Stoner edges Pedrosa in first practice

Casey Stoner edged works Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa in a tight first MotoGP practice session ahead of the Catalunya Grand Prix.

Pedrosa was the first rider to dip below the 1m43s mark, which was enough to keep him on top for the majority of the session.

With seven minutes to go, however, Stoner captured the top spot with a two-lap salvo, shaving one tenth of a second off Pedrosa’s benchmark.

Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo moved into third in the final 30 seconds of the session, finishing just 0.233s down on Stoner.

Tech 3 Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow sealed fourth, although Ben Spies’ Yamaha, LCR Honda’s Stefan Bradl and the works Ducati of Nicky Hayden all finished within seven hundredths of a second of his time.

A close session was also reflected in the fact that Karel Abraham on the Cardion Ducati finished 0.540s down on Stoner in eighth, and also in the fact that Tech 3′s Andrea Dovizioso, second fastest with 15 minutes to go, was bumped down to ninth at the finish.

Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda), Valentino Rossi (Ducati) and Hector Barbera (Pramac Ducati) rounded out the top 12, all three lapping within nine tenths of a second of Stoner.

Aspar’s Randy de Puniet topped the CRT standings in 13th, while Forward’s Colin Edwards, returning this weekend after injury forced him to miss Le Mans, was 17th.

Pos  Rider             Team/Bike                 Time       Gap
  1.  Casey Stoner      Honda                     1m42.775s
  2.  Dani Pedrosa      Honda                     1m42.875s  + 0.100s
  3.  Jorge Lorenzo     Yamaha                    1m43.008s  + 0.233s
  4.  Cal Crutchlow     Tech 3 Yamaha             1m43.182s  + 0.407s
  5.  Ben Spies         Yamaha                    1m43.191s  + 0.416s
  6.  Stefan Bradl      LCR Honda                 1m43.245s  + 0.470s
  7.  Nicky Hayden      Ducati                    1m43.246s  + 0.471s
  8.  Karel Abraham     Cardion Ducati            1m43.315s  + 0.540s
  9.  Andrea Dovizioso  Tech 3 Yamaha             1m43.371s  + 0.596s
 10.  Alvaro Bautista   Gresini Honda             1m43.493s  + 0.718s
 11.  Valentino Rossi   Ducati                    1m43.537s  + 0.762s
 12.  Hector Barbera    Pramac Ducati             1m43.624s  + 0.849s
 13.  Randy de Puniet   Aspar Aprilia             1m44.915s  + 2.140s
 14.  Aleix Espargaro   Aspar Aprilia             1m45.281s  + 2.506s
 15.  Michele Pirro     Gresini FTR-Honda         1m45.939s  + 3.164s
 16.  Mattia Pasini     Speed Master Aprilia      1m46.234s  + 3.459s
 17.  Colin Edwards     Forward Suter-BMW         1m46.748s  + 3.973s
 18.  Ivan Silva        Avintia Inmotec-Kawasaki  1m46.848s  + 4.073s
 19.  James Ellison     Paul Bird Aprilia         1m46.908s  + 4.133s
 20.  Danilo Petrucci   Ioda-Aprilia              1m47.149s  + 4.374s
 21.  Yonny Hernandez   Avintia FTR-Kawasaki      1m47.181s  + 4.406s
 

Source: http://www.iracing.com/inracingnews/other-news/motorcycles/motogp/stoner-edges-pedrosa-in-first-practice

Lewis Hamilton Narain Karthikeyan Jerry Hoyt