It was a difficult first MotoGP free practice due to a damp and partially wet Valenica circuit, with all the riders showin up with some sort of tribute to the late Marco Simoncelli, and Loris Capirossi running #58 plate instead of his historical #65 while Hiroshi Aoyama is running his Gresini Honda without the San Carlo sponsor banner, but just ‘Ciao Marco, uno dei noi’.
Casey Stoner was as usual the fastest rider on track, as he grabbed the top of the charts in the final minutes of the session with a best lap of 1.
45.
513 and then decided that was good enough and retired to his garage, with team mate Dani Pedrosa demoting Valentino Rossi from the second spot with his last flying lap.
The damp track favoured the performance of the Ducati’s, infact Valentino Rossi ended up third and just 0.
315 from the 2011 World Champion, while team mate Nicky Hayden was fourth, followed by Loris Capirossi with his Pramac Ducati in fifth and he was less than six tenths of second from top of timesheets.
Ben Spies was sixth with Randy de Puniet on the second Pramac Ducati in seventh.
Toni Elias had an excellent session coming in eighth, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso on his last weekend with Honda, with Cal Crutchlow closing out the top ten.
Josh Hayes who is subbing for recovering Colin Edwards in Yamaha Tech3, had the worst conditions to debut on a MotoGP bike and learn the Spanish circuit at the same time, but he finished the session in 15th, ahead of Yamaha test rider Katsuyuki Nakasuga who was 16th and subbing for recovering Jorge Lorenzo.
MotoGP Valencia FP1 results:01- Casey Stoner – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – 1’45.
51302- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
22303- Valentino Rossi – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 0.
31504- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11.
1 – + 0.
56005- Loris Capirossi – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 0.
59506- Ben Spies – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
74607- Randy De Puniet – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 0.
85808- Toni Elias – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 0.
88009- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 0.
88910- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
06811- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 1.
40912- Hector Barbera – Mapfre Aspar Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
45413- Karel Abraham – Cardion AB Motoracing – Ducati Desmosedici GP11 – + 1.
56614- Hiroshi Aoyama – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 2.
06815- Josh Hayes – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.
52416- Katsuyuki Nakasuga – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 2.
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