Simoncelli leads day one at Sachsenring

Following a cold and windy morning free practice that yielded five big crashes in the first half of the session, the MotoGP field entered the second practice on Friday on a substantially warmer track and with slightly calmer winds at the eni Motorrad Grand Prix Deutschland. Marco Simoncelli rode his San Carlo Honda Gresini bike to the top of the timings with a lap of 1’22.225 at Sachsenring, over half a second faster than his FP1 time, and 0.095s in front of defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) who mounted his own attempt to lead the field with fast lap of 1'22.320, an improvement of 0.726s over his FP1 time, though it was quickly outpaced by the Italian. Dani Pedrosa demonstrated his climb back to full fitness is progressing rapidly with a third fastest time of 1'22.432. The 25 year-old was just in front of his two team mates, 0.110s ahead of Casey Stoner, and 0.222s quicker than Andrea Dovizioso. The highest placing Ducati Team rider of the day was Nicky Hayden, who posted a time of 1'22.882 to put him in sixth place, in front of fellow countryman Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) whose time of 1'22.894 was the last under the 1’23” mark. Pramac Racing’s Randy de Puniet posted the eighth fastest time of the day with a 1'23.037, followed by Álvaro Bautista (Rizla Suzuki) and Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) completing the top ten. Ducati team’s Valentino Rossi entered the garages with electrical problems toward the end of the session but was able to rejoin, ending 12th in the session just behind Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), and 13th for the day. Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar) crashed out at the end of the session but fortunately was unhurt. The Spaniard was 13th in the session and 11th fastest for the day. He was followed by Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), who suffered a crash in turn 11 but was able to re-enter the track to post a time of 1'23.760. Sylvain Guintoli stepped in for Loris Capirossi on the Pramac Racing team for FP2, and will do so for the remainder of the weekend, as Capirossi is still suffering from chest and shoulder pain following a crash in Assen.