Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi led a dominant Yamaha 1-2 on Friday ahead of the Italian Grand Prix as two MotoGP rookies endured painful afternoons at Mugello. While the two teammates traded fastest times, Marc Marquez and Bradley Smith were both involved in big accidents although they escaped serious injury.
Marquez’s crash was particularly scary, coming at the end of the long pit straight into San Donato. As the Spaniard hit the brakes for the right hander, the Repsol Honda locked up before spearing onto the grass and running along the concrete wall. Thankfully, Marquez was the other side of the bike and avoided contact with the wall but the slide through the gravel and impact while falling from the bike was enough to leave him requiring medical attention.
The Moto2 champion was later able to talk through the accident and should be fit to take part in qualifying tomorrow.
“Just after the hill on the straight I grabbed for the brakes but I closed the front”, he explained. “I tried to save it but the bike was pulling me towards the wall so I jumped from the bike to avoid hitting it. I hit my chin hard and strained my neck quite badly, I also have some contusions to my right shoulder, arm and leg but other than that I’m ok. Thanks to all the medical team that were quickly on the scene to assist me. Now I need to rest and see how I feel later tonight and in the morning”
Smith went down shortly afterwards with the back end of his Tech 3 Yamaha stepping out at Casanova Savelli, slamming the Briton down on his left arm. Smith will also be able to take part in the rest of the weekend but will require a skin graft on Monday after the little finger on his left hand was trapped under the bike.
Smith was running a solid eighth at the time and subsequently slipped outside the top ten along with Marquez, leaving the pair with work to do to book an automatic slot in Q2 tomorrow. Lorenzo and Rossi look safe at the top of the leaderboard with Cal Crutchlow competitive in third on the other Tech 3 Yamaha.
Nicky Hayden led the Ducati challenge on home soil in fourth ahead of championship leader Dani Pedrosa and Andrea Iannone who avoided the pitfalls that caught out his fellow Moto2 graduates. Andrea Dovizioso was seventh despite a crash in the damp conditions of FP1 while Stefan Bradl, Randy de Puniet and Ducati test rider Michele Pirro round out the provisional top ten overnight.
 2013 Gran Premio d’Italia TIM – Combined Free Practice Classification |
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|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pos | Rider | Bike | Team | Best Time |
| 1 |  Jorge Lorenzo |
Yamaha | Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:48.375 |
| 2 | Valentino Rossi |
Yamaha | Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:48.409 |
| 3 |  Cal Crutchlow |
Yamaha | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:48.672 |
| 4 |  Nicky Hayden |
Ducati | Ducati Team | 1:49.377 |
| 5 | Dani Pedrosa |
Honda | Repsol Honda Team | 1:49.383 |
| 6 | Andrea Iannone |
Ducati | Energy T.I. Pramac Racing | 1:49.467 |
| 7 | Andrea Dovizioso |
Ducati | Ducati Team | 1:49.543 |
| 8 |  Stefan Bradl |
Honda | LCR Honda MotoGP | 1:49.595 |
| 9 |  Randy de Puniet |
ART | Power Electronics Aspar | 1:49.599 |
| 10 | Michele Pirro |
Ducati | Ducati Test Team | 1:49.649 |
| 11 | Alvaro Bautista |
Honda | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | 1:49.733 |
| 12 | Aleix Espargaro |
ART | Power Electronics Aspar | 1:49.769 |
| 13 | Bradley Smith |
Yamaha | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:50.103 |
| 14 | Marc Marquez |
Honda | Repsol Honda Team | 1:50.210 |
| 15 | Hector Barbera |
FTR | Avintia Blusens | 1:50.400 |
| 16 | Ben Spies |
Ducati | Ignite Pramac Racing | 1:51.105 |
| 17 | Colin Edwards |
FTR Kawasaki | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:51.433 |
| 18 |  Karel Abraham |
ART | Cardion AB Motoracing | 1:51.528 |
| 19 |  Yonny Hernandez |
ART | Paul Bird Motorsport | 1:51.644 |
| 20 | Danilo Petrucci |
Ioda Suter | Came IodaRacing Project | 1:51.937 |
| 21 |  Hiroshi Aoyama |
FTR | Avintia Blusens | 1:52.182 |
| 22 | Claudio Corti |
FTR Kawasaki | NGM Mobile Forward Racing | 1:53.314 |
| 23 | Michael Laverty |
PBM | Paul Bird Motorsport | 1:53.480 |
| 24 |  Bryan Staring |
FTR Honda | GO&FUN Honda Gresini | 1:54.231 |
| 25 | Lukas Pesek |
FTR | Came Ioda Racing Project | 1:54.829 |
