Marco Simoncelli rules first free practice session of Gran Premio d’Italia – MotoGP news
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli set the benchmark at the first free practice session of the Gran Premio d’Italia TIM at Mugello on Friday.
The eighth MotoGP event has ignited with its first practice session at the Tuscan circuit. The Italian rider set the fastest pace on his home ground with Honda Gresini RCV.
Simoncelli gave his best lap time of 1:48.987 seconds with a top speed of 327.7 km/h. The Italian’s teammate at Honda Gresini, who also rode for the Repsol squad at Assen, Hiroshi Aoyama is back in his team. The Japanese rider was slower than his teammate
and was classified in ninth place on the final time sheet of FP1. Aoyama gave his best shot of 1:50.629 seconds.
Second place on the time sheet was occupied by the Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner who stood 0.040 seconds behind from fellow Honda RCV rider. The Aussie’s quickest lap time was 1:49.027 seconds with 326.9 km/h as his top speed. Stoner’s teammate and Italy’s
local boy, Andrea Dovizioso was closely third on the final time sheet of afternoon’s FP1. He recorded his best time of 1:49.088 seconds.
Repsol Honda’s third teammate Dani Pedrosa is back after three missing three events since his crash at the Le Mans event. Pedrosa broke his right collarbone in that incident. Upon his return to the Mugello circuit, he managed to be seventh fastest in the
FP1, as he is still recovering from his injury.
The two Yamaha Factory Racing riders, Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies covered fourth and fifth places on the time sheet. After a tough effort, Lorenzo was 0.264 seconds off the pace from the top fastest rider. The Spaniard’s teammate Ben Spies hit a close shot
for fifth place and was 0.113 seconds slower than Lorenzo. The top five slots did not have any Ducati rider in it.
The Sixth fastest rider was Monster Yamaha Tech3 rider, Colin Edwards. The American rider was strongly ahead of his British teammate, Cal Crutchlow who came 11th.
The fastest Ducati rider was Nicky Hayden at eighth place, while his teammate Valentino Rossi, was way behind in 13th place. Alvaro Bautista completed the top ten slots.
Tags: