Mixed feelings for LCR pair after Laguna QP

The second day of practices started with typical coastal Northern California weather (21 degrees on the ground) and the Spaniard was not able to better his times from the previous day after a crash at turn 11. He escaped unhurt from the accident and returned to the track in the afternoon for the 60-minute qualifying session which was held in warmer conditions.

Despite some geometry adjustments to his Honda machinery, Elias could not increase his pace on Q-tires, while wildcard Bostrom proceeded with learning to ride a GP at his home track.

Toni Elias:

“We are back to our “standard” situation and obviously we were expecting something better. Anyway I want to a massive thank you to the guys because they worked hard even today because we had to change the bike geometry during the session. We are struggling with the same front issue that was the cause of my crash this morning. If you crash here you lose confidence because it’s a very tricky surface. I love lapping here but in this condition it’s not fun for me. We will try to fix the bike in tomorrows warm up trying to improve front and rear grip for the race”.

Ben Bostrom:

“The two bikes couldn’t be more opposite: tires, brakes, chassis...it’s unbelievable! There’s a lot to learn and I was trying to improve every time I get on the bike step by step because I do not want crash the bike. It’s nice to have Lucio and the guys also watching so they can see the difference. The adjustments we have made this afternoon were better and our lap time improved a little bit. Probably I could have gone faster but I made race distance in the last session and I am racing two different bikes this week end so I am pretty satisfied so far”.

LCR Honda press release.

Stoner inches out Pedrosa in California FP3

Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) dominated most of the cold and foggy third session, staying just ahead of team mate Pedrosa with a best time of 1’21.806, to which the Spaniard followed suit with a fast lap of 1.21’823.

Despite the weather, which is typical for the coastal Northern California area this time of year, times started to dip below those set on Friday as early as 10 minutes into the 45 minute session, beginning with Casey Stoner, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) and Pedrosa. Times were aided because of the additional layers of rubber on the track thanks to the supporting AMA class practices, with the majority of the field running about half a second quicker.

But the big story of the third and final free practice outing was the highside of Lorenzo, who crashed following a practice start during his cool down lap. The bike tossed him into the air when the rear hooked up quickly after sliding out, then hit the Yamaha rider as he was sliding in the gravel. He was able to stand up and walk away after a few moments and was then assisted on to the medical center.

Steadily holding fourth place for the second session in a row is Marco Simoncelli, who posted a time of 1’22.222. The Italian was followed by Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing), who again ranked fifth in the field, posting a time one tenth of a second behind the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider. Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) was just behind the American with a lap of 1’22.356.

Ducati Team rider Nicky Hayden chose to ride the GP11 for the morning outing, finishing in seventh with a best lap of 1'22.432, while team mate Valentino Rossi on the GP11.1 machine trailed 0.215s behind the Kentuckian. The Ducati duo were followed by Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) who was on what appeared to be a fast lap until he nearly ran off the track completely at turn 11.

Héctor Barberá had a bit of trouble at the corkscrew, missing the line at the top and running it straight down the hill slightly out of control. The Spaniard was ninth in the session while Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) set a time of 1'23.062 ranked him tenth.

Next was Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) with Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) in tow, who has enjoyed learning the special circuit as evidenced by his smiles during garage stops and his wheelie-ing around the track. Hiroshi Aoyama (San Carlo Honda Gresini), also still deep in the process of learning the track, followed in 14th.

The only rider of the session who was not able to better his times from the previous day was Toni Elias, who suffered a crash that posed a significant problem for him, as wildcard Ben Bostrom was riding his second bike. Fortunately the bike was not seriously damaged and he was able to return to the track before the end of the session, though he lost out on a significant amount of track time. Bostrom remains 18th in the timings, behind the Pramac Ducati of Loris Capirossi, though with each outing has improved between a half and a full second from the previous.

Karel Abraham also crashed halfway through the session, made his way to the garages to remount on his second bike, which stopped as he was exiting pit lane though he did make it back out into the practice session to place 15th in the field.

source: MotoGP Official Website

Lorenzo retaliates in FP3

In a warm and sunny final practice session before qualifying, Lorenzo took his Yamaha Factory Racing YZR-M1 to the top of the timings with a lap of 1'22.112, which was 0.041s faster than the time set by Dani Pedrosa on his Repsol Honda.

Marco Simoncelli appeared ready to top the timings once more, after leading the previous two free practice sessions and setting the pace in the first part of the heat, until he crashed in turn 11 with 15 minutes to go. He rejoined the session to put down a lap time of 1'22.159, putting him in third in session.

Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda), who finished third in the German GP last year, set his best lap of 1'22.386 to land fourth place, 0.055s ahead of team mate Andrea Dovizioso in fifth. Nicky Hayden, who has more podiums at Sachsenring than any other circuit, followed with a 1'22.500. The Kentuckian was 0.094s quicker than Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) who was seventh.

Ben Spies’ best lap of 1'22.772 placed him eighth, while Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) continued his improving form with a 1'22.841 to put him ninth. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) followed the Frenchman by 0.277s, completing the top ten riders.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati Team) was 12th in the field, while Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar), recovering from a crash in FP2 on Friday, was 15th.

source: MotoGP official website

GP GENERALI DE LA COMUNITAT VALENCIANA MotoGP Free Practice Nr. 3 Classification 2010

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time	Gap 1st/Prev.
1	27	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Team	Ducati	308.8	1'32.664
2	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	310.9	1'32.945	0.281 / 0.281
3	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	305.7	1'33.117	0.453 / 0.172
4	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	303.7	1'33.171	0.507 / 0.054
5	11	Ben SPIES	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	302.1	1'33.226	0.562 / 0.055
6	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	307.4	1'33.397	0.733 / 0.171
7	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	303.5	1'33.408	0.744 / 0.011
8	40	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Paginas Amarillas Aspar	Ducati	310.8	1'33.440	0.776 / 0.032
9	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	305.1	1'33.454	0.790 / 0.014
10	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	302.5	1'33.498	0.834 / 0.044
11	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	305.9	1'33.615	0.951 / 0.117
12	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	303.1	1'33.781	1.117 / 0.166
13	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Interwetten Honda MotoGP	Honda	309	1'33.986	1.322 / 0.205
14	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	304.1	1'34.012	1.348 / 0.026
15	33	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	308.1	1'34.092	1.428 / 0.080
16	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	302.9	1'34.158	1.494 / 0.066
17	71	Carlos CHECA	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	303.5	1'35.243	2.579 / 1.085
		Fastest Lap:	Lap: 11	Casey STONER	1'32.664	155.6 Km/h
		Circuit Record Lap:	2008	Casey STONER	1'32.582	155.7 Km/h
		Best Lap:	2006	Valentino ROSSI	1'31.002	158.4 Km/h

bwin GRANDE PREMIO DE PORTUGAL MotoGP Free Practice Nr. 3 Classification 2010

Pos.	Num.	Rider	Nation	Team	Bike	Km/h	Time	Gap 1st/Prev.
1	99	Jorge LORENZO	SPA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	306.4	1'48.853
2	46	Valentino ROSSI	ITA	Fiat Yamaha Team	Yamaha	304.6	1'49.435	0.582 / 0.582
3	4	Andrea DOVIZIOSO	ITA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	294.7	1'50.007	1.154 / 0.572
4	27	Casey STONER	AUS	Ducati Team	Ducati	307.3	1'50.081	1.228 / 0.074
5	5	Colin EDWARDS	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	289.9	1'50.313	1.460 / 0.232
6	58	Marco SIMONCELLI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	297.3	1'50.500	1.647 / 0.187
7	41	Aleix ESPARGARO	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	287.9	1'50.787	1.934 / 0.287
8	26	Dani PEDROSA	SPA	Repsol Honda Team	Honda	285.6	1'50.824	1.971 / 0.037
9	33	Marco MELANDRI	ITA	San Carlo Honda Gresini	Honda	302.6	1'51.250	2.397 / 0.426
10	65	Loris CAPIROSSI	ITA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	294.7	1'51.518	2.665 / 0.268
11	11	Ben SPIES	USA	Monster Yamaha Tech 3	Yamaha	312.7	1'51.916	3.063 / 0.398
12	19	Alvaro BAUTISTA	SPA	Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	Suzuki	300.7	1'52.734	3.881 / 0.818
13	69	Nicky HAYDEN	USA	Ducati Team	Ducati	301.7	1'53.018	4.165 / 0.284
14	7	Hiroshi AOYAMA	JPN	Interwetten Honda MotoGP	Honda	279.4	1'53.317	4.464 / 0.299
15	14	Randy DE PUNIET	FRA	LCR Honda MotoGP	Honda	298.9	1'53.537	4.684 / 0.220
16	71	Carlos CHECA	SPA	Pramac Racing Team	Ducati	282.1	1'53.933	5.080 / 0.396
17	40	Hector BARBERA	SPA	Paginas Amarillas Aspar	Ducati	282.4	1'54.073	5.220 / 0.140
		Fastest Lap:	Lap: 20	Jorge LORENZO	1'48.853	138.3 Km/h
		Circuit Record Lap:	2009	Dani PEDROSA	1'36.937	155.3 Km/h
		Best Lap:	2008	Jorge LORENZO	1'35.715	157.3 Km/h