Dovizioso leads wet first day at Misano

Andrea Dovizioso topped the MotoGP timesheets at the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini at Misano on Friday, with Yonny Hernandez and Dani Pedrosa just behind him on combined times.

Dovizioso (Ducati Team) put in a best time of 1:49.195 in a rain-affected FP2 to lead the way despite a crash early in the session.

The factory Ducati rider was third in the opening practice session, behind Hernandez (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing) and Marc Marquez (Repsol Honda Team). The Italian is acknowledged for his wet weather skill, having claimed victory at Donington Park in 2009 in the wet.

A 1:52.093 saw Dovizioso just 0.090s behind Marquez in FP1. The afternoon session saw the Ducati rider reduce his time by almost three seconds.

Dovizioso stated, “It was better this afternoon with the softer tire but the grip was not so great. I crashed, everyone crashed! But we made a small change in the last exit and I could understand why I crashed and understand how to make a really good lap time.

“It looks like it will be dry on Sunday and I’m happy about that, we have a good pace in the wet and dry. It depends how much water there is as to whether we can use the hard or soft rain tire, especially in the front.”

Columbia’s Hernandez was a surprise leader of Free Practice 1 with a 1:50.310. Confident in the tricky conditions, Hernandez was able to place his Open spec Ducati at the top of the timesheet but did not improve in the afternoon practice, which he finished fifth.

Hernandez commented, “I’m happy with the performance. I feel great in the rain, I’m always good in tricky conditions. The track is very slippery so I was working a lot with the bike. I’m quite good in the rain and hopefully we can keep it up tomorrow and get some points in the race on Sunday. It’s my best practice result of the season so it’s good!”

Pedrosa was second in FP2 and third best overall with a time of 1:50.356 on the Repsol Honda RC213V.

“It was very slippery today, not easy to find the grip. There were a lot of crashes because it was so slippery. I noticed a big difference between the hard and soft Bridgestone rain tires. I’m hoping that the weekend gets a lot dryer,” said Pedrosa.

Marquez and Danilo Petrucci (IodaRacing Project) completed the overall top five.

Pol Espargaro (Monster Yamaha Tech3), Stefan Bradl (LCR Honda MotoGP), Jorge Lorenzo (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP), Andrea Iannone (Pramac Racing) and Valentino Rossi (Movistar Yamaha MotoGP) were all in the top 10.

Rossi was one of several crashers in the morning session but was not hurt in the accident. Iannone was another morning crasher and he took a heavy ankle blow but was able to continue riding after lunch.

Aleix Espargaro (NGM Forward Racing), Iannone, Bradley Smith (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) and Karel Abraham (Cardion AB) all had FP2 falls too. Teammates Scott Redding and Alvaro Bautista (GO&FUN Honda Gresini) and Alex De Angelis (NGM Forward Racing) fell in the final minutes of practice but were fortunately unharmed.

In a wet Moto2™ FP2 at the Gran Premio TIM di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini, the top three riders were Jonas Folger, Julian Simon and Hafizh Syahrin.

With the rain failing less heavily by the end of the afternoon Moto2 session the majority of riders managed to improve on their morning times, with Folger (AGR Team) leading the way courtesy of a 1:52.449 best effort – three seconds quicker than he went in FP1.

Behind him in the top three, Simon (Italtrans Racing Team) and Syahrin (Petronas Raceline Malaysia) were respectively 0.189s and 0.615s off the German’s pace.

Franco Morbidelli (Italtrans Racing Team) and Johann Zarco (AirAsia Caterham Moto Racing) both ended the day in the top five.

As the Moto3™ FP2 run concluded in wet conditions it was Alex Rins who – despite a crash – set the best time just as he had in FP1. Behind him on the combined timesheet were Niccolo Antonelli and Jack Miller.

Rins’ best time of the day of 1:55.049 in FP1 was a second ahead of Antonelli’s fastest time, also from the morning session. Miller was 1.285s behind the pace setting Spaniard.

–From motogp.com

MotoGP Practice Results (courtesy Repsol Honda)

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