Spain’s Dani Pedrosa set a commanding pace on Friday as Honda swept the top five positions in the opening practice at the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang.
With Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo sidelined by a hand injury he sustained in Australia last weekend, it was no surprise to see five Honda riders topping the timesheets.
Pedrosa set the fastest time in both 45-minute sessions, with his quickest time coming in the second session (2:01.250). The Spaniard was 0.8sec quicker than Casey Stoner, the newly crowned world champion and strong favourite.
Stoner clocked a time of 2:02.070, with Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso third.
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Marco Simoncelli was fourth and team-mate Hiroshi Aoyama fifth. Sydney Morning Herald
Colin Edwards was the quickest non-Honda rider, sixth fastest on his Yamaha, with Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista seventh.
Randy de Puniet (Ducati) was next, although a full two seconds slower than Pedrosa, with Ben Spies in ninth.
The top 10 was made up by Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing), with Nicky Hayden 11th on his Ducati and his team-mate Valentino Rossi further back in 13th. ESPN STAR Sports
Wildcard John Hopkins (Rizla Suzuki) was 14th for the day, 0.016s quicker than Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) while Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) completed 11 laps, following just four completed in the morning, to land 17th as the Spanish rider recovers from surgery on the fractured collarbone he sustained just two weeks ago in Japan.
Replacement rider for injured Yamaha Factory Racing’s Jorge Lorenzo, Katsuyuki Nakasuga, started the day strong but crashed in both sessions, ending the day in 18th. motogp.com
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