Submitted by Jacob Leech on
Jorge Lorenzo has continued with his impressive morning form to top the second MotoGP free practice session at Phillip Island. The reigning World Champion looked in imperious form and finished the beautifully sunny session almost half a second ahead of the field with a lap time of 1:28.961. His countryman Alvaro Bautista was the closest anyone could get and ended the session in an impressive second place, recovering from a crash at turn six early on.
Dani Pedrosa had an odd mechanical issue late in the session, with a part of his Honda prototype machine dangling loose, perhaps the gear linkage or an engine bolt, he was forced to sit out the closing stages but still managed to finish third. The Yamaha pairing of Valentino Rossi and Cal Crutchlow rounded out the top five ahead of Marc Marquez who crashed heavily early in the session. The young Spaniard had a very fast high side over the top of Lukey Heights but managed to land relatively softly on the grass run-off area, slide to a halt and walk away completely unharmed. Bradley Smith, a revitalised Randy DePuniet and the Ducati duo of Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso completed the top ten.
Hector Barbera was the only other rider to crash, the fiery Spaniard went down late in the session but managed to come away unscathed. LCR Honda rider Stefan Bradl was declared unfit to ride following FP1 and didn't participate, he has the option to have another fitness test tomorrow, but unfortunately he is very unlikely to take any further part in the Australian Grand Prix weekend.
Results:
Pos. | Num. | Rider | Bike | Time | Diff | Diff Prev |
1 | 99 | Jorge LORENZO | Yamaha | 1'28.961 | ||
2 | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | Honda | 1'29.438 | 0.477 | 0.477 |
3 | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | Honda | 1'29.478 | 0.517 | 0.040 |
4 | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | Yamaha | 1'29.537 | 0.576 | 0.059 |
5 | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | Yamaha | 1'29.667 | 0.706 | 0.130 |
6 | 93 | Marc MARQUEZ | Honda | 1'29.989 | 1.028 | 0.322 |
7 | 38 | Bradley SMITH | Yamaha | 1'30.165 | 1.204 | 0.176 |
8 | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | ART | 1'30.215 | 1.254 | 0.050 |
9 | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | Ducati | 1'30.609 | 1.648 | 0.394 |
10 | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | Ducati | 1'30.754 | 1.793 | 0.145 |
11 | 29 | Andrea IANNONE | Ducati | 1'30.792 | 1.831 | 0.038 |
12 | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | FTR Kawasaki | 1'30.917 | 1.956 | 0.125 |
13 | 41 | Aleix ESPARGARO | ART | 1'31.091 | 2.130 | 0.174 |
14 | 68 | Yonny HERNANDEZ | Ducati | 1'31.134 | 2.173 | 0.043 |
15 | 8 | Hector BARBERA | FTR | 1'31.286 | 2.325 | 0.152 |
16 | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | FTR | 1'31.434 | 2.473 | 0.148 |
17 | 71 | Claudio CORTI | FTR Kawasaki | 1'31.451 | 2.490 | 0.017 |
18 | 9 | Danilo PETRUCCI | Ioda-Suter | 1'31.985 | 3.024 | 0.534 |
19 | 70 | Michael LAVERTY | ART | 1'32.066 | 3.105 | 0.081 |
20 | 23 | Luca SCASSA | ART | 1'32.261 | 3.300 | 0.195 |
21 | 67 | Bryan STARING | FTR Honda | 1'32.290 | 3.329 | 0.029 |
22 | 52 | Lukas PESEK | Ioda-Suter | 1'32.943 | 3.982 | 0.653 |
23 | 50 | Damian CUDLIN | PBM | 1'34.969 | 6.008 | 2.026 |
NC | 6 | Stefan BRADL | Honda |
Comments
RDP
Bike swap with ESP?....
If Pedrosa ever want to win the championship,
then he has to change his entire mechanic crews.
2011: Stucked brake lever
2012: Jammed tyre warmer
2013: Dangled engine bolt
What's next? Unfilled gas tank?
Tire choice?
It's been announced by Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tire Development Department that riders will have to use the harder rear tire options for the MotoGP race at Phillip Island due to the characteristics of the repaved track. That's one way of getting the riders to use the harder tires! And this after only one rider used the harder option rear in practice two. Let's hope the temperatures don't drop on Sunday.
Randy ART
Well look at Randy De Puniet, all up in front of the Ducatii and Aleix too! Must have had his wheaties this morning.
Definitely...
... got hold of one of Aleix's special ART's.
I await the calls of "give Randy an M1, if he can do that on an ART he would be an alien!".
Randy has always been fast.
Randy has always been fast. Its consistancy that he lacks.
Actually
He WAS fast, that was before leaving the LCR Honda Playboy team :(
Whilst we're in Austrailia....
I seem to recall Casey asking "When is Randy going to get the opportunity to ride a prototype?" (or something along those lines!)