Marlboro Ducati’s Casey Stoner has shown the MotoGP field a clean pair of heels in first free practice at Valencia, lapping more than half a second faster than the Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo while Andrea Dovizioso claimed third with his final lap.
Rossi had been sitting in third, a little over three quarters of a second behind Stoner until Dovizioso robbed him of the position and towed round Gresini Honda’s Marco Simoncelli who demoted his close friend a further position.
Monster Yamaha’s Ben Spies crashed towards the end but limped away from the incident. He finished ninth but may have aggravated the ankle he dislocated last weekend.
Stoner made a slow start to the 45-minute session, languishing down in tenth as Rossi put in the first meaningful lap of 1’34.102 with Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden and Randy De Puniet in hot pursuit, three tenths off the pace. BSN
Ben Spies, riding despite dislocating his left ankle just five days ago at Estoril, was ninth but had a crash at turn six at the very end of the session.
The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider encouragingly did walk away from his fall however. Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing) completed the top ten behind the American, with Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Dani Pedrosa (Repsol Honda) 11th and 12th respectively. Motogp.com
Pos. Num. Rider Team Time 1 27 Casey STONER Ducati Team 1'32.897 2 99 Jorge LORENZO Fiat Yamaha Team 1'33.455 3 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO Repsol Honda Team 1'33.500 4 58 Marco SIMONCELLI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'33.631 5 46 Valentino ROSSI Fiat Yamaha Team 1'33.714 6 69 Nicky HAYDEN Ducati Team 1'33.757 7 40 Hector BARBERA Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1'33.857 8 14 Randy DE PUNIET LCR Honda MotoGP 1'33.899 9 11 Ben SPIES Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'33.929 10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO Pramac Racing Team 1'34.029 11 5 Colin EDWARDS Monster Yamaha Tech 3 1'34.053 12 26 Dani PEDROSA Repsol Honda Team 1'34.123 13 33 Marco MELANDRI San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'34.160 14 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'34.506 15 65 Loris CAPIROSSI Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'34.864 16 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1'34.904 17 71 Carlos CHECA Pramac Racing Team 1'35.172
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