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Rain makes the difference in Mugello

Posted by Staff

Friday, 30 May 2008

From InfoMotoGP

Showers and overcast skies in Mugello meant that MotoGP practice for the Gran Premio d´Italia Alice got off to a stuttering start, with neither of the two Friday sessions likely to help when it comes to choosing dry race settings.

A wet track for the entirety of the afternoon session meant that morning times were difficult to improve, Kawasaki Racing´s John Hopkins not receiving any challenge to his timesheet-topping lap of 1´54.053. Said time had been recorded in the matutinal run, on a drying racing line, something not experienced second time around and reflected in the near ten-second difference in the Anglo-American´s respective hot laps.

Remaining in second place, Loris Capirossi was once again the quickest Italian representative on his home circuit. The Rizla Suzuki veteran ran his GSV-R off-track during the rainier of the two sessions, a fate also experienced by third placed rider and second Kawasaki competitor Anthony West.

San Carlo Honda Gresini´s Alex de Angelis and Shinya Nakano showed good early form for fourth and fifth on the timesheet, but the latter´s day was soured by a lowside in the final quarter of the afternoon. The light crash left the Japanese rider mud-sodden but uninjured, whilst some extensive repair work will be performed on his Honda RC212V in preparation for Saturday´s qualifying showdown.

The combined top ten also featured JiR Team Scot local boy Andrea Dovizioso, fastest rider of the completely wet run Chris Vermeulen, and the early World Championship contenders Dani Pedrosa, Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi. The latter was the highest placing Yamaha rider in tenth, with factory teammate and title challenger Jorge Lorenzo in fourteenth. Both Fiat Yamaha riders had some early wobbles on their M1 bikes, but managed to stay upright and on-track.

Riding the pneumatic valve Honda engine on his MotoGP wildcard return, Tadayuki Okada suffered a high speed lowside on the fast downhill section of the Mugello track, but escaped uninjured.

Mattia Pasini proved to be the 250cc rider most adept at handling a wet Mugello track, taking provisional pole for the quarter litre category Italian race in the dying seconds of the first qualifying session.

The Polaris World rider brought some sunshine to the day for local fans, being the only Italian to head a session over the course of Friday´s action. A lap of 2´05.711 on the last of 18 laps was enough to thwart another late surging rider, Metis Gilera´s Marco Simoncelli, by nearly a full second as Pasini found valuable tenths from nowhere.

The provisional front row also includes Hector Barbera on the Team Toth Aprilia, whilst Red Bull KTM´s Hiroshi Aoyama prevented an all-Italian factory top four with a time over two seconds down on that of Pasini.

Alvaro Bautista was caught out by the treacherous asphalt of Mugello after recording the fifth fastest time of the session, the 2007 racewinner thrown from his Mapfre Aspar bike in a spectacular highside. He is joined on row two at present by Manuel Poggiali, World Championship leader Mika Kallio and Thomas Luthi.

A youthful top two head the provisional front row for the 125cc Gran Premio d´Italia Alice, with Belson Derbi´s Pol Espargaro and Blusens Aprilia rider Scott Redding the fastest duo of a soaking afternoon qualifying session. Espargaro continued his form from the first practice run by once again ending up as the fastest man on track, with a 2´18.932 lap in his final action of the day.

One of the youngest riders in the World Championship, Redding had a fine afternoon in wet conditions more familiar to those with experience of British racing. The teenager was just over a tenth of a second slower than Espargaro, and if he can stay within the top four tomorrow will earn a second front row of the season.

Series leader Mike di Meglio showed no ill-effects of his morning crash, just three-tenths of a second down on the top time in the session. The Ajo Motorsport man has placed on the podium twice in as many races, wet affairs in both Shanghai and Le Mans.

Raffaele de Rosa was the highest placing Italian, onboard the Onde 2000 KTM machine, whilst Sandro Cortese, perennial poleman Bradley Smith, World Champions Gabor Talmacsi, Joan Olive, Andrea Iannone and Danny Webb completed the top ten. Crashes came from Tomoyoshi Koyama and Efren Vazquez.

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