MotoGP Catalunya - Rossi takes charge in second session

MotoGP Catalunya - Rossi takes charge in second session

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Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi has topped the second MotoGP free practice timesheets at Catalunya this afternoon, clawing ahead of team-mate Jorge Lorenzo by 0.049s with a soft rear Bridgestone at session end.

Factory Yamaha's Valentino Rossi has topped the second MotoGP free practice timesheets at Catalunya this afternoon, clawing ahead of team-mate Jorge Lorenzo by 0.049s with a soft rear Bridgestone at session end.

Rossi's team boss Massimo Meregalli sent The Doctor out to try and see what time could be achieved with the tyre ahead of tomorrow's 15-minute qualfying session after Rossi spend most of the session on a harder race tyre.

The result was a 1'42.297 which was under Dani Pedrosa's circuit best lap set of 1'42.358 while Lorenzo, on the sister YZR-M1, managed a 1'42.246 while Pedrosa himself lapped at 1'42.557 to depose Alvaro Bautista for third.

Cal Crutchlow's final lap of 1'42.776 pushed him up into fifth place and less than half a second off Rossi's pace while Marc Marquez finished in sixth but only 0.033s ahead of Nicky Hayden, the leading Ducati.

The American's team-mate, Andrea Dovizioso, had been at the sharp end early on but slipped back to eighth place with a laptime of 1'42.998 which kept him ahead of Stefan Bradl in ninth. The German former Moto2 champion crashed early in the session, losing the front into turn ten but got back out.

Aleix Espargaro's final run saw him bag tenth place and the top CRT slot and he has Andrea Iannone and his own team-mate Randy De Puniet right up his pipe. Michele Pirro took his Pramac liveried Ducati lab bike to 13th with Bradley Smith, who suffered a fast crash at turn three 14th. Michael Laverty closed his own gap to the leaders, finishing in 19th and just three seconds off the pace.

By MotoGP desk

Image by Yamaha Racing