Archive - May 2009 - Race Or Practice Result

Colin Edwards went fastest in the second session of free practice at Le Mans this morning, but the weather seems determined to prevent the MotoGP field from having their newly reinstated full hour of practice. The track was dry when the riders went out just after 10am local time, but the last 10 minutes saw light drizzle once again slow up the field.

By that time, Edwards had already put in a lap just inside the 1'34s, and nearly half a second faster than 2nd place man Dani Pedrosa. Jorge Lorenzo proved the Yamahas are still working well at Le Mans by taking the 3rd spot, after leading for much of the first part of practice. Casey Stoner was 4th fastest, but has continued to struggle a little, not being the dominant force he has been previously.

Stoner has done better than Valentino Rossi, however. Rossi finished down in 11th, and never looked capable of posting a fast time. If he has any designs on taking 100 victories at home, he'll need to win here, and so far, that has not looked a likely outcome of the Le Mans race.

Results of FP2 for the MotoGP class at Le Mans:

Results of FP3 for the World Supersport class at Kyalami. A lot of riders stayed in the pits due to the conditions:

Bradley Smith was fastest of the 125 riders in this morning's FP2 session. The riders again went out on a wet track that quickly dried, times dropping throughout the session. Smith was the quickest right at the very end, finishing ahead of Sergio Gadea and Julian Simon. Britain's Scott Redding was 4th fastest, while fellow countryman Danny Webb could only manage a 24th fastest time. American Cameron Beaubier continues to improve, running 16th fastest in the session.

Once again, the changing conditions caught a number of riders out, leaving 7 riders outside the qualifying time. Qualifying begins in earnest this afternoon.

Results of the 125cc FP2 session at Le Mans:

Kenan Sofuoglu topped the timesheets in the second free practice session for the World Supersport class at Kyalami, taking over from his Ten Kate team mate Andrew Pitt who was quickest in the first session of the day. The Turk had spent most of the session in third place, but shot to the top with just a couple of minutes to go. The session once again turned into a three-way battle between Sofuoglu, Parkalgar Honda's Eugene Laverty and Yamaha's Cal Crutchlow. With 11 minutes to go, Fabien Foret briefly entered the top 3, before Andrew Pitt nipped in ahead of him, but neither man would be quick enough to hang on to a spot in the top 3.

The BE1 Triumphs are also running well at Kyalami, with Garry McCoy and Gianluca Nannelli close to the leaders for most of practice, finishing the session in 6th and 7th. The Kawasakis of Joan Lascorz and Katsuaki Fujiwara had less luck here than at previous rounds, only managing the 8th and 10th times.

The Laverty clan have a doubly strong presence in South Africa, with Eugene's brother Michael replacing Robbin Harms, and Michael is making an impressive debut. Laverty beat one of his team mates in the first session, but was faster than both of them this afternoon. Practice continues tomorrow, with qualifying due to take place in the afternoon.

Result of the World Supersport FP2 session at Kyalami:

The first session of free practice for the 250 class started rather tentatively at Le Mans, the track still drying from the rain which had disrupted the MotoGP session before it. Local boy and reigning 125cc champion Mike di Meglio made the early running, only to see Thomas Luthi take over as the times began to get a little more serious.

Marco Simoncelli was the next man to go seriously fast, holding on to the top spot for much of the rest of the session, but with 15 minutes to go Alvaro Bautista started to fly. The first man into the 1'39s, the Spaniard then put in a string of fast laps to end the day with the fastest time. The end of the session saw a flurry of activity, with riders almost literally tumbling over one another to catch Bautista (Hector Barbera and Angel Rodriquez had two bizarre single-rider crashes), after which Hiroshi Aoyama ended up with the 2nd fastest time, just over one tenth slower than Bautista, ahead of Bautista's Aspar team mate Mike di Meglio and Hector Barbera. Marco Simoncelli finished the day in 5th spot, but crashed after the chequered flag had fallen while on a hot lap. Practice continues tomorrow.

Results of the 250cc FP1 session at Le Mans:

The first qualifying practice for the World Superbike class saw Michel Fabrizio take provisional pole, the Italian Ducati rider continuing his run of form in practice. Unlike previous sessions, however, Fabrizio did not dominate the session entirely. Fabrizio stood atop the timesheets for the first 40 minutes, but with 18 minutes to go, Johnny Rea leapt ahead of the Italian, the HANNSpree Ten Kate rider the first man to dislodge the Xerox Ducati from the top spot.

It did not last, however, as 10 minutes later, Fabrizio was back again, and half a second faster than his previous best. Fabrizio would not be bested again during the session. Johnny Rea hung on to 2nd, but on his very final lap, Yamaha's Ben Spies shot up the standings from 16th to set the 3rd fastest time. The Yamahas had been languishing outside the top 10 for nearly all the session, but in the dying minutes both Spies and team mate Tom Sykes found a serious improvement. While Spies' time was good enough for a provisional front row, Sykes advanced from 15th up to 8th.

Leon Haslam occupies the last place on the provisional front row, the Stiggy Honda man much improved from Monza. Shinya Nakano heads up the 2nd row on the Aprilia, ahead of Xerox Ducati's Nori Haga and Jakub Smrz on the Guandalini Ducati, with Tom Sykes finishing up the row. Haga is still not at 100%, and has not yet made much of an impression during practice, but he still has two days to go before the race, and he is comfortably on course to make it into Superpole.

The replacement riders were a little more off the pace during the afternoon session, Sheridan Morais the best of them in 12th place, and well ahead of his temporary team mate Broc Parkes, while Gregorio Lavilla finished in 13th, 0.001 behind Morais.

The first session of free practice at Le Mans was eagerly awaited by a lot of the MotoGP riders, as it would see a return to the full one hour length. The original decision to cut practice to just 45 minutes was reversed at a meeting of the Grand Prix Commission at Jerez, and Le Mans was to be the first chance to take full advantage of the extra practice time. The weather gods thought otherwise, though, the rain and drizzle making conditions difficult for the last 25 minutes of the session, the track too dry for a wet setup, and too wet for slicks. The rain eased up slightly with 10 minutes to go, only to start again a couple of minutes later.

At the end of the confused session, it was Andrea Dovizioso who topped the timesheets, deposing Casey Stoner with half the session left. But it had taken Casey Stoner 25 minutes to take the top spot, the Australian going out for very short runs before coming back into the pits. Local boy Randy de Puniet made his bid for immortality by leading the session early on, finally finishing in 3rd place.

With the rain disrupting so much of the session, it is hard to draw any conclusions from the times set so far. We shall have to wait until tomorrow, and a couple more full hours of practice and qualifying before we know just how the relative strengths of the field stand.

Results of MotoGP FP1 at Le Mans:

Free practice for the World Supersport class saw a return to the pattern we expected before the start of the season, with the Ten Kate riders at the top of the timesheets. Benefiting from being the only Supersport riders to have tested here back in December, Kenan Sofuoglu led the first half of the session, relieved by team mate Andrew Pitt in the second half of the session. Behind the Ten Kate riders, Cal Crutchlow was 3rd fastest, taking over the position from Eugene Laverty in the last third of the session. Once again, the local riders were impressive, with South African Rob Portman setting the 12th fastest time of the session. And Eugene Laverty's brother Michael had a solid debut, beating one of his team mates, but still 0.7 behind the other. Practice continues this afternoon.

Results of World Supersport FP1 at Kyalami

Result of the first session of free practice for the 125 class at Le Mans:

Practice started on a damp track, the overnight rain not yet having cleared, but the sun and wind soon dried out the track, leaving only a couple of puddles, one of which caught Nico Terol out, crashing as he passed under the Dunlop Bridge, the shade just enough to leave standing water.

The usual suspects ended the session on top, Andrea Iannone leading the Aspar bikes of Julian Simon and Sergio Gadea. Bradley Smith struggled for some of the session, before finishing in 5th spot, while fellow Brits Scott Redding and Danny Webb finished in 11th and 16th respectively. American Cameron Beaubier was two places behind in 18th.

The Haojue bikes continue to struggle, neither Michi Ranseder nor Matthew Hoyle managing to qualify. The paddock also welcomed a female rider, French wildcard rider Ornella Ongaro. Ongaro was just outside the qualifying time, but should be able to find enough to get on the grid. Ongaro is the first of a pair of female wildcards in world championship series, with Melissa Paris due to run at Miller Motorsports park as a wildcard in two weeks' time.

Results of FP1:

Results of the World Superbike FP1 session at Kyalami:

The session got off to a bad start, with Regis Laconi crashing on the first lap, causing the session to be red flagged. Once the session got underway again, Michel Fabrizio picked up where he left off, almost immediately taking the lead with a big gap back to the next man, team mate Noriyuki Haga. Haga chipped away at Fabrizio's lead, but the Italian stood very firmly at the top of the standings.

It was only towards the end of the session that riders started to make an impression on Fabrizio, with Carlos Checa, Johnny Rea, and Leon Haslam all getting within 1/10th of a second of the Italian. Shane Byrne finally started setting results more in keeping with his status as BSB champion, the Briton finishing 6th fastest, just 0.431 off Fabrizio. The replacement riders did pretty well too, Gregorio Lavilla taking the 8th fastest time on Brendan Roberts' Guandalini Ducati, and South African rider Sheridan Morais putting the Kawasaki of Makoto Tamada 7th fastest, both men profiting from previous experience here.

The Yamahas are some way off the pace, Ben Spies never better than 5th fastest, and finishing the session in 12th, two places behind team mate Tom Sykes. But the field is pretty close, with less than three quarters of a second between Fabrizio in 1st and Ryuichi Kiyonari in 14th.

Results of FP1:

Results of the Monza European Superstock 600 race:

World Superbikes Monza race 2 result and recap:

Results of the World Supersport race at Monza:

Result of World Superbikes race 1 at Monza:

Results and summary of the FIM Superstock 1000 Cup race at Monza: