2012 Indianapolis MotoGP FP1 Result: Hondas Lead Hayden On Tricky Track

By David Emmett | Fri, 17/08/2012 - 15:25

Casey Stoner has topped the first session of free practice at Indianapolis for the MotoGP class, leapfrogging over his teammate Dani Pedrosa to make it a one-two for the Repsol Hondas in FP1. Stoner and Pedrosa swapped fastest times for most of the session, while Ducati's Nicky Hayden got his home GP off to a strong start to take 3rd spot. 

Ben Spies ended up in 4th, the Factory Yamaha rider a few hundredths slower than fellow American Hayden, while Stefan Bradl set the 5th fastest time on his MotoGP debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, sporting a brand new Red Bull livery for his LCR Honda. Alvaro Bautista put his Gresini Honda into 6th, ahead of Cal Crutchlow on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, Jorge Lorenzo on the Factory Yamaha and Valentino Rossi on the Ducati. Crutchlow had a big crash in the first half of the session, and came away treating his shoulder very gingerly, though the Englishman went out again to pursue a time. Hector Barbera was less fortunate, suffering a big highside at Turn 16, and being taken to the medical center. From there, he was shipped to a local hospital for suspected injuries to his vertebrae, a repeat of an injury he suffered at Motegi last year. The leg he broke at Mugello - less than five weeks ago - was fine.

Barbera's crash - and that of Crutchlow - was caused by the difficult grip conditions at Indianapolis. After very heavy overnight rain, there are still one or two damp spots and the track is very green off the racing line. As practice goes on, that should quickly improve.

Results:

Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff Diff Previous
1 1 Casey STONER HONDA 1'41.925    
2 26 Dani PEDROSA HONDA 1'42.106 0.181 0.181
3 69 Nicky HAYDEN DUCATI 1'42.472 0.547 0.366
4 11 Ben SPIES YAMAHA 1'42.536 0.611 0.064
5 6 Stefan BRADL HONDA 1'43.027 1.102 0.491
6 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA HONDA 1'43.195 1.270 0.168
7 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW YAMAHA 1'43.295 1.370 0.100
8 99 Jorge LORENZO YAMAHA 1'43.312 1.387 0.017
9 46 Valentino ROSSI DUCATI 1'43.345 1.420 0.033
10 8 Hector BARBERA DUCATI 1'43.736 1.811 0.391
11 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO YAMAHA 1'43.745 1.820 0.009
12 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ BQR 1'44.328 2.403 0.583
13 41 Aleix ESPARGARO ART 1'44.714 2.789 0.386
14 17 Karel ABRAHAM DUCATI 1'44.739 2.814 0.025
15 54 Mattia PASINI ART 1'44.913 2.988 0.174
16 14 Randy DE PUNIET ART 1'46.298 4.373 1.385
17 22 Ivan SILVA BQR 1'46.332 4.407 0.034
18 51 Michele PIRRO FTR 1'46.480 4.555 0.148
19 5 Colin EDWARDS SUTER 1'46.520 4.595 0.040
20 15 Steve RAPP APR 1'46.619 4.694 0.099
21 9 Danilo PETRUCCI IODA 1'46.941 5.016 0.322
22 77 James ELLISON ART 1'47.506 5.581 0.565
23 20 Aaron YATES BCL 1'48.054 6.129 0.548

 

2012
11
MotoGP
Indianapolis, USA
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Comments

Good to see the 2 US CRTs not too far off the pace

1:49.03 is 107% of pole, however once the track gets better and Stoner drops the hammer............

ART, Suzuki, Kawasaki? btw, Hernandez 12th! Nice one! Hayden and Spies nice too in their home! I wish them to keep it work :) For Nicky it's interesting time till the end of the season as he can push a little bit Ducati resources his way I guess. Next year four factory spec Dukes looks like it'll be four no. one riders:) Anybody knows what plans have RDP or Barbera?

Stoner is still 2 seconds down on the fastest race time and 3 seconds down on lat years pole.
Is there any reason why Moto 2 are qualifying after MotoGP?
Surely having a big field of moto2 bikes running multiple lines arond the track would be better (and safer) for cleaning the track for MiotoGP.

Why is that once again MotoGP is racing at Indy on a track which never gets used at any other time during the year, and as a result the surface is "green" and slick as snot offline?!? They need to add at least one full day of track time to clean the track and build up rubber so its not a one line monorail...

I must say racing in Indy for Barbera never seemed to me a risk worth taking but never expected it to end that bad.