2013 Le Mans MotoGP FP1 Practice Result: Pedrosa Edges Lorenzo, Ducatis Show Well

Submitted by David Emmett on Fri, 2013-05-17 08:57

Dani Pedrosa has topped the timesheets in the first session of free practice for the MotoGP class at Le Mans. The Repsol Honda man was strong throughout practice, and held off a late challenge from Jorge Lorenzo to take first blood in France. Lorenzo was not far off, however: on his final lap, he got to within four hundredths of Pedrosa's time, setting the scene for a very close weekend.

Valentino Rossi also had a strong start, taking third spot behind his Yamaha Factory teammate, three tenths off the time of Pedrosa and ahead of a pair of Ducatis, Nicky Hayden grabbing fourth while Andrea Dovizioso secured fifth. Cal Crutchlow ended the session in sixth place, ahead of Marc Marquez, who is still learning his way around the track on a MotoGP bike. The two satellite Honda riders follow in eighth and ninth, Alvaro Bautista a couple of tenths quicker than Stefan Bradl, while Hector Barbera made his way into the top ten to grab the final spot in the provisional line up for QP2.

The new qualifying format is likely to be important at Le Mans. With rain expected later on Friday and on Saturday, it will be crucial to get fast times in early. This realization had filtered its way through to the teams, as the riders went on a late charge in FP1 to try to put in a 'banker' lap, a lap which will secure them a spot on QP2 if the rain makes the rest of the sessions wet.

Results:

Pos	No.	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff	Diff Previous

1	26	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1'34.645
2	99	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1'34.685	0.040	0.040
3	46	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	1'34.938	0.293	0.253
4	69	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	1'34.972	0.327	0.034
5	4	Andrea Dovizioso	Ducati	1'35.072	0.427	0.100
6	35	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	1'35.149	0.504	0.077
7	93	Marc Marquez	Honda	1'35.170	0.525	0.021
8	19	Alvaro Bautista	Honda	1'35.285	0.640	0.115
9	6	Stefan Bradl	Honda	1'35.478	0.833	0.193
10	8	Hector Barbera	FTR Kawasaki	1'35.949	1.304	0.471
11	41	Aleix Espargaro	Aprilia ART	1'36.083	1.438	0.134
12	29	Andrea Iannone	Ducati	1'36.211	1.566	0.128
13	51	Michele Pirro	Ducati	1'36.607	1.962	0.396
14	14	Randy de Puniet	Aprilia ART	1'36.745	2.100	0.138
15	38	Bradley Smith	Yamaha	1'36.790	2.145	0.045
16	7	Hiroshi Aoyama	FTR Kawasaki	1'36.872	2.227	0.082
17	71	Claudio Corti	FTR Kawasaki	1'37.325	2.680	0.453
18	5	Colin Edwards	FTR Kawasaki	1'37.431	2.786	0.106
19	68	Yonny Hernandez	Aprilia ART	1'37.597	2.952	0.166
20	9	Danilo Petrucci	Suter BMW	1'37.620	2.975	0.023
21	17	Karel Abraham	Aprilia ART	1'38.209	3.564	0.589
22	67	Bryan Staring	FTR Honda	1'38.516	3.871	0.307
23	70	Michael Laverty	PBM	1'39.325	4.680	0.809
24	52	Lukas Pesek	Suter BMW	1'39.710	5.065	0.385