Paul Carruthers | August 13, 2010
If the rest of the MotoGP field were hoping the summer break would slow down Jorge Lorenzo, then there’s a lot of disappointment today as the Fiat Yamaha rider showed the same speed that he showed prior to the series taking a few weeks off after the Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix at Laguna Seca.Lorenzo was his normal dominant self today in the Friday practice session for Sunday’s Czech Republic Grand Prix at the Brno Circuit, the runaway championship leader ending up with half a second in hand over Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa.Those two led the session from start to finish with Lorenzo taking over for good with less than 20 minutes to go and right before rain started to fall. By then, Lorenzo had done his best lap, a 1:57.215. Pedrosa ended up second with a 1:57.756.”I am happy to be riding here in Brno again,” Lorenzo said in a team release. “It’s always difficult to go back to work after the holidays and this track is so different to Laguna, so wide and much longer; it took me a few more laps than usual to get going! Once I found my rhythm this was a good session and I felt happy on my bike, with a good setting to start from. We tried both rear tires and we need more time to choose, because unfortunately it rained a bit at the end and we had to stop early. We’ll have to wait and see how the track is tomorrow, but we hope for it to be dry so we can continue with what we started on today.”Defending World Champion Valentino Rossi was next, some .606 of a second behind his teammate Lorenzo in what will be his third race since breaking his leg at the Italian Grand Prix.Pedrosa’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso ended the day fourth fastest and the last rider to stay within a second of Lorenzo. Then came Ducati Marlboro’s Nicky Hayden, the Kentuckian 1.071 seconds off the Lorenzo’s best.Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards had a good day and ended up sixth, besting Hayden’s teammate Casey Stoner on the second Marlboro Ducati.Marco Simoncelli, Monster Tech 3 Yamaha’s Ben Spies and Rizla Suzuki’s Alvaro Bautista rounded out the top 10.LCR Honda’s Randy de Puniet, who is returning to action after breaking his leg in the German Grand Prix on July 18, ended up 16th and almost three seconds off Lorenzo’s quick time.
Friday Practice
1. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1:57.215
2. Dani Pedrosa (Honda) 1:57.756
3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha) 1:57.821
4. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 1:57.873
5. Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 1:58.286
6. Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 1:58.497
7. Casey Stoner (Ducati) 1:58.532
8. Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 1:58.840
9. Ben Spies (Yamaha) 1:58.970
10. Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 1:59.204
Paul Carruthers | Editor
Paul Carruthers took over as the editor of Cycle News in 1993 after serving as associate editor since starting his career at the publication in 1985. Carruthers has covered every facet of the sport in his near-28-year tenure at America's Daily Motorcycle News Source.
