MotoGP Misano – Day 1 Report

Sincerely I’m not used to have this kind of perfect weather in Misano, usually is really hot on the track but today we could count on some fresh air with some lovely sunshine. We cannot say the same for the riders; the action on the San Marino circuit was literally on fire in every single category.

All of the paddock people, who were working hard as always, seemed a little bit tired and after a back to back race week end from Indianapolis to Misano and we can only agree with them.  Here ’s a little summary of the first day here in Misano Adriatico:

125cc

In the opening practice session, the Spaniard Nicolas Terol was the quickest man around the circuit. The Bancaja Aspar rider looks confident to go for another strong race on Sunday, after winning the last two rounds, setting the best lap of 1′44.229 with a top speed of 199.3 Km/h. Just behind him there is the championship leader Marc Marquez from the Red Bull Ajo Motorsport squad, with a gap of 0.252. Third and the last rider to set a time under the 1′45 was Pol Espargaro, 0.477 seconds slower then the number 40 rider. These are also riders that are challenging for the championship and
you can bet that the fact that are all from Spain is going to push them even further. The provisional first row is completed by Efren Vazquez, who is in front of Sandro Cortese, Esteve Rabat, Bradley Smith and Tomoyoshi Koyama.

Moto2

The middle class is always great fun to watch, even if sometimes you can get a bit confused with forty riders. There was a nice welcome back in series and the San Marino people must be proud of him.   Alex De Angelis was back, with the JIR Moto2 team this time, and set the provisional pole in the very first attempt on his new Motobi bike.  With a time of 1′40.064 and a top speed of 236 Km/h, the #15 rider was in front of a Suter trio composed by Julian Simon, Shoya Tomizawa and Claudio Corti.  Toni Elias was in fifth place today, followed by another great come back with Mattia Pasini, Hector Faubel and Jules Cluzel.  Simone Corsi was in ninth, ahead of the Speed Up duo Gabor Talmacsi and Andrea Iannone, Scott Redding, Alex Baldolini, wildcard Ferruccio Lamborghini and Stefan Bradl.  All these riders were within a second – this means big business for that first corner on Sunday.

MotoGP

The King of Indy looked very comfortable today on the Italian circuit and Dani Pedrosa set a great lap with a time of 1′34.772 and a top speed of 275 Km/h, ahead of his teammate Andrea Dovizioso who was 0.612 behind the Spaniard. The Honda Repsol riders were followed by all the Yamaha’s on the grid: Jorge Lorenzo, Valentino Rossi, Colin Edwards and Ben Spies.  Provisional second row was completed by the Ducati duo, Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner. Valentino Rossi said during his press conference in the Fiat Yamaha team hospitality suite that the fuel consumption is the real big problem on this track. Considering that, the Honda looked really fast today, especially the #26 bike with an extra speed of 7 Km/h in comparison with Jorge Lorenzo’s Yamaha and even 10 Km/h with the reigning world champion machine.  As Dovi confessed later on in the interview, this track suits perfectly Pedrosa’s style of driving and this should explain his advantage today. In our opinion, the battle for the championship is not over and as you know the leading duo comes from the same nation: Spain!

So ahead of us we have the QP sessions and the race, fingers crossed for the weather. Stay tuned!

Dovi’s corner

How do you feel about today’s pace and FP1?

Andrea Dovizioso: Well, it is always very important to start in the right direction especially when you don’t have too many session as we do now. It’s very difficult to get on the pace here since the track is a little bit slow but it is very bumpy. Dani was very fast, I think is because of his riding style with all the weight on the front.

We had two Hondas, four Yamahas and then two Ducatis; is it a coincidence or does this means that the track suits certain bikes better?

Andrea Dovizioso: Coincidence, for sure. I expect to have the Yamaha back up front tomorrow, maybe not…we’ll hope not.

What about the tyres, any particular problems?

Andrea Dovizioso: Tyres are always very slow to warm up, you need three to four laps before you can start to push. I made the session with the hard on the front and the soft on the rear, probably I’ll continue in that direction.

What about your contract situation?

Andrea Dovizioso: It’s not any easy one, even though if you don’t think about it is something that is always there. You cannot be relaxed until you have everything clear ahead of you, so I hope to solve this soon.