Andrea Dovizioso emerged as the fastest rider after heavy rain wreaked havoc with the Friday practice sessions at Misano today. The Ducati rider upped the pace in the closing minutes of FP2 to finish a second clear of Yonny Hernandez, the Colombian making the running in FP1.
Dovizioso was one of several riders to be caught out by the treacherous Misano circuit, known to be slippery at the best of times, but the Italian was pleased with his afternoon’s work overall and expects his promising performance to translate into dry conditions.
“Of course I am very happy because it’s always a pleasure to set the quickest time! It was a pity about the crash at the start of this afternoon’s session, but we did manage to understand the reason why and then thanks to the modifications we made for the final run, we made a big step forward and this allowed me to regain feeling in the bike and set the fastest time at the end of the session. We have good pace, also in the wet, and I think that we will manage to be quite quick in the dry, seeing as we did a test here less than one month ago.”
Hernandez was providing many a heart-stopping moment for the Pramac squad early in the afternoon, the Ducati looking on the edge. Yonny failed to match his pacesetting time from the morning but still held onto second, pipping the Repsol Hondas of Dani Pedrosa and Marc Marquez who sat out much of the day.
Danilo Petrucci was a fine fifth for IodaRacing ahead of Tech 3’s Pol Espargaro and LCR’s Stefan Bradl while the Movistar Yamaha team will be hoping for drier weather tomorrow, Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi finishing either side of Andrea Iannone in eighth and tenth.
All five British riders sit outside the all-important top ten overnight but Bradley Smith will still feel confident of progressing to Q2, a pair of crashes preventing him from showing his true pace today. Cal Crutchlow and Scott Redding also fell during the afternoon and both look set to be involved in the dogfight for a Q2 spot tomorrow.
 2014 GP TIM DI SAN MARINO E DELLA RIVIERA DI RIMINI – COMBINED FREE PRACTICE CLASSIFICATION |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| POS | RIDER | MOTORCYCLE | TEAM | TIME | ||
| 1 | 4 |  ANDREA DOVIZIOSO |
DUCATI | DUCATI TEAM | 1:49.195 | FP2 |
| 2 | 68 |  YONNY HERNANDEZ |
DUCATI | PRAMAC RACING | 1:50.310 | FP1 |
| 3 | 26 |  DANI PEDROSA |
HONDA | REPSOL HONDA TEAM | 1:50.356 | FP2 |
| 4 | 93 | MARC MARQUEZ |
HONDA | REPSOL HONDA TEAM | 1:50.519 | FP2 |
| 5 | 9 | DANILO PETRUCCI |
ART | OCTO IODARACING TEAM | 1:50.641 | FP2 |
| 6 | 44 | POL ESPARGARO |
YAMAHA | MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 | 1:50.761 | FP2 |
| 7 | 6 |  STEFAN BRADL |
HONDA | LCR HONDA MOTOGP | 1:50.848 | FP2 |
| 8 | 99 | JORGE LORENZO |
YAMAHA | MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP | 1:51.541 | FP2 |
| 9 | 29 | ANDREA IANNONE |
DUCATI | PRAMAC RACING | 1:51.603 | FP2 |
| 10 | 46 | VALENTINO ROSSI |
YAMAHA | MOVISTAR YAMAHA MOTOGP | 1:51.738 | FP2 |
| 11 | 35 |  CAL CRUTCHLOW |
DUCATI | DUCATI TEAM | 1:51.757 | FP2 |
| 12 | 41 | ALEIX ESPARGARO |
FORWARD YAMAHA | NGM FORWARD RACING | 1:52.164 | FP2 |
| 13 | 45 | SCOTT REDDING |
HONDA | GO&FUN HONDA GRESINI | 1:52.213 | FP2 |
| 14 | 19 | ALVARO BAUTISTA |
HONDA | GO&FUN HONDA GRESINI | 1:52.298 | FP2 |
| 15 | 7 |  HIROSHI AOYAMA |
HONDA | DRIVE M7 ASPAR | 1:52.584 | FP2 |
| 16 | 17 |  KAREL ABRAHAM |
HONDA | CARDION AB MOTORACING | 1:52.814 | FP2 |
| 17 | 70 | MICHAEL LAVERTY |
PBM | PAUL BIRD MOTORSPORT | 1:53.326 | FP2 |
| 18 | 38 | BRADLEY SMITH |
YAMAHA | MONSTER YAMAHA TECH 3 | 1:53.329 | FP2 |
| 19 | 2 | LEON CAMIER |
HONDA | DRIVE M7 ASPAR | 1:53.699 | FP2 |
| 20 | 15 | ALEX DE ANGELIS |
FORWARD YAHAMA | NGM FORWARD RACING | 1:54.105 | FP2 |
| 21 | 23 |  BROC PARKES |
PBM | PAUL BIRD MOTORSPORT | 1:56.128 | FP2 |
| 22 | 8 | HECTOR BARBERA |
AVINTIA | AVINTIA RACING | 1:56.632 | FP2 |
| 23 | 63 |  MIKE DI MEGLIO |
AVINTIA | AVINTIA RACING | 1:58.788 | FP2 |
