Casey Stoner started the Catalunya Grand Prix weekend with the fastest time in opening practice.
The Honda rider had exchanged the top spot with team-mate Andrea Dovizioso, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo and Gresini Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso in the early part of the session before establishing himself on top with a one-minute 43.918-second lap.
That was enough to guarantee Stoner first position by half a second over Simoncelli, as the rain that had been occasionally spitting over the circuit during the morning became more insistent in the final few minutes and forced all the riders back to their garages. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
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MotoGP: Catalunya Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Yamaha duo Jorge Lorenzo and Ben Spies were third and fourth in Spain.
Stoner’s team-mate Andrea Dovizioso was fifth quickest, while Monster Yamaha pair Colin Edwards and Cal Crutchlow and Ducati duo Nicky Hayden and Valentino Rossi were the only others to be within a second of the Australian. Sportal.com.au
Rounding out the top ten was Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini). The top ten riders were within 1.414s of each other.
Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) who is returning to top fitness after breaking his left leg in the season opener at Losail finished in 14th place, 2.942s off the pace, showing promise of improvements over the previous race weekend results. motogp.com
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