San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli leads final practice session at Assen GP: MotoGP news
San Carlo Honda Gresini rider Marco Simoncelli led the final free practice session at Assen for the upcoming Iveco TT Assen Grand Prix to be held in Netherlands on Saturday, June 25, 2011.
The Italian rider displayed his potential in the second 90-minute long practice session. The final practice session was extended after the cancellation of the second FP on Thursday.
On Thursday, during the Moto2 FP session, a bike caused an oil to spill over one third of the track, which the stewards took about two hours to clean up.
The second and third sessions were combined ahead of the qualifying practice session later in evening.
Simoncelli gave his best lap time in his 12th lap just before the rain. His fastest lap timing was 1:36.149 seconds. He was followed by Casey Stoner who clocked 1: 36.342 seconds for the second fastest spot.
Repsol Honda trio was facing pure bad luck. All the three riders at factory Honda, Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and substitute Hiroshi Aoyama fell in the opening minutes of the session.
Dovizioso was taken for medical checkups but he was cleared by the doctors. He made his comeback within 50 minutes.
The third and fourth spots were occupied by Yamaha Factory Racing rider’s duo Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo respectively. Spies produced his best lap time of 1:36.409 seconds and teammate Lorenzo was 0.336 seconds adrift of the American.
Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi did better in his newly bred GP11.1. The new version has been developed as an inspiration from the 2012’s GP12.
The sole Brit with Monster Yamaha Tech3 Cal Crutchlow was sixth after coming back from a recent collarbone fracture. He was bravely riding on the track to improve his pace, which resulted in him being the fastest satellite rider in the 17-rider squad. His
American teammate Colin Edwards was seventh just behind him.
Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden and Toni Elias completed the top ten slots for the last practice session.
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