Submitted by David Emmett on
Jorge Lorenzo has topped the first session of free practice for the MotoGP class at Mugello, beating Casey Stoner by over half a second. The Factory Yamaha rider dominated throughout practice, taking the lead early and never ceding it. The Repsol Honda pairing followed Lorenzo, Stoner beating his teammate Dani Pedrosa, while Nicky Hayden put in a sterling performance on the Factory Ducati to end the session in 4th.
The Monster Tech 3 Yamahas followed Hayden, Cal Crutchlow faster than his teammate Andrea Dovizioso. Valentino Rossi ended the session in 7th, the last rider within a second of Lorenzo, and ahead of Pramac Ducati's Hector Barbera and the second Factory Yamaha of Ben Spies. Both Spies and Crutchlow had problems out on track, losing time getting back to the pits from where their bikes had left them. For Crutchlow, it was his bike which packed up on him, while Spies suffered a low-speed tip over after having run into the gravel.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Previous |
| 1 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 1'48.131 | ||
| 2 | 1 | Casey STONER | HONDA | 1'48.649 | 0.518 | 0.518 |
| 3 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 1'48.877 | 0.746 | 0.228 |
| 4 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 1'48.981 | 0.850 | 0.104 |
| 5 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | YAMAHA | 1'49.023 | 0.892 | 0.042 |
| 6 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | YAMAHA | 1'49.038 | 0.907 | 0.015 |
| 7 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | DUCATI | 1'49.074 | 0.943 | 0.036 |
| 8 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | DUCATI | 1'49.166 | 1.035 | 0.092 |
| 9 | 11 | Ben SPIES | YAMAHA | 1'49.398 | 1.267 | 0.232 |
| 10 | 6 | Stefan BRADL | HONDA | 1'49.438 | 1.307 | 0.040 |
| 11 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | HONDA | 1'49.688 | 1.557 | 0.250 |
| 12 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | ART | 1'50.949 | 2.818 | 1.261 |
| 13 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | ART | 1'51.101 | 2.970 | 0.152 |
| 14 | 54 | Mattia PASINI | ART | 1'51.253 | 3.122 | 0.152 |
| 15 | 51 | Michele PIRRO | FTR | 1'51.835 | 3.704 | 0.582 |
| 16 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | BQR | 1'51.973 | 3.842 | 0.138 |
| 17 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | SUTER | 1'52.154 | 4.023 | 0.181 |
| 18 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | IODA | 1'52.952 | 4.821 | 0.798 |
| 19 | 77 | James ELLISON | ART | 1'53.390 | 5.259 | 0.438 |
| 20 | 22 | Ivan SILVA | BQR | 1'53.931 | 5.800 | 0.541 |
Comments
Hayden invariably clocks
Hayden invariably clocks faster times that Rossi in FP and QP, but in the races this year its four each as to who finishes highest.
Duc would be letting a good rider go in Hayden, are they convinced Crutchlow would be faster?
Early days for this weekend though, expect Stoner and Ped to be in contention, should be fun!
An improvement for Rossi
Well, if being <1second is an improvement. At least he is close to nicky in first practice.
And the winner
of the free Bridgestone tire test is ticket number 69. Number 69?
Go Nicky...
Time to get angry, and go all in!
New Honda
If this is the brand new 2013 Honda, that's quite impressive for its first outing. Setup work over the next 3 days should be interesting. And what Stoner and Pedrosa have to say about it.
not a new honda
I dont think this is a new honda. they wanted to test the 2013 machine on the official monday tests, and if their riders like it, they might use it for the rest of the season..
That stirs up the "spirit of racing" crap that people rambled about last year when ducati started using the 2012 machine in 2011.. haha, ..
Ah, yes.
Thanks for that.
No words
My excitement for Sunday's race cannot be adequately expressed by verbosity, so I shall have to revert to textual enthusiasm instead: GO JORGE!!!
Drop it On Them NH69!?
The word is that Nicky Hayden also had talks with the Audi bosses... which went well! Maybe that's why Cal haven't signed anything yet... Ducati hasn't presented the contract-papers to Cal! Maybe Audi (not Ducati) values Hayden's marketability more than Cal's aggressive rider mentality. Audi would do well to give Rossi a winning machine with Hayden also grabbing podiums... money would come in by the boat-load! Audi management is better than Ducati management... if they retain Hayden.
Still plenty of theoretical
Still plenty of theoretical seats at ducati with the news that they want to run a yam type set up with essentially 4 factory bikes and riders.... Love Mugello..
The real story is the gap to Lorenzo.
He's obviously ferociously competitive.
1. Knocked off the bike at Assen.
2. Forced to use tyres he didn't want in Germany.
One thinks he will be in a 'take no prisoners' mood. This could be a very special weekend. He is normally 'mr professional', minimum risk maximum points almost robot like, but this weekend he may give us a seething agressive mad as hell master class in sheer speed. Here's hoping!
It's shaping to be a fabulous pole, can Stoner's raw talent match the seething Lorenzo in a mood, oh this is going to be great!
The Honda is NOT a good bike this year, well not as good as the Yamaha anyway, but Stoner can take it 'past the edge' for a lap or two, for pole (it will probably be better than the race) but I dont Lorenzo is in a mood to give him an inch... catch me if you can?