The first European MotoGP laps of 2011 took place on Friday morning at Jerez, when Casey Stoner set the pace during first free practice for the Spanish MotoGP, round two of this year’s world championship.
Stoner, who won from pole on his Repsol Honda debut in Qatar, concluded the 45-minute session with a slim 0.028sec advantage over team-mate and home favourite Dani Pedrosa.
But the happiest man looked to be Valentino Rossi, who made a much more positive start to his second race weekend as a Ducati rider.
The seven time MotoGP champion, just seventh on his Desmosedici race debut in Qatar, was competitive from the off and finished in third place, half-a-second from Stoner and Pedrosa. Yahoo! Eurosport UK
Click Here to Read More
MotoGP Standings Ahead of Spanish Grand Prix
MotoGP: Spanish Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) was just behind his compatriot, 0.625s off Stoner’s best lap and was the third fastest Honda rider. Current World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) had set the early pace in FP1, a circuit the Spaniard has ridden well at with a win in 2010 after passing Pedrosa on the last lap, he ended the practice 0.809s behind Stoner.
Andrea Dovizioso took a massive tumble at turn 14 in the dying moments of the session after he lost the front and ended up in the gravel. He was unhurt and finished the session sixth fastest, 0.878s behind his team-mate.
Lorenzo’s Texan team-mate Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) was seventh, a further 1.336s off Stoner’s time. Rounding out the top ten were Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team), with a distance of 1.682s covering the gap between the top ten riders on the time sheet. Motogp.com
| 
|