Eurosport - Fri, 07 Mar 22:45:00 2008
Casey Stoner laid down an early marker in the opening free practice sessions for the Qatar GP.
Not only was Stoner fastest in both sessions, he managed to improve his pace on the second outing by four tenths of a second, despite a notable drop in track temperatures.
But he was hounded all the way by rookie Jorge Lorenzo with fellow newcomer, Britain's James Toseland in third.
Add to that a bizarre collision between multiple world champions Dani Pedrosa and Valentino Rossi, which left the Spaniard tumbling through the floodlit Losail gravel, and the opening night of competitive 2008 track action provided plenty of surprises.
Stoner had been just 0.054secs faster than Lorenzo during Friday evening's first practice session and the pair traded the top spot repeatedly during the second hour, until Stoner set what turned out to be the fastest lap of the night with 22 minutes to go.
But the Ducati star had only managed to edge 0.049secs clear of the Fiat Yamaha rider and the reigning double 250cc world champion launched an impressive attack during his remaining laps - repeatedly dipping as much as 0.24secs under the Australian's best time heading into the final sector, only for Stoner's straight-line advantage to keep the Desmosedici rider on top.
Nevertheless, Lorenzo finished the session just 0.011secs behind the #1 and the supremely confident Spaniard will surely have his sights on an incredible debut pole position during Saturday's qualifying session, when the extra corner speed provided by qualifying tyres could help overturn Casey's dominance.
Lorenzo led a trio of Michelin-shod Yamahas with double World Superbike champion Toseland 0.370secs from Stoner on his satellite (valve-spring powered) Tech 3 Yamaha. The Englishman was all-smiles after an excellent session, in which he outpaced veteran team-mate Colin Edwards by 0.130secs and erased the memories of a first session fall.
The leading Honda rider was JiR's rookie Andrea Dovizioso in fifth position, with fellow 250 graduate Alex de Angelis the next best Bridgestone rider after Stoner, in sixth place on his Gresini Honda.
Randy de Puniet was seventh for Honda LCR, with Rossi eighth fastest on combined times - and one of only three riders to lap slower in the second session.
Rossi's collision with Pedrosa came with 20 minutes of the second hour left to run, as the Italian exited a fast right hander. The Italian didn't seem to visibly shut off, but the speed difference between the pair was considerable and the young Spaniard was left raising his hands in disbelief after hitting Rossi's rear wheel, being thrown from his RCV and then rolling violently to a halt in the gravel.
Fortunately, Pedrosa didn't appear to re-injure his recently fractured hand, but the 2007 MotoGP World Championship runner-up still finished the first day of 2008 just tenth fastest, ahead of only one satellite RCV rider (Shinya Nakano) and having failed to beat his own FP1 time.
The Repsol Honda team-mates swapped between the '07 and '08 version of the RC212V - but with little apparent success, with Hayden just 13th.
A difficult night for Suzuki and Kawasaki saw Chris Vermeulen the lead GSV-R rider in ninth, while former team-mate John Hopkins was the top ZX-RR competitor back in 14th. New team-mate Anthony West fell at the end of the second hour on his way to 17th.
Stoner's team-mate Marco Melandri was once again at the lower end of the timesheets, the Italian finishing the opening day just 15th fastest, one place ahead of former Honda team-mate Toni Elias, now riding a satellite Alice-backed Desmosedici.
Full free practice times from the Qatar Grand Prix, the opening round of the 2008 season and first ever MotoGP event:
1. Casey Stoner AUS Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 55.442 secs
2. Jorge Lorenzo SPA Fiat Yamaha Team (M) 1min 55.453 secs
3. James Toseland GBR Yamaha Tech 3 (M) 1min 55.812 secs
4. Colin Edwards USA Yamaha Tech 3 (M) 1min 55.942 secs
5. Andrea Dovizioso ITA JiR Scot Team (M) 1min 55.963 secs
6. Alex de Angelis RSM San Carlo Honda Gresini (B) 1min 56.120 secs
7. Randy de Puniet FRA LCR Honda MotoGP (M) 1min 56.234 secs
8. Chris Vermeulen AUS Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 56.279 secs
9. Valentino Rossi ITA Fiat Yamaha Team (B) 1min 56.395 secs
10. Dani Pedrosa SPA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 56.478 secs *
11. Loris Capirossi ITA Rizla Suzuki MotoGP (B) 1min 56.922 secs
12. Shinya Nakano JPN San Carlo Honda Gresini (B) 1min 57.011 secs
13. Nicky Hayden USA Repsol Honda Team (M) 1min 57.045 secs
14. John Hopkins USA Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 57.085 secs *
15. Marco Melandri ITA Ducati Marlboro Team (B) 1min 57.091 secs
16. Toni Elias SPA Alice Team (B) 1min 57.311 secs
17. Anthony West AUS Kawasaki Racing Team (B) 1min 57.934 secs
18. Sylvain Guintoli FRA Alice Team (B) 1min 58.500 secs
From : www.uk.eurosport.yahoo.com
0 comments:
Post a Comment