[tye1138]

Is this 2008?

Yes folks, it was a wet session friday afternoon and boy was it nasty. Brings back memories of 2008, only without the hurricane!

Pedrosa took the front early, leading by several seconds until the very end. Everyone seemed to have tire issues as the rain would come and go, so would the laptimes. Edwards was the first to get near Pedrosa, then Toseland and even Capirossi had a look-see at one point, but nobody touched him. All the Ducati boys were struggling, far in the back of the pack. Hayden was really having issues and couldn't get it together. He was the first to be top 6 from the Ducati squad, but he was still a few seconds off the pace.

Then, in the last few minutes, everyone got their head together (as usual) and went out for some ridiculously quick laps. Hayden, Rossi and Lorenzo all together and right at the end, it looked like Hayden would take first and Rossi second. They went over the finish line back to back and hayden got second by only 1 tenth of a second! Rossi ended up right behind him in 3rd.

Final Results looked like:

1 3 Dani PEDROSA
2 69 Nicky HAYDEN
3 46 Valentino ROSSI
4 99 Jorge LORENZO
5 15 Alex DE ANGELIS
6 52 James TOSELAND
7 65 Loris CAPIROSSI
8 5 Colin EDWARDS
9 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO
10 33 Marco MELANDRI

It was an interesting practice, no major crashes, just some grass tracking, which was kept to a minimal.

Weather for the weekend looks cool, but sunny both saturday for qualifying and sunday for the race.

More updates coming your way tomorrow!

 

[whippersnapper]

MotoGP at Indy carried on from where it left off at the inaugural race last year by raining hard enough to keep the fastest MotoGP time slower than the fastest 125 during the first Free Practice session moments ago. Dani Pedrosa set the fastest time of 1′51.5 ahead of crowd favorite Nicky Hayden who blasted into second with literally seconds to spare. Details here

 

[TortoiseJ]

what channel...

is covering the race? I see it's not on Speed.

 

[Herbivator]

Fox, but Speed has qualifying. Is it definitely not going to rain sunday?

 

[tye1138]

According to weather.com, the rain is suppose to stop over-night.

 

[carbonf4]

Will Rossi Take Lead From Stoner at Indy?

Ever since Casey Stoner won the first ever 800cc Grand Prix at Round 1, Qatar, in 2007, he has been the leading 800cc Grand Prix winner. After Rossi's win at Brno last time out, he drew level in race wins for only the second time since the inception of 800cc, the first time being when he won the second ever 800cc race at Jerez in 2007. Stoner won the third time out at Istanbul and, up until Brno, was the leading 800cc race winner ever since with 18 race wins. So...will Rossi become the leading 800cc Grand Prix race winner at Indy? :think:

 

[onechosen1]

is covering the race? I see it's not on Speed.

Look at "CBS Sports"...that is where it is on Sunday.

 

[DuckMan]

According to weather.com, the rain is suppose to stop over-night.

Which is exactly why no one was taking this practice seriously. Especially Rossi. But, I do hope Hayden keeps trying......

 

[Chuckracer]

http://tvracer.com/

 

[tye1138]

Which is exactly why no one was taking this practice seriously. Especially Rossi. But, I do hope Hayden keeps trying......

Right, but nicky has never been one tenth of a second from the front in any way shape or form. So, yes it was wet, yes it was a bullshit practice, NO I'm not a nicky fan, but you've gotta give him some credit... I saw it live, I've never seem him ride harder then that last lap. WOW! I changed my mind on that kid at that very moment, he did the business.

 

[John]

Good for him. Go Hayden!

 

[whippersnapper]

Right, but nicky has never been one tenth of a second from the front in any way shape or form. So, yes it was wet, yes it was a bullshit practice, NO I'm not a nicky fan, but you've gotta give him some credit... I saw it live, I've never seem him ride harder then that last lap. WOW! I changed my mind on that kid at that very moment, he did the business.

Why so surprised, Nicky always lifts his game in the US and then goes back to normal everywhere else

 

[tye1138]

Why so surprised, Nicky always lifts his game in the US and then goes back to normal everywhere else

Because it was a rough day, everyone was struggling except for him and pedrosa, which is strange.

Plus he hasn't necessarily raced Indy many times previously, last year was the first year this particular config was used.

 

[AZ_Scott]

Look at "CBS Sports"...that is where it is on Sunday.

Errr... try FOX...

 

[tye1138]

Free practice two was pretty uneventful. Pedrosa basically walked away with it, putting down a 1:40.2 very early on in the session, making everyone else look like a rookie at over 1/2 second quicker then last years qualifying time.

Like friday, it was all about playing catch up and getting near the end of the session, it almost seemed like nobody would come close. Finally, Lorenzo made some flying laps on softer tires and was able to get closer to Pedrosa, but he was still 1.015 seconds away.

Nobody else was able to keep with Lorenzo, most of the laptimes were in the 1:41's with Lorenzo, De Angelis, Rossi and Colin Edwards along for the top 5. Nicky wasn't too far behind, struggling with consistency in 7th place, rounding out the 1:41's. In the low 1:42's were two Ducati compatriots; Canepa and Kallio, rounding out the top 10.

The track temp's were somewhat low, as the weather is only in the 70's, so as the day progresses, the temp's should increase and we should see some killer qualifying times in an hour or two.

The final results for Free Practice 2 look like this:

1 3 Dani PEDROSA
2 99 Jorge LORENZO
3 15 Alex DE ANGELIS
4 46 Valentino ROSSI
5 5 Colin EDWARDS
6 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO
7 69 Nicky HAYDEN
8 88 Niccolo CANEPA
9 36 Mika KALLIO
0 33 Marco MELANDRI ITA

Hayden didn't show his weight as expected, but being only a few tenths away from Lorenzo's time, was a good start for him. Lets all cross our fingers and hope the qualifying session goes a bit better. Edwards is only slightly quicker then Hayden and it seems as if he's got a good chance at doing well.

 

[whippersnapper]

Pedrosa stays on top, drops into the 39's from Lorenzo, Rossi and De Angelis. Hayden 6th

 

[tye1138]

In a class of his own, Pedrosa does it again in style.

Qualifying was up and down for everyone, full of crashes, grass tracking and LOTS of laps done by almost everyone.

The session started with Pedrosa on top and Lorenzo, who was quickly able to take over at front with a 1:41.xxx, nowhere near pedrosa's scorcher time from earlier in the morning. Edwards also did very well early on, being top for a brief moment before being taken over by Lorenzo. Dovizioso was able to also be on the top, very early on, but within the first 20 min, he had a simple low-side, braking his bike enough that he couldn't continue riding. He tried to get back on pace with the 2nd bike, he was unable to. Early on the Ducati boys weren't too far away, Canepa did a great job, but eventually tailed off.

Pedrosa went out for a scorcher with 15 min left, knocking off Lorenzo. Hayden actually put in a scorcher as well, pushing into 6th position. Then, Pedrosa did it again and pulled off a 1:39.730! Thats the fastest time recorded on a motorbike at this course and over a second from Rossi's qualifying in 2008. Everyone else was in the 1:40's or 1:41's!

Edwards kept on hitting a bump in corner 4 I believe and eventually he crashed in that corner, knocking out his chances of doing well in qualifying. He was lucky and was able to stay in 5th for the last few minutes. De Angelis put in an amazing lap into 3rd position and he stayed until Rossi put in a scorcher with only a minute remaining on the clock.

Kallio had issues all morning and wasn't able to do anything. He eventually crashed right at the end of the session. Canepa was doing very well earlier, but eventually his time wasn't good enough and he as pushed down the order.

Over-all, it was an entertaining session, worth watching.

The final results looked like this:

1) Pedrosa
2) Lorenzo
3) Rossi
4) De Angelis
5) Edwards
6) Hayden
7) Elias
8) Dovizioso
9) Melandri
10) Toseland

Looks like Pedrosa is far above the pace of anyone else, so tomorrow's race is looking like it could be a repeat of Laguna Seca...

 

[metalhead]

What is the coverage time? EST in the US?

 

[whippersnapper]

What is the coverage time? EST in the US?

3pm esdt

 

[8850]

Ralph Sheheen's commentary is driving me insane.