Submitted by David Emmett on
Valentino Rossi topped the timesheets in surprisingly tense first session of free practice for the Le Mans MotoGP weekend. The Fiat Yamaha rider deposed Marlboro Ducati's Casey Stoner on his very last fast lap, beating the Australian by just one tenth of a second. Stoner finished just ahead of Rossi's teammate Jorge Lorenzo, after both men had led during the session.
Andrea Dovizioso pulled out a bit of a surprise by finishing in 4th, over three tenths of a second ahead of his Repsol Honda teammate, Dani Pedrosa. Pedrosa led a trio of Americans, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha's Colin Edwards finishing ahead of Ducati's Nicky Hayden, and Edwards' teammate Ben Spies. Just 1 second covered the top 8, with Pramac Ducati's Aleix Espargaro not far off in 9th.
Results:
| Pos | No. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Previous |
| 1 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | YAMAHA | 1'34.402 | ||
| 2 | 27 | Casey STONER | DUCATI | 1'34.508 | 0.106 | 0.106 |
| 3 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | YAMAHA | 1'34.542 | 0.140 | 0.034 |
| 4 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | HONDA | 1'34.625 | 0.223 | 0.083 |
| 5 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | HONDA | 1'34.989 | 0.587 | 0.364 |
| 6 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | YAMAHA | 1'35.089 | 0.687 | 0.100 |
| 7 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | DUCATI | 1'35.223 | 0.821 | 0.134 |
| 8 | 11 | Ben SPIES | YAMAHA | 1'35.291 | 0.889 | 0.068 |
| 9 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | DUCATI | 1'35.450 | 1.048 | 0.159 |
| 10 | 33 | Marco MELANDRI | HONDA | 1'35.643 | 1.241 | 0.193 |
| 11 | 65 | Loris CAPIROSSI | SUZUKI | 1'35.685 | 1.283 | 0.042 |
| 12 | 58 | Marco SIMONCELLI | HONDA | 1'35.959 | 1.557 | 0.274 |
| 13 | 40 | Hector BARBERA | DUCATI | 1'36.009 | 1.607 | 0.050 |
| 14 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | HONDA | 1'36.086 | 1.684 | 0.077 |
| 15 | 36 | Mika KALLIO | DUCATI | 1'36.292 | 1.890 | 0.206 |
| 16 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | HONDA | 1'36.798 | 2.396 | 0.506 |
| 17 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SUZUKI | 1'37.525 | 3.123 | 0.727 |
Comments
Weekend
Good to see Colin running well, and Nicky has to feel good about anything positive at this track. Casey didn't lose the front and Spies comes back strong. Looks like a great weekend!!!
Twitter feed "Bizarre"
Just saw David's Twitter feed on the "bizarre" occurrences at the track . I can only say "bienvenue en france" . Have a Ricard and enjoy......
Top speeds
Good FP1 by all the top teams and riders. The disparity in top speeds between team mates in many cases are absurd though.
I'm sure we will have a clearer picture tomorrow.
Braking point
The speed trap is probably located somewhere near the braking point. If you hit the brakes right before the speed trap, you are 10 km/h down... I guess the difference will be reduced when the riders set up the bikes (and the references) properly.
Colin
always does well there. In 2008 he got to the podium and was even boating about having a shot at winning before the race itself.
I'd keep my eyes on Pedrosa. These tight tracks suit him and he has enjoyed podiums there. Last year he was flying once the track dried out.
yes, colin
is always on the pace here. in his rookie year as sete's teammate on the gresini team he finished 3rd as well. this race will be a good indicator of how far spies has come along thus far.
Ducati Marlboro?
Anyone see the pictures on Motogp.com of Stoner's bike? No Marlboro barcode! Does France have more stringent anti-smoking advertising that would prevent even the marlboro barcode from being displayed? Or did the sticker/decal factory burn down :P
http://www.motogp.com/en/photos/2010/Casey+Stoner+in+action+in+Le+Mans+0
I asked about that
And was told that it's Ducati's choice to run with a blank livery at Le Mans. From memory, France does have much stricter tobacco laws than much of the rest of Europe, though. Even Red Bull is banned, which is why Monster is sponsoring the Grand Prix ...
Interesting
Would they possibly also have to face the same problems Ferrari got after the recent "barcode investigation" which caused them to get rid of it?
http://in.reuters.com/article/sportsNews/idINIndia-48292720100506
Even Rizla
The Gav and Nick were commenting on the altered font livery for the Rizla squad as well. Must be tight rules.
I was reading...
A motorcycle magazine, Marlboro-Ferrari team on F1 had problems the last few weeks about the barcode with the smoking ban, it was only a matter of time before it hit here.
FernandoARG
Looks awesome
Looks awesome. Leave the barcode out for the rest of the season please.
Thanks.
Did you see..
..the amount of time Rossi made up in the last sector to grasp top spot..? about a third of a second.
Stoner too had some super fast split times..without putting it all together in one lap.
Impressive from Spies again, without track knowledge.
Last sector
I was watching those times and it was dramatically different between Stoner and the Fiat Yamahas. Stoner had an over 4 tenths advantage at the end of the 3rd sector but his fast lap was just over a tenth faster to take the top spot temporarily, showing a loss of about 3 tenths in the final bends. Both Rossi and Lorenzo were running behind or only slightly ahead of the top time to then pick up at least 3 tenths in the last sector. It's just day one, and that assessment is just from watching half the session, but if they have something like a 6 tenths differential advantage in one part of the track before heading into the straight it could be a long day for Casey on Sunday.