Dani Pedrosa carried on his dominant streak in Free Practice 1 today, for this weekends Misano Grand Prix, topping the timesheets with team mate Andrea Dovizioso just behind for Repsol Honda’s first practice 1-2 for some time. The strength of Pedrosa’s Honda was evident as he was the only rider to dip below the 1:35s mark with a time of 1:34.772. Teammate Dovizoso is hoping for a strong home grand prix, and wasn’t far behind Pedrosa with a time of 1:35.384 signaling that this weekend could be very Honda dominant.
Championship leader Jorge Lorenzo is looking to make up for the, in his standards, a disappointing 3rd place in Indianapolis. The Spaniard finished the practice session back down in 3rd, after struggling to find performance out of his FIAT Yamaha. Issues with rear grip and overall balance hampered his efforts to climb up the timesheet. Given his problems, it shows how dominant Lorenzo is, considering he was only 0.060s behind Dovizioso.
Another rider in their home grand prix this weekend is Valentino Rossi, aiming to put on a good show in front of his home crowd. And he has made good headway in FP1, finishing in 4th, as he did last weekend, with a time of 1:35.539. Another Yamaha rider looking to improve on last weekend is Monster Yamaha Tech rider Colin Edwards. After having no luck at all with his tyres at Indianapolis, the veteran finished this session on one set of tyres and finishing in 5th.
Last weekend’s golden boy, Edwards’ teammate, Ben Spies got his weekend off to a good start finishing the session in 6th, doing as Edwards did, using one set of tyres. Ducati’s Casey Stoner is not only looking to get a good finish, he will be looking to finish this weekend, after sliding out of the Indy GP chasing Rossi for position. And things did not start well for the Aussie, having similar issues to Lorenzo.
Things weren’t happening for Ducati this afternoon, with Nicky Hayden also struggling, and having a small run off at the end of the session, the American finished the session in 8th. The Italians pairing of Marco Melandri on the San Carlo Honda Gresini machine and Loris Capirossi, who starts his 200th MotoGP rounded out the top ten on his Rizla Suzuki GSV-R.
