There was great excitement at the commencement of the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland on Friday as the focus at the start of the opening practice session revolved around Valentino Rossi’s return to action after six weeks out.
The Italian made his comeback on his Fiat Yamaha M1 and was seventh fastest, in an hour-long session which was topped by Dani Pedrosa (Respol Honda).
Setting his time of 1’22.521 on his final lap, having led for the last minutes of the session, Pedrosa was 0.274s faster than Casey Stoner, who placed second on the timesheet as he vied for top spot throughout the session with consistently fast lap times.
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Joining the pair in the top three and the final rider under the 1’23” marker was Stoner’s Ducati Team colleague Nicky Hayden, +0.462s down on Pedrosa thanks to a late effort. Motogp.com
Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) took the best part of the session to feel his way around the track and survived a run-off at turn 10 a quarter of the way into the session, but towards the end he posted an impressive time of 1’23.189 to place fourth.
Another rookie in the shape of Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini) completed the top five. Auto Racing Daily
Pos. Num. Rider Team Time 1 26 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1'22.521 2 27 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1'22.795 3 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1'22.983 4 11 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'23.189 5 58 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'23.204 6 99 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1'23.224 7 46 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 1'23.244 8 14 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1'23.260 9 33 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'23.290 10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1'23.400 11 36 Mika KALLIO Pramac Racing Team 1'23.422 12 41 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1'23.430 13 5 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'23.440 14 65 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'23.589 15 40 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1'23.599 16 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'24.020 17 15 Alex DE ANGELIS Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1'24.101
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