condition, helped in no small part by the strong winds which are blowing here.
In the dry conditions, it was Casey Stoner who set the quickest time of the afternoon in the final minutes of FP2, dislodging an impressive Alvaro Bautista from the top spot. Stoner held off challenges from Ben Spies, the factory Yamaha rider putting together a much more solid session after his crash in the wet session this morning. Bautista's 3rd place was some consolation after the San Carlo Gresini Honda had regularly featured at the top of the timesheets, but put him ahead of all but Stoner and Spies.
Nicky Hayden managed the dry conditions best of the Ducatis, slipping from 2nd in the wet to 4th in the dry - his teammate Valentino Rossi did not fare so well, dropping from 1st in the wet to 11th and slowest prototype in the dry. Behind Hayden, Stefan Bradl on the LCR Honda finished ahead of a bevvy of Yamahas, led by Andrea Dovizioso. Jorge Lorenzo was the factory Yamaha meat in a Monster Tech 3 sandwich, taking 7th behind Dovizioso but finishing ahead of Cal Crutchlow. Dani Pedrosa managed only 9th spot, while Hector Barbera rounds out the top 10.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Previous |
| 1 | 1 | Casey STONER | HONDA | 2'04.791 | ||
| 2 | 11 | Ben SPIES | YAMAHA | 2'04.825 | 0.034 | 0.034 |
| 3 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | HONDA | 2'04.995 | 0.204 | 0.170 |
| 4 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 2'05.353 | 0.562 | 0.358 |
| 5 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | HONDA | 2'05.391 | 0.600 | 0.038 |
| 6 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | YAMAHA | 2'05.448 | 0.657 | 0.057 |
| 7 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 2'05.488 | 0.697 | 0.040 |
| 8 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | YAMAHA | 2'05.574 | 0.783 | 0.086 |
| 9 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 2'05.886 | 1.095 | 0.312 |
| 10 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | DUCATI | 2'06.084 | 1.293 | 0.198 |
| 11 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | DUCATI | 2'07.125 | 2.334 | 1.041 |
| 12 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | ART | 2'07.893 | 3.102 | 0.768 |
| 13 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | FTR | 2'08.535 | 3.744 | 0.642 |
| 14 | 54 | Mattia PASINI | ART | 2'08.975 | 4.184 | 0.440 |
| 15 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | BQR | 2'09.078 | 4.287 | 0.103 |
| 16 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | ART | 2'09.379 | 4.588 | 0.301 |
| 17 | 77 | James ELLISON | ART | 2'09.944 | 5.153 | 0.565 |
| 18 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | IODA | 2'11.325 | 6.534 | 1.381 |
| 19 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | SUTER | 2'11.600 | 6.809 | 0.275 |
| 20 | 22 | Ivan SILVA | BQR | 2'12.737 | 7.946 | 1.137 |
| Not Classified | ||||||
| 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | DUCATI | ||||
Comments
I really want Rossi to
I really want Rossi to succeed on the Ducati, but I can't say I don't smile a lot every time Nicky is faster than him in the dry.
Showa
Bautista was surely impressive. The rest of the Honda's on Ohlins. Yet again Stoner finds a way to ride around the issue wet or dry across the FP sessions.
Good to see Ben Spies up there.
Ducati and Rossi ? He can't adapt to L-4. Hardly likely he will adapt to Honda V-4.
This Honda is not the silky smooth,turbine like V5 of 990 era that he cut his teeth on.
"This Honda is not the silky
"This Honda is not the silky smooth,turbine like V5 of 990 era that he cut his teeth on."
How do you know this?
Comparison
If it is dry, can a comparison to WSB be made? Last year Checas time on Friday would put him in 6th place, 2:05.477
Resurfacing
With a significant part of the track resurfaced I doubt you can make a good comparison.
Style nit: first sentence in last para
That sentence is very long. The "- .... Rossi .... -" aside in the middle makes for confusing reading when you get to the last clause about Bradl (Rossi ahead of Bradl? Takes a few secs to realise "him" must refer to Nicky). It probably would read better as 3 separate sentences. ;)
Thank goodness I wasn't the
Thank goodness I wasn't the only one that thought this was a mouthful, and a touch confusing.
Typing quickly
After FP2, I have about 20 minutes to type up the story before rushing off to talk to the riders, hence the mangled sentences. I've fixed it now, and it's a little better.
Thanks :)
And it was genuinely intended to be a constructive criticism, of a still greatly appreciated article - as generally all your articles are. ;)
really?
Is it really necessary to edit everything Mr. Emmett writes these days? We should be grateful the he spends a couple moments between sessions to give us an update and stays up all night writing the best race recaps anywhere. Maybe it’s just me but if you understand what he’s trying to say isn’t that enough? This isn’t a book that needs to be edited, it’s an update on something that happened 5 minutes ago…
I could generally care less
I could generally care less about his editing or typing as he's a bloody brilliant reporter but when it's outright confusing (had to read it a few times), I don't think it hurts to mention. On to our regular program :)
Spies
Spies really seems to be going for it. Hope he can turn things around and begin mixing it up in front. But it still might not be enough to hang onto his factory seat. A lot of/too many points already lost.
Time differences
Looking at the times raises makes me scratch my head . Did VR do many laps? was there a machine issue? Sure he is struggling in general but the time spread over the first 10 riders is less than 1.3 seconds. The gap between Barbera in 10th & Rossi in 11th adds over another second, in fact RdP is closer to Rossi than Rossi is to Barbera. Any clues David?