FIM MotoGP World Championship Misano, San Marino September 13, 2013 Free Practice Two Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Marc MARQUEZ, Spain (HONDA), 1:34.200 2. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 1:34.233 3. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (YAMAHA), 1:34.458 4. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:34.495 5. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (ART-Aprilia), 1:34.732 6. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (HONDA), 1:34.858 7. Michele PIRRO, Italy (DUCATI), 1:34.889 8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (DUCATI), 1:34.901 9. Stefan BRADL, Germany (HONDA), 1:35.107 10. Cal CRUTCHLOW, UK (YAMAHA), 1:35.208 11. Andrea IANNONE, Italy (DUCATI), 1:35.218 12. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:35.431 13. Danilo PETRUCCI, Italy (IODA/SUTER-BMW), 1:35.933 14. Bradley SMITH, UK (YAMAHA), 1:36.004 15. Claudio CORTI, Italy (FTR-Kawasaki), 1:36.122 16. Colin EDWARDS, USA (FTR-Kawasaki), 1:36.181 17. Hector BARBERA, Spain (FTR-Kawasaki), 1:36.253 18. Randy DE PUNIET, France (ART-Aprilia), 1:36.283 19. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (FTR-Kawasaki), 1:36.646 20. Karel ABRAHAM, Czech Republic (ART-Aprilia), 1:37.310 21. Michael LAVERTY, UK (PBM-Aprilia), 1:37.334 22. Yonny HERNANDEZ, Colombia (ART-Aprilia), 1:37.368 23. Bryan STARING, Australia (FTR-Honda), 1:37.722 24. Lukas PESEK, Czech Republic (IODA/SUTER-BMW), 1:38.962 More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: Marquez and Pedrosa back on top in Misano Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa were back on top today at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in San Marino. The Spanish duo got to work straight away, looking for the best set up for their RC213V. Track conditions improved slightly from the morning to the afternoon but the surface still remained quite slippery. Championship leader Marc was fastest for the day with a time of 1’34.200 on lap 9 of 22. Teammate Dani, second in the Championship, suffered from some front brake vibration in both sessions, but was able to clock a time just 0.033s off Marc with 1’34.233 on lap 19 of 20. Marc Marquez 1st 1’34.200 “I am happy with how things went today, and how we worked. I felt pretty good from the start and found some good reference points; there’s only a few places, like on the fast corner, where I still need to make some improvements in order to go faster. I’m running slightly wide onto the astroturf at that point. I hope that we can rectify this tomorrow, keep working well and get in even better shape for the race” Dani Pedrosa 2nd 1’34.233 “In general, today we managed to have two good practice sessions. The only problem is that we are lacking some grip in the rear. It was hard to find the necessary traction during the sessions and we hope to be able to improve this tomorrow. The track condition didn’t help us today either, as the asphalt wasn’t very grippy. Despite all this, tomorrow we will be looking for a good qualifying session – which is the important thing” More, from a press release issued by Yamaha Factory MotoGP Team: Strong Start in Misano for Local Hero Rossi Misano Adriatico (Italy), 13th September 2013 Valentino Rossi made a strong start to the San Marino and the Riviera of Rimini Grand Prix weekend today, taking third overall in combined times for the first two free practice sessions. The local hero was enjoying Yamaha’s new seamless gearbox for the first time in a race weekend situation as he tackled the Misano World circuit under hot and sunny conditions. Rossi completed the morning session in fourth, just over half a second from the front then stepped up the pace in the afternoon session, shaving just under quarter of a second off to finish in third, 0.258 seconds behind Marc Marquez at the front. Jorge Lorenzo was quick to find a similar pace to teammate Rossi, wrapping up day one in fourth position. The defending world champion was also using the new seamless gearbox as he worked to find an optimum set up for the track. The morning session saw him finish in third, 0.426 seconds from the front and then improve in time in the afternoon to finish 0.295 seconds from Marquez in fourth position. Valentino Rossi 3rd / 1’34.458 / 23 laps “It’s always special and a great feeling to ride here. Today was a good Friday for me, my performance was not so bad. This morning I was already quite fast but especially this afternoon my pace was very good. I was fast from the beginning to the end of the practice and we are very close to the front. Yamaha has made a fantastic job with the gearbox; it is a great help for the riders. It’s not a big advantage with lap time but the bike becomes a lot easier to ride, more stable in acceleration and less wheelie. You can concentrate more on riding, it is less demanding so I think for the race it will be a big help.” Jorge Lorenzo 4th / 1’34.495 / 19 laps “We are having some problems to find the best set up on the bike because I felt a little bit worse than the last years here but we are trying to improve it. The new gearbox is working well and I really like it. I’m confident we can go a little faster tomorrow.” Yamaha Factory Racing Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “The first day in Misano is done. We need to fix some things on the bike to find a little more confidence on entry and also rear grip is a bit of an issue. We are not far off but we need to improve on some areas. We need to find a couple of tenths of a second but I think we can definitely do that.” Yamaha Factory Racing Massimo Meregalli Team Director “We have started very well considering we started using the new transmission today. The feeling of the riders has been great, as good as it was in Brno. They are both really impressed with it and I think the feeling will only get better as they get used to it. This morning we suffered from a lack of grip but we recovered well this afternoon. We are heading in the right direction, we are close and tomorrow we will make another step.” More, from a press release issued by Cardion AB Motoracing: Grand Prix San Marino: Abraham twentieth after Friday´s practices Karel Abraham closes second ten of free practices times after the first day of Grand Prix of San Marino in the Marco Simoncelli’s circuit. Abraham reached his maximum in the morning free practice with time 1:37,329 losing 3,11 second to the fastest Marc Marquez. At the end of the afternoon practice the Czech rider had an easy crash on his injured shoulder, but he escaped without any futher injury. Karel Abraham „The shoulder hurts me, but It is possible to ride with it. From my point of view it is not good new for me. I hoped that I would be completely fine or I would find out that I could not ride. Therefor difficult decision making what to do is on duty. I have problem stand to push for a longer time partly because of pain in my shoulder and partly because worse physical condition, caused by one month break in training. Anyway I’m counting on that I will continue in the race weekend regardless to the pain.“ Marco Grana, chief mechanic Cardion AB Motoracing „We are trying to analyze data from the bike to find out reasons of the afternoon crash. The bike lost the front and also rear in one moment and that is really strange. Moreover in similar way crashed also Bradl in the same corner. Personally I think that there is some bumps on the track. But fortunately Karel is fine. Partly of course, because he is struggling with the pain in shoulder and that is a limiting factor. He loses the power and it is very difficult for him to make more fast laps in a row. We are trying to set up the bike to make it all easier for him. It will be a very difficult race weekend, but I think that we did not started in a bad way.“ More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Marquez on the mark in Misano Friday practice Round 13: San Marino MotoGP™ – Free Practice One & Two Misano, Friday 13 September 2013 Bridgestone slick compounds available: Front: Medium & Hard. Rear: Soft, Medium & Hard (Asymmetric) Bridgestone wet tyre compounds available: Hard (Main), Soft (Alternative) Weather: FP1 – Dry. Ambient 20-22°C; Track 26-31°C (Bridgestone measurement) FP2 – Dry. Ambient 25-25°C; Track 39-39°C (Bridgestone measurement) Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez continues to impress after posting the fastest time in practice for the San Marino Grand Prix today, the young Spaniard setting a time of 1’34.200 under sunny skies at Misano. Marquez led a Repsol Honda 1-2 in Friday practice as Dani Pedrosa was second fastest today with a personal best lap time just 0.033 seconds behind his rookie teammate. Third quickest today was hometown hero Valentino Rossi, the Italian rider setting a lap time of 1’34.458 on his Yamaha Factory Racing M1. Aleix Espargaro showed formidable pace on his Power Electronics Aspar ART machine, taking fifth overall with a time of 1’34.732 to be the highest placed CRT rider on the first day of practice. Weather conditions throughout the day were dry and warm with the track temperature reaching a maximum of 39°C in the afternoon Free Practice 2 session. The fine conditions resulted in all slick options being utilised today and at this stage of the race weekend, the most widely used combination is the harder front slick paired with the softer rear slick option. Track conditions today for the first day of the race weekend were satisfactory with lap times already getting within a few tenths of the current race lap record. Similar weather conditions are predicted for tomorrow’s practice and qualifying sessions, with the next MotoGP™ session scheduled for 955 local time (GMT +2). Shinji Aoki – Manager, Bridgestone Motorsport Tyre Development Department “The dry and warm conditions today enabled riders to try a wide range of slick tyre options and already the pace from the front-runners is quite quick, which is a positive sign. Misano is a circuit where an optimal bike setup is very important to get the best from the tyres, so it was good to have two dry sessions today. At this stage the softer rear slick options are the more popular choice, although some riders also evaluated the harder rear slicks and with the possibility of warmer weather tomorrow, we may see more riders give this option a try. The hard compound front slick was preferred as track temperatures became warmer as it offers an advantage in braking and cornering stability over the softer option, which is important at this circuit given its layout. It was a positive start to the race weekend at Misano.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Crutchlow and Smith target improvements after difficult start in Misano Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith experienced a difficult start to preparations for Sunday’s Misano MotoGP round today. In warm and sunny conditions at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, the British pairing found both 45-minute free practice sessions a tough challenge while they worked hard to find confidence with their YZR-M1 machinery. A right arm injury the 27-year-old suffered in the first of three heavy crashes during his recent home race at Silverstone has still not completely healed and Crutchlow was uncharacteristically outside of the top 10 in FP1 this morning. Crutchlow was able to make significant progress this afternoon by lapping over 0.7s faster and a personal best time of 1.35.208 moved him one place higher up the rankings into 10th position and just 0.4s away from the top six. Rookie Smith’s first taste of the San Marino track on a MotoGP machine didn’t go according to plan after the 22-year-old ended the opening day proceedings in 14th position on the combined timesheets. Building up his confidence and speed in FP2, Smith had just set his best time of the day with a 1.36.004 when he fell unhurt at the first corner at the beginning of his 11th lap. Despite a difficult start to the 13th round of the 2013 MotoGP World Championship, Crutchlow and Smith remain optimistic they can be more competitive for the remainder of the weekend Cal Crutchlow 10th 1.35.208: “Today was a really difficult day and I am not very happy at all with my pace or my position. My right arm is not 100% after Silverstone but the main problem is I don’t have any feeling with the bike at all. We need to improve because all I can say is that today was bad and disappointing. Those in front of me can just run a much better pace and there is not one single area that is holding me back. I am struggling everywhere but I won’t give up and I will work hard with my crew tonight to try and find some solutions to be more competitive tomorrow.”| Bradley Smith 14th 1.36.004 min: “Unfortunately today wasn’t very positive. Misano is a track I like, so to have a result like today is not nice, but it is clear with the final position there is a bigger problem than just the setting. The bad feeling I had in Silverstone is the same here. The good thing is we understand what the issues are now and we know which direction we have to go in. It is frustrating to have the crash but I am pushing to try and get the same feeling back that I had in Brno where I was strong. I believe with all the info we have that we can take a big step forward tomorrow and be faster. Qualifying is very important here with the first section so tight and the run to the first corner quite short, so it is vital to give yourself the best chance to get away with the leading group.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing: After completing a total of 20 and 21 laps respectively during FP1 and FP2, and recording a best time of 1.35.218 on his 19th lap of FP2, Andrea Iannone ended the first day of free practice at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli in 11th place, just within a whisker of the Top Ten. Second free practice for the last round of the championship on Italian soil allowed the Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team rookie to improve by over 1 second and a half his best time set during the morning session. This made up for an unsatisfactory start that had put him down in 17th place due to a total lack of confidence with his Desmosedici. The team continue to work inside the box while waiting to face again the 4226 meters of the San Marino GP Circuit tomorrow. Andrea Iannone – Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Team “This morning was pretty difficult, we made a lot of effort even though I was expecting that returning to this track would have been easier. I had absolutely no confidence with the bike and the tyres, it was like riding on ice, and I did not have enough feeling to push harder. This afternoon went much better, the tyres had more grip, I could brake stronger and in the end I improved my best time recorded during the last tests on this track. Tomorrow we will try and improve it even more. My shoulder is fine, I now have more strength than in the three previous races, and even if the pain has not gone away totally, it’s okay. Now I need to concentrate for the rest of the weekend.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: Marc Marquez set the pace in both practice sessions as Friday signalled the start of the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini weekend at Misano. The Repsol Honda Team rider narrowly edged out teammate Dani Pedrosa, while Valentino Rossi ended the day quicker than Jorge Lorenzo as both ran the seamless transmission for the first time. Already the championship leader heading to the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli, Marquez started as he means to continue by locking out both sessions. The margin was narrow, though, with Pedrosa moving to within 33 thousandths at the end of the day, having previously overcome problems as his bike suffered vibrations. In third place, Rossi was ahead of Lorenzo, but Misano marks a critical race for all at Yamaha Factory Racing as it finally puts its seamless transmission system into practice. Standout performance of the day went to Aleix Espargaro, as the Catalan rider hauled his CRT-specification ART machine into the top five for Power Electronics Aspar. This remarkable effort, only half a second off the top spot, demoted GO&FUN Honda Gresini’s Alvaro Bautista to sixth place ahead of Ignite Pramac Racing’s Michele Pirro and Ducati Team’s Andrea Dovizioso. Stefan Bradl was ninth for LCR Honda MotoGP, but suffered a Turn 6 crash during the afternoon session. It was a tough day for Monster Yamaha Tech3, with Cal Crutchlow and Bradley Smith off the pace in both sessions. The former finished tenth, one second down on Marquez, while his teammate was 14th fastest and experienced a crash on entry to the first corner. A total of six Italians are competing this weekend, including Andrea Iannone (Energy T.I. Pramac Racing), Danilo Petrucci (Came IodaRacing Project) and Claudio Corti (NGM Mobile Forward Racing) who ended proceedings in respective 11th, 13th and 15th positions. Moto2 Japan’s Takaaki Nakagami locked out both Moto2™ Friday practices for the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini, only to crash at the end of the afternoon. The Italtrans Racing Team rider was joined inside the top three by Tuenti HP 40’s Pol Espargaro and Tito Rabat, with championship leader Scott Redding fourth. Already quickest in the morning, Nakagami proceeded to lower the best lap time to 1’38.291 which was just a single thousandth of a second quicker than Espargaro, who is currently second in the championship. However the former suffered a heavy impact when he highsided his Kalex at the very end of the second session; following a medical check-up, it was confirmed that he had suffered no more than bruising to a foot. Behind Rabat, Silverstone winner Redding (Marc VDS Racing Team) was just over a third of a second off the day’s best pace, with Johann Zarco – who crashed at the end of the opening period – completing the top five for Came IodaRacing Project. Sixth was Tom Luthi (Interwetten Paddock Moto2 Racing), as the field continued to set up their bikes at Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. Nakagami’s teammate Julian Simon was seventh from Redding’s teammate Mika Kallio, while the top ten was completed by Maptaq SAG Zelos Team’s Xavier Simeon and NGM Mobile Racing’s Mattia Pasini. In the paddock, news came through that Blusens Avintia’s Dani Rivas – who is not competing at Misano due to injury – has been banned from the Aragon and Malaysia events for causing a multiple collision at the end of the Silverstone Warm-Up session just under two weeks ago. Moto3 Alex Rins topped the timesheets in a dramatic second Moto3™ practice session for the GP Aperol di San Marino e Riviera di Rimini. As the Estrella Galicia 0,0 rider moved to the front, there were crashes for numerous riders including teammate Alex Marquez and championship leader Luis Salom. Rins set the pace with his best lap of 1’43.457, six tenths of a second faster than his own previous track record of 2012. Maverick Viñales (Team Calvo), who had been fastest early on, was second from Marquez, who would end the session with a fall. Jonas Folger (Mapfre Aspar Team Moto3) was fourth, and three quarters of a second off the leading pace, while South Africa’s Brad Binder shone by finishing inside the top five as Ambrogio Racing used Mahindra motorcycles for the first time. Championship leader Salom (Red Bull KTM Ajo) crashed 15 minutes before the chequered flag came out, losing control of his machine at the final corner; thrown off the bike, his left knee struck the race track as the rider landed. Although he departed the scene with a limp, the Mallorcan was soon able to re-join the session and finish sixth. In addition to Marquez and Salom, the eventful period also featured mishaps for CIP Moto3 pairing Alan Techer and Juanfran Guevara plus GO&FUN Gresini Moto3’s Lorenzo Baldassarri and Ongetta-Rivacold Alexis Masbou. Luca Marini, the 16-year-old half-brother of nine-time World Champion Valentino Rossi, ended the day 27th quickest as he made his first wildcard appearance for Twelve Racing. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: THE TWISTS AND TURNS OF MISANO MAKE LIFE DIFFICULT FOR BRADL Misano, 13 September: the San Marino and Riviera di Rimini Grand Prix commenced today in sunny and warm conditions for Stefan Bradl and his colleagues. But the German riding the RC213V had to cope with front-end issues which prevented him to qualify up in the pack at the end of day one. Bradl is a fan of the twisting circuit but he could only set the 9th lap time (1’35.107) hindered by an unexpected lack of confidence in the curves. Stefan Bradl: “It’s not a special first day for us and I am a bit disappointed because I like this race track. Basically I can not turn like I would like because I am not sure about the reaction of the front tyre. In these conditions I can not be sharp and it’s almost impossible to carry the speed along the corner. I have to slow down and I have to break too much and this is the reason why I crashed in turn six. We have to analyze the data and try another bike set up if we wish to improve”. More, from a press release issued by NGM Mobile Forward Racing: Positive first day at Misano for Corti and Edwards The NGM Mobile Forward Racing Team confirmed yesterday its technical partners for 2014 in a joined press conference with Yamaha. The bike will be a Non Factory bike composed by: a Yamaha 2013 frame, swing arm and engine, Dorna ECU, Akrapovic exhaust and British manufacturer FTR will be responsible to complete the bike. Yamaha representatives are worried that the Non Factory Yamaha might be faster at some race tracks that the factory bikes. In the mean time riders Colin Edwards and Claudio Corti continue working to aim for top CRTs at the Misano Grand Prix with their FTR – Kawasaki bikes. The Texan rider and his Italian teammate have had a fantastic start of the Misano GP by finishing the first say of free practices at less than two seconds from the pole with their FTR – Kawasaki bike. Both riders have yet to determine their choice in front tire for the race and have some minor setting modifications to make for tomorrow in order to improve their lap times and be ready for the qualifying sessions. Colin Edwards “We did not have a bad day today. This morning felt pretty good, we though we would make a couple of changes to the bike for this afternoon. The problem was that this morning we had the soft tire on the front and this afternoon we used the hard tire on the front but I think that for me I can’t get enough grip on the front to get it to turn. So I think that knowing Bridgestone like I do I think the softer tire might possibly work with this temperature at this track. We are going to have to spend some time on that tomorrow to see if it’s any better. Overall the package is working, we just need to find a little bit more.” Claudio Corti “This afternoon things went pretty well. As I have said in the past, I don’t have a good feeling with this track, I need some time on track in order to be able to be fast here. This morning we have made some modifications that seemed to work very well so we have continued working in the direction during the afternoon session and we have had some positive results. The race pace has improved and the fast lap time has been improved by over a second so I am happy. We had some trouble with the tires today; right after making my fast lap I lost the feeling with the front completely. We will have to find a solution that will make me to regain that confidence and that will allow me to improve my race pace. I am in the Top15 as of today, I am not saying that I am completely satisfied but I do feel we have a good base to build-up on. I feel a lot better that I did at Silverstone, I can no longer feel the effects of the Brno crash and I remain very confident for tomorrow.” Sergio Verbena, MotoGP Technical Director “We are happy of the work done during this first day at Misano, we are more or less two seconds away from today’s pole. We still have a problem with the front of the bike, we haven’t yet decided on which tire will be the one we will use for the race. We will keep working on this as well as setting modifications tomorrow morning. We just need a small improvement in order to be higher on the standing. We will try to confirm tomorrow today’s results and continue improving.” More, from a press release issued by Ducati Corse: Dovizioso eighth, Hayden twelfth in Misano Free Practice The GP di San Marino e della Riviera di Rimini kicked off in perfect conditions, with sunny skies and mild temperatures, but at the completion of day one, the Ducati Team wasn’t satisfied with its early efforts at the Misano World Circuit Marco Simoncelli. The first free-practice session ended with Nicky Hayden and Andrea Dovizioso seventh and eighth quickest, respectively. The afternoon session saw Dovizioso improve his best time by .112 seconds to 1:35.392, which left him in the same position, whereas the American wasn’t able to improve his morning time and dropped to twelfth. Both riders will work with their teams during tomorrow morning’s free-practice in an effort to improve their setups for the afternoon qualifying sessions. Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team, 8th (1:34.901) “We’re all quite close but the feeling is a bit worse than when we had our test here. It’s a few degrees cooler and my Desmosedici works a little differently. This track is pretty tight and slow, and we must work to improve by a couple tenths in order to get our pace below 1’35”. That will be very important in order to have a chance to fight for positions further up in the field.” Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team, 12th (1:35.392) “I obviously wasn’t thrilled with the day, but I do think we can improve quite a bit for tomorrow. There are a couple of sections where I’m losing the most, mainly on change of direction, but I’m going quite well in other places. It was a bit bumpy, but that’s nothing we didn’t expect for Misano. I wasn’t happy with my last exit of the afternoon as I made some mistakes. My ideal time is half a second faster, so I’m confident we can do a good step forward tomorrow.”