France MotoGP Free Practice
During the second MotoGP Free Practice session at Le Mans Friday, Casey Stoner again showed domination aboard the Repsol Honda RC212V.
The Australian was four-tenths quicker than his FP1 time, which allowed him to further shatter the Le Mans circuit record set by Valentino Rossi in 2008.
By the time FP2 was complete, Stoner had posted a 1:33.782, which was 0.404 of a second quicker than the second fastest rider, San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Marco Simoncelli.
The Italian Simoncelli also picked up four tenths of a second quicker than his FP1 lap times. Simoncelli was expected to be fast at Le Mans, considering he has finished on the podium twice there while competing in the former 250cc class, and also was quickest at the MotoGP test session two weeks ago at Estoril.
Third fastest in FP2 for Le Mans MotoGP was Stoner’s teammate, Dani Pedrosa. He was the only rider to not improve on his FP1 time, and actually was five-hundredths of a second slower.
The American Nicky Hayden had a late-session charge aboard the Ducati Team GP11, and beat out the reigning MotoGP Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) for fourth quickest. Lorenzo, who won Le Mans MotoGP the past two years, was half a second quicker than he was in FP1.
As for Rossi, he fell back in time, finishing ninth fastest aboard the Ducati Team GP11.
The MotoGP grid will be back on Le Mans Saturday morning for FP3 and then qualifying before Sunday’s French Grand Prix.
2011 Le Mans MotoGP: Free Practice 2 Results:
Pos. | Num. | Rider | Nation | Team | Bike | Km/h | Time | Gap 1st/Prev. |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | 27 | Casey STONER | AUS | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 288.5 | 1’33.782 | |
2. | 58 | Marco SIMONCELLI | ITA | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 282.9 | 1’34.186 | 0.404 / 0.404 |
3. | 26 | Dani PEDROSA | SPA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 272.8 | 1’34.478 | 0.696 / 0.292 |
4. | 69 | Nicky HAYDEN | USA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 282.6 | 1’34.652 | 0.870 / 0.174 |
5. | 1 | Jorge LORENZO | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 277.5 | 1’34.659 | 0.877 / 0.007 |
6. | 4 | Andrea DOVIZIOSO | ITA | Repsol Honda Team | Honda | 282.1 | 1’34.705 | 0.923 / 0.046 |
7. | 5 | Colin EDWARDS | USA | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 277.8 | 1’34.939 | 1.157 / 0.234 |
8. | 7 | Hiroshi AOYAMA | JPN | San Carlo Honda Gresini | Honda | 286.6 | 1’34.959 | 1.177 / 0.020 |
9. | 46 | Valentino ROSSI | ITA | Ducati Team | Ducati | 285.5 | 1’34.966 | 1.184 / 0.007 |
10. | 11 | Ben SPIES | USA | Yamaha Factory Racing | Yamaha | 288.9 | 1’34.976 | 1.194 / 0.010 |
11. | 14 | Randy DE PUNIET | FRA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 283.8 | 1’34.998 | 1.216 / 0.022 |
12. | 35 | Cal CRUTCHLOW | GBR | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | Yamaha | 287.8 | 1’35.158 | 1.376 / 0.160 |
13. | 65 | Loris CAPIROSSI | ITA | Pramac Racing Team | Ducati | 279.4 | 1’35.383 | 1.601 / 0.225 |
14. | 8 | Hector BARBERA | SPA | Mapfre Aspar Team MotoGP | Ducati | 276.4 | 1’35.902 | 2.120 / 0.519 |
15. | 19 | Alvaro BAUTISTA | SPA | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | Suzuki | 275.6 | 1’35.992 | 2.210 / 0.090 |
16. | 24 | Toni ELIAS | SPA | LCR Honda MotoGP | Honda | 275.0 | 1’36.304 | 2.522 / 0.312 |
17. | 17 | Karel ABRAHAM | CZE | Cardion AB Motoracing | Ducati | 278.7 | 1’36.327 | 2.545 / 0.023
|