French rider Randy De Puniet set a surprise fastest time in practice here on Thursday, pipping championship leaders Valentino Rossi, Jorge Lorenzo and Casey Stoner at the line.
De Puniet’s LCR Honda clocked 1min 37.842sec on the first day of practice ahead of Saturday’s Assen TT Grand Prix, the seventh event of the season, putting him just ahead of the Italian multiple world champion, the Spaniard and the Australian.
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Rossi, who has won eight world titles in all including five in Moto GP and one in 500cc, will be fighting for his 100th grand prix victory here on Saturday. Going into the race, the Italian is in equal first position in the rider’s championship with Lorenzo and Stoner - all three on 106 points. AFP
After an epic race at Barcelona where Valentino Rossi overcome Yamaha teammate Jorge Lorenzo by 0.095sec, with Casey Stoner third, all three riders share the championship lead on 106 points, with two race wins apiece. Fox Sports
The Repsol Honda Team riders opened their accounts for the Dutch TT weekend at Assen today with fifth and sixth places in a tightly contested hour of free practice. With only 0.6s separating the top 10 places, this was one of the closest sessions of the 2009 season so far and bodes well for another exciting MotoGP race.
Both Andrea Dovizioso and Dani Pedrosa were riding with the latest developments to the Honda RC212V, and spent time evaluating the modified chassis first seen at the Catalunya round two weeks ago. With a string of fast laps towards the end of the session, Dovizioso moved up to third place before being relegated to fifth in the closing moments. Auto Racing Daily
Practice Results 1 Randy De Puniet 1m 37.842 FRA HONDA LCR Honda MotoGP 2 Valentino Rossi 1m 37.847 ITA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team 3 Casey Stoner 1m 37.877 AUS DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team 4 Jorge Lorenzo 1m 38.061 SPA YAMAHA Fiat Yamaha Team 5 Andrea Dovizioso 1m 38.092 ITA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 6 Dani Pedrosa 1m 38.194 SPA HONDA Repsol Honda Team 7 Colin Edwards 1m 38.205 USA YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha 8 Chris Vermeulen 1m 38.350 AUS SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 9 James Toseland 1m 38.379 GBR YAMAHA Tech 3 Yamaha 10 Loris Capirossi 1m 38.429 ITA SUZUKI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 11 Alex De Angelis 1m 38.495 SMR HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini 12 Nicky Hayden 1m 38.928 USA DUCATI Ducati Marlboro Team 13 Mika Kallio 1m 39.464 FIN DUCATI Pramac Racing 14 Marco Melandri 1m 39.597 ITA KAWASAKI Hayate Racing Team 15 Toni Elias 1m 39.642 SPA HONDA San Carlo Honda Gresini 16 Sete Gibernau 1m 40.151 SPA DUCATI Grupo Francisco Hernando 17 Yuki Takahashi 1m 40.185 JAP HONDA Scot Racing Team MotoGP 18 Niccolo Canepa 1m 41.020 ITA DUCATI Pramac Racing 19 Gabor Talmacsi 1m 41.380 HUN HONDA Scot Racing Team MotoGP
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