Marco Simoncelli is a happy man; all smiles (and hair) in the paddock at lunch time in Estoril on Friday. In only his second season in the premiere MotoGP class, the San Carlo Honda Gresini rider piloted his Honda RC212V to the top of the practice board in both the morning and afternoon free practice sessions on a dry racetrack.
Simoncelli produced the fastest lap on the day with a 1:37.663, ahead of defending champion Jorge Lorenzo who, despite attempts to close the gap, produced a best time of 1:37.724. Rounding out the tight top three combined practice results was Repsol Honda rider Dani Pedrosa with a time of 1:37.727. Tied for fourth place was Valentino Rossi and Casey Stoner with a best laptime of 1:138.102; coincidentally the same two riders who were involved in an on track incident in Jerez. In a statement from the FIM Race Direction on Friday regarding the incident, the FIM declared that Race Direction has decided that the behavior of the track marshals was safe and appropriate. No doubt both riders are eager to put Jerez behind them and are focussed on a podium finish on Sunday in Estoril.
Rizla Suzuki rider Alvaro Bautista continues to ride steady and improve his times. Bautista dropped another second this afternoon with a time of 1:40.173.
The skies opened up for the second Moto2 practice and riders contended with damp to wet track conditions. Gresini Racing's Yuki Takahashi once again came out on top in the rain, with a time of 1:51.606. Spanish rider Ricard Cardus was second aboard his QMMF Racing Moriwaki, while Gresini's Michelle Pirro rounded out the top three.
Bankia Aspar's Nico Terol continues to dominate the 125cc class with nearly a one second lead over his nearest competitor, Germany's Sandro Cortese.
The afternoon came to an abrupt standstill when a sever thunder and lightening storm rolled into the paddock around 4pm as the Red Bull Rookies Cup riders had just headed out onto the racetrack. The session was quickly red flagged and riders were brought back into the paddock to wait out the storm. Unconfirmed reports suggest that one of the Red Bull Rookie riders was struck by lightening. We hope to provide further details as we learn more. The Red Bull Rookies later returned to the racetrack once the storm subsided.
The afternoon came to an abrupt standstill when a sever thunder and lightening storm rolled into the paddock around 4pm as the Red Bull Rookies Cup riders had just headed out onto the racetrack. The session was quickly red flagged and riders were brought back into the paddock to wait out the storm. Unconfirmed reports suggest that one of the Red Bull Rookie riders was struck by lightening. We hope to provide further details as we learn more. The Red Bull Rookies later returned to the racetrack once the storm subsided.
