2010 Sachsenring MotoGP FP1 Result - Pedrosa Lays Down The Law

Dani Pedrosa set the standard in the first session of practice for the MotoGP class, the Repsol Honda rider taking over the top spot with a quarter of the session to go with a convincing lap under the 1'22 mark. As the session neared its end, Pedrosa came under pressure from future teammate Casey Stoner. The Marlboro Ducati rider had himself taken over the top spot from Jorge Lorenzo at the halfway mark, and looked to be dominating practice, until Pedrosa put in an extra burst of pace.

That the Ducati is working well at the Sachsenring was confirmed by Nicky Hayden, who nicked into the top three at the end of the session, displacing a surprising Ben Spies, the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha rider showing very strongly at his first visit to the Sachsenring. Spies' 4th position made him the first Yamaha rider, with the factory Fiat Yamaha bikes of Jorge Lorenzo and Valentino Rossi down in 6th and 7th, Lorenzo seemingly getting the timing of his last run wrong, and leaving the pits with not enough time to complete a flying lap. Sandwiched between Spies and Lorenzo was San Carlo Gresini's Marco Simoncelli.

Despite only setting the 7th fastest time, Rossi's return was impressive, very close to the pace of the front runners. But the Italian is clearly suffering, putting in ever shorter runs throughout the session. Rossi could qualify pretty well, but question marks remain over whether he could last the distance.


Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff Diff Previous
1 26 Dani PEDROSA HONDA 1'22.521    
2 27 Casey STONER DUCATI 1'22.795 0.274 0.274
3 69 Nicky HAYDEN DUCATI 1'22.983 0.462 0.188
4 11 Ben SPIES YAMAHA 1'23.189 0.668 0.206
5 58 Marco SIMONCELLI HONDA 1'23.204 0.683 0.015
6 99 Jorge LORENZO YAMAHA 1'23.224 0.703 0.020
7 46 Valentino ROSSI YAMAHA 1'23.244 0.723 0.020
8 14 Randy DE PUNIET HONDA 1'23.260 0.739 0.016
9 33 Marco MELANDRI HONDA 1'23.290 0.769 0.030
10 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO HONDA 1'23.400 0.879 0.110
11 36 Mika KALLIO DUCATI 1'23.422 0.901 0.022
12 41 Aleix ESPARGARO DUCATI 1'23.430 0.909 0.008
13 5 Colin EDWARDS YAMAHA 1'23.440 0.919 0.010
14 65 Loris CAPIROSSI SUZUKI 1'23.589 1.068 0.149
15 40 Hector BARBERA DUCATI 1'23.599 1.078 0.010
16 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SUZUKI 1'24.020 1.499 0.421
17 15 Alex DE ANGELIS HONDA 1'24.101 1.580 0.081
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Spiesus Christ continues to impress… I'm curious if his bike received any updates or not since the last time we heard from him on OnTheThrottle, anyone know?

Simoncelli's time is damned impressive, too. I think we could be in for an innnnnnteresting weekend.

I think it's pretty interesting that 1 second covers the top 14, and .2 second covers 8 riders in the middle of that...  headed by Rossi and Lorenzo .02 apart!

…I suspect Lorenzo was about to go out and throw down the gauntlet on his last lap, the timing was just a bit off. As much as I worship Spiesus, I have a hard time believing that a rookie on a satellite bike is going to best Lorenzo on the factory ride.

No surprises here.Anyone with half a brain could reasonably expect Rossi to be on it immediately,just like Casey upon his Estoril return and Dani/Jorge with their own injury woes the past two seasons.
Plus...Ben Spies. The real deal.
Good to see Nicky having a really hard bite in FP1. He was languishing for quite a while,but when he comes good in FP1 it usually bodes well for his weekend.
Also well done Marco S.
Hope the grid stays as tight as this for the rest of the weekend.
We may well be in for the first classic scince Jerez this year.

This is such a short track that 0.4 here is the equivalent of a second or more elsewhere. But still, it's close. 

So DeAngelis is doing no better than Akiyoshi did last time out?
Perhaps worse, even?

Even though Spies (and all the other Yamahas) is still down on speed he has done amazingly well early on. I think he should do very well this weekend. The boy has game.

Marco S is turning and burning as well. I hope he gets a factory ride next year so we can see him, Spies, and the other so called aliens banging bars. Its a bit early to be thinking that far ahead but it is tasty to think about.

Go Ben! Go Nicky!

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Free Practice 1 session and I noticed Rossi was using a crutch to get around and didnt think anything of it until I saw a picture on another site showing Rossi using the crutch on his left arm. Well we know Rossi broke his RIGHT leg. So why have the crutch support the weight from the good side instead of the bad side? (Crutch should be on the otherside to take the weight off the bad leg)

Further more, here is a picture of Rossi on R & R:

He is leaning to the right, there does not seem a be a visible crutch but something looks like its attached to his right arm which is probabaly the crutch supporting his weight.

So is the crutch kind of a false smoke signal for Lorenzo or the rest of the grid to mask that maybe Rossi is a lot better off on that leg than he is?

Anyway, conspiracy theories can be fun sometimes, especially with a guy who likes the mind games. Sorry if linking images from other sites is Taboo, I couldnt find any from here :/

Bad conspiracies and worse puns. What's this site coming to?

Rossi really did break his tibia and I'm quite certain it is still really hurting him regardless of what magic they may have done with bone cement or metal brackets.

It doesn't matter which arm he uses as long as he leans on the crutch when lifting his left foot. He'd probably be using two crutches except the doctors said he needs to walk on it to stimulate healing and bone growth.

I have nerve damage in my right leg and have to use crutches like Rossi (although mine are a God-awful gray and uglier-gray combo...completely jealous of the blue!).

I switch from one to the other if I only want to use one crutch (hard to carry things with two arms engaged). I use the left arm the most however to leverage weight off the right leg. And yes, as someone mentioned, the arms and especially the shoulder and wrists, get hella tired.

Why would that cause alarm bells for you? Everyone has a different way of handling physical issues - one shouldn't assume there is only one way to handle a situation or a response, let's say, that is more appropriate than another. Rossi does play head games but I think we can clear him of this conspiracy. :)

Using a crutch ==> your arm and shoulder can get sore so you switch it to the other side... and Rossi already has a sore shoulder.

Either way the crutch still takes weight off the injured leg

After practice today, Rossi said that he could walk without the crutch, but if he walked too much then it was bad. The huge pin they put in to fix the tibia fixes the problem very fast, but is a danger if you crash, as it ensures you break your leg elsewhere. Using a crutch takes a bit of the pressure off the leg.

So the crutch is a prop, but one Rossi sort of needs a bit. I think Rossi might be hamming it up a tiny little bit for the cameras, but using the crutch is a sensible precaution for the long term.

As the rider on the grid in the worst engine predicament, does anyone think maybe Nicky's sandbagging it for most of the session and then pushing for a fast lap at the end to save is engine?

I mean, those last couple fast ones came out of NOWHERE when you look at how he was riding the rest of the session. In fact, at one point he was going around with Casey behind him desperate to get by. You could see Casey really hanging off the bike, getting his upper body low, leaning it hard; and then there's Nicky sitting up and riding like he's on a motard.

We all know how fast he can be, and he showed it at the end of the session (Sachsenring is one of his best tracks, afterall). Is he saving his engine?

I doubt if he is saving his engine during the practice session. If he wanted to do that he would just stay in the pits once he got the bike like he wanted it.

It is not uncommon for a rider to either change a tire or a setting of some sort, and that change will make a big improvement.

Seems reasonable. Although it does appear that most riders wait until late in the session. Stoner still does his early runs though.