2012 Indianapolis MotoGP FP1 Result: Hondas Lead Hayden On Tricky Track

Submitted by David Emmett on Fri, 2012-08-17 15:25
in

Casey Stoner has topped the first session of free practice at Indianapolis for the MotoGP class, leapfrogging over his teammate Dani Pedrosa to make it a one-two for the Repsol Hondas in FP1. Stoner and Pedrosa swapped fastest times for most of the session, while Ducati's Nicky Hayden got his home GP off to a strong start to take 3rd spot. 

Ben Spies ended up in 4th, the Factory Yamaha rider a few hundredths slower than fellow American Hayden, while Stefan Bradl set the 5th fastest time on his MotoGP debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, sporting a brand new Red Bull livery for his LCR Honda. Alvaro Bautista put his Gresini Honda into 6th, ahead of Cal Crutchlow on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, Jorge Lorenzo on the Factory Yamaha and Valentino Rossi on the Ducati. Crutchlow had a big crash in the first half of the session, and came away treating his shoulder very gingerly, though the Englishman went out again to pursue a time. Hector Barbera was less fortunate, suffering a big highside at Turn 16, and being taken to the medical center. From there, he was shipped to a local hospital for suspected injuries to his vertebrae, a repeat of an injury he suffered at Motegi last year. The leg he broke at Mugello - less than five weeks ago - was fine.

Barbera's crash - and that of Crutchlow - was caused by the difficult grip conditions at Indianapolis. After very heavy overnight rain, there are still one or two damp spots and the track is very green off the racing line. As practice goes on, that should quickly improve.

Results:

Pos No. Rider Bike Time Diff Diff Previous
1 1 Casey STONER HONDA 1'41.925    
2 26 Dani PEDROSA HONDA 1'42.106 0.181 0.181
3 69 Nicky HAYDEN DUCATI 1'42.472 0.547 0.366
4 11 Ben SPIES YAMAHA 1'42.536 0.611 0.064
5 6 Stefan BRADL HONDA 1'43.027 1.102 0.491
6 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA HONDA 1'43.195 1.270 0.168
7 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW YAMAHA 1'43.295 1.370 0.100
8 99 Jorge LORENZO YAMAHA 1'43.312 1.387 0.017
9 46 Valentino ROSSI DUCATI 1'43.345 1.420 0.033
10 8 Hector BARBERA DUCATI 1'43.736 1.811 0.391
11 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO YAMAHA 1'43.745 1.820 0.009
12 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ BQR 1'44.328 2.403 0.583
13 41 Aleix ESPARGARO ART 1'44.714 2.789 0.386
14 17 Karel ABRAHAM DUCATI 1'44.739 2.814 0.025
15 54 Mattia PASINI ART 1'44.913 2.988 0.174
16 14 Randy DE PUNIET ART 1'46.298 4.373 1.385
17 22 Ivan SILVA BQR 1'46.332 4.407 0.034
18 51 Michele PIRRO FTR 1'46.480 4.555 0.148
19 5 Colin EDWARDS SUTER 1'46.520 4.595 0.040
20 15 Steve RAPP APR 1'46.619 4.694 0.099
21 9 Danilo PETRUCCI IODA 1'46.941 5.016 0.322
22 77 James ELLISON ART 1'47.506 5.581 0.565
23 20 Aaron YATES BCL 1'48.054 6.129 0.548

 

Round Number: 
11
2012
Casey Stoner has topped the first session of free practice at Indianapolis for the MotoGP class, leapfrogging over his teammate Dani Pedrosa to make it a one-two for the Repsol Hondas in FP1. Stoner and Pedrosa swapped fastest times for most of the session, while Ducati's Nicky Hayden got his home GP off to a strong start to take 3rd spot. Ben Spies ended up in 4th, the Factory Yamaha rider a few hundredths slower than fellow American Hayden, while Stefan Bradl set the 5th fastest time on his MotoGP debut at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, sporting a brand new Red Bull livery for his LCR Honda. Alvaro Bautista put his Gresini Honda into 6th, ahead of Cal Crutchlow on the Monster Tech 3 Yamaha, Jorge Lorenzo on the Factory Yamaha and Valentino Rossi on the Ducati. Crutchlow had a big crash in the first half of the session, and came away treating his shoulder very gingerly, though the Englishman went out again to pursue a time. Hector Barbera was less fortunate, suffering a big highside at Turn 16, and being taken to the medical center. From there, he was shipped to a local hospital for suspected injuries to his vertebrae, a repeat of an injury he suffered at Motegi last year. The leg he broke at Mugello - less than five weeks ago - was fine.

Comments

CRTs

Submitted by dude163 on Fri, 2012-08-17 15:30.

Good to see the 2 US CRTs not too far off the pace

1:49.03 is 107% of pole, however once the track gets better and Stoner drops the hammer............

Total votes: 13

What components are inside Yates' BCL bike?

Submitted by pablo on Fri, 2012-08-17 16:33.

ART, Suzuki, Kawasaki? btw, Hernandez 12th! Nice one! Hayden and Spies nice too in their home! I wish them to keep it work :) For Nicky it's interesting time till the end of the season as he can push a little bit Ducati resources his way I guess. Next year four factory spec Dukes looks like it'll be four no. one riders:) Anybody knows what plans have RDP or Barbera?

Total votes: 15

Mis-identified

Submitted by HRCA1 on Fri, 2012-08-17 16:44.

As far as I know Steve Rapp is on a Kawasaki not Aprilia.

Total votes: 14

ummmm

Submitted by kurizma on Fri, 2012-08-17 17:02.

APR isn't for aprilia. It's for Attack Performance...

Total votes: 15

Slow times

Submitted by Hiroller on Fri, 2012-08-17 16:48.

Stoner is still 2 seconds down on the fastest race time and 3 seconds down on lat years pole.
Is there any reason why Moto 2 are qualifying after MotoGP?
Surely having a big field of moto2 bikes running multiple lines arond the track would be better (and safer) for cleaning the track for MiotoGP.

Total votes: 11

Unprofessional Track

Submitted by Matt Warburton on Fri, 2012-08-17 16:51.

Why is that once again MotoGP is racing at Indy on a track which never gets used at any other time during the year, and as a result the surface is "green" and slick as snot offline?!? They need to add at least one full day of track time to clean the track and build up rubber so its not a one line monorail...

Total votes: 18

The Rolex Grand-Am series was just there a few weeks ago

Submitted by tttom on Fri, 2012-08-17 17:14.

using the same course as MotoGP. They would have laid down plenty of rubber.

The track is "green" because of heavy overnight rain

Total votes: 13

Other way around

Submitted by Scruffy on Fri, 2012-08-17 18:02.

@tttom

You're quite correct, though from my understanding the cars were circulating in the clockwise direction.

And as you said, the downpour washed away what was there anyways.

Total votes: 16

Poor Barbera

Submitted by nacho on Fri, 2012-08-17 19:41.

I must say racing in Indy for Barbera never seemed to me a risk worth taking but never expected it to end that bad.

Total votes: 8

Barbera manhandled like a corpse - Appalling

Submitted by LewTheShoe on Sat, 2012-08-18 04:45.
Site Supporter

I was truly disgusted to see Barbera being lifted onto a stretcher like a sack of potatoes or something. One guy lifts by the shoulders, and one on his lower legs.

https://twitter.com/guicomoto/status/236561988480802817/photo/1

Total votes: 11

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