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Repsol Honda’s Casey Stoner looked as it he was going to run away with this morning’s first MotoGP free practice at Le Mans, leading by one second with five minutes of the session left before team-mate Dani Pedrosa came out and spoiled his dominance with his last run of laps.
The Australian’s 16th lap saw him set a 1’34.185 which was just over a second quicker than the third Repsol man Andrea Dovizoso before Pedrosa’s effort saw him hop into runner-up spot with a 1’35.122, which was still 0.937s slower than the 2007 world champion.
Stoner then responded with a 1’34.133 before Pedrosa halved the deficit to 0.568 with a 1’34.701 while Marco Simoncelli, on yet another Honda, nipped into third ahead of Dovizioso, who made sure of fourth at that point. BSN
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MotoGP: French Grand Prix - First Practice Results
Reigning MotoGP World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) who was beaten to victory by his compatriot Pedrosa in the closing stages of the previous race, was fifth fastest in FP1, just over a second off the pace. The highest placed Ducati was that of Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) in sixth place, who was pipped for fourth place on the line by fellow Italian Dovizioso in Portgual.
Flying the home flag this weekend is Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing), who was seventh fastest in the session. The Frenchman, who finished tenth at Estoril after an operation to remove a metal pin from his knee, stated on Thursday that he is now in much better physical condition to challenge at Round 4.
Completing the top ten were second Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden in eighth, Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) in ninth and Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) in tenth. The British rider finished eighth at the previous round and was fourth in the test in Portugal, in his rookie season whilst Spies is aiming for better luck after a DNF at the previous round. Motogp.com
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