Fiat Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo narrowly edged Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden for fast time honors in Friday’s wet practice session for Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix at Estoril.
The session began on a wet track in dreary conditions, though the conditions were much better than in the morning, when the the weather was so bad that only two riders even bothered to venture out for an exploratory lap. The afternoon session began with a completely wet surface before the sun came out for the second half. That helped to dry the 2.6-mile track, which sent lap times lower.
Lorenzo was one of three riders to dominate the 45-minute practice; Ducati Marlboro’s Casey Stoner and LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet were the other two, though Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi also spent time on top.
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MotoGP: Portuguese Grand Prix - Second Practice Results
Lorenzo was fast throughout and set the fastest time with just under three minutes remaining, taking the spot from Stoner. Stoner had gone to the top with a series of four successively faster laps that earned him the quick time with just over 14 minutes to run.
Lorenzo had begun his run with about 4:30 mins. to go, moving first to third then into the lead with just under three minutes remaining. Then he improved his time on the next lap, finishing the session with a benchmark 1:48.522 mins. Cycle News
Ducati rider Nicky Hayden was also on form as he finished just 0.135s behind the Spaniard, with Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) completing the top three and the final rider to get under the 1’49” barrier on day one.
Casey Stoner, who is going for a fourth win in five races this weekend, was fourth with an effort of 1’49.061, which made the Ducati man the last to get within a second of Lorenzo. Monster Yamaha Tech 3’s Ben Spies and San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Melandri were separated by just six-hundredths of a second as they rounded out the session and day one as the fifth and sixth fastest riders respectively.
LCR Honda rider Randy de Puniet had led the session early on and his final time of 1’50.043 placed him seventh in the order, with Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) setting top-ten times. Motogp.com
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