Valentino Rossi says his shoulder is only 65% fit, may it be fact or fiction, but the Italian certainly didn’t seem to have any problems with his injury in today’s free practice at the Mugello.
Rossi led the entire session and in the final minutes put in a best lap of 1.
49″751 (on soft tires) and was the only rider to break the 1.
50 mark.
Points leader Jorge Lorenzo took second place and was off by 0.
369s, but his best time was done on hard tires and his almost 10 lap long run was hitting constantly the low 1.
50s.
Third was a surprising Loris Capirossi who binned his Suzuki at the San Donato after posting his best lap time and he was followed by the evergreen Colin Edwards on the Yamaha Tech3 who was 1.
021s off the top spot.
Fifth went to Dani Pedrosa who was just 0.
001s from Edwards, while Ben Spies finished in sixth on the Italian track and making in four Yamaha’s in the top six.
Casey Stoner finished in seventh despite binning his GP10 just ten minutes into the session at the Bucine, and unable to crack the top three spots during this first session.
The Aussie is testing his old 2009 forks trying to find out why he has front end problems that have caused his recent crashes.
Andrea Dovizioso took eighth, followed by Nicky Hayden and Hector Barbera who rounded out the top ten also binned his Ducati shortly after Capirossi, but the Spaniard’s top speed on the long straight was clocked at 339.
6 km/h.
Randy de Puniet was eleventh, while Team Gresini’s two Marcos finished in 12th and 13th respectively, with Melandri behind his rookie team mate and Simoncelli using a new front fairing.
Aleix Espargaro was 14th and Hiroshi Aoyama in 15th, while Mika Kallio and Alvaro Bautista who are both riding injured closed the field.
MotoGP Mugello – Free Practice Results:01- Valentino Rossi – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1′49.
75102- Jorge Lorenzo – Fiat Yamaha Team – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.
36903- Loris Capirossi – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 0.
60804- Colin Edwards – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
02105- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 1.
02206- Ben Spies – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.
25307- Casey Stoner – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 1.
37708- Andrea Dovizioso – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC212V – + 1.
50409- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Marlboro Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 1.
63610- Hector Barbera – Paginas Amarillas Aspar – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 1.
83111- Randy De Puniet – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 1.
85412- Marco Simoncelli – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 1.
96613- Marco Melandri – San Carlo Honda Gresini – Honda RC212V – + 2.
03114- Aleix Espargaro – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 2.
45115- Hiroshi Aoyama – Interwetten Honda MotoGP – Honda RC212V – + 2.
64816- Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP10 – + 2.
66717- Alvaro Bautista – Rizla Suzuki MotoGP – Suzuki GSV-R – + 5.
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