FIM MotoGP World Championship Indianapolis Motor Speedway Indianapolis, Indiana August 28, 2009 Free Practice One Results (wet conditions, all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Dani Pedrosa (Honda), 1:51.507 2. Nicky Hayden (Ducati), 1:51.662 3. Valentino Rossi (Yamaha), 1:51.814 4. Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha), 1:51.894 5. Alex De Angelis (Honda), 1:52.264 6. James Toseland (Yamaha), 1:52.888 7. Loris Capirossi (Suzuki), 1:52.928, crash 8. Colin Edwards (Yamaha), 1:53.128 9. Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), 1:53.151 10. Marco Melandri (Kawasaki), 1:53.590 11. Mika Kallio (Ducati), 1:53.967 12. Chris Vermeulen (Suzuki), 1:54.554 13. Randy De Puniet (Honda), 1:55.674 14. Toni Elias (Honda), 1:55.788 15. Aleix Espargaro (Ducati), 1:56.204 16. Gabor Talmacsi (Honda), 1:56.594 17. Niccolo Canepa (Ducati), 1:58.244 More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Pedrosa top in wet opening Indy practice Round 12: Indianapolis GP Free Practice Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Friday 28 August 2009 Bridgestone tyre compounds available: Front Wet: Hard. Slick: Medium, Hard. Rear Wet: Hard. Slick: Hard, Extra hard (asymmetric) Rain hit the Indianapolis Motor Speedway half an hour before the start of the first practice and lasted for the duration of the hour-long session, meaning that Bridgestone’s hard compound wet tyres, the only available wet tyre option this weekend, were used by every rider. Being primarily designed for oval races held in dry weather, the steady rain produced a great deal of standing water around the 4.216km circuit, demanding much of Bridgestone’s wet tyres. Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa finished the session fastest just ahead of local hero Nicky Hayden of the Ducati Team and Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi, both of whom jumped to second and third respectively on their last laps. Indianapolis is a tricky circuit because it is composed of three different circuits in the form of the infamous oval, the existing infield used by Formula One and the new-for-2008 MotoGP-specific section from turns one to four. Each section has a different track surface, meaning that grip levels and abrasion from the road differ throughout the lap. These changes in the surface are even more challenging when the track is wet as the rain affects the level of available grip from each surface in a different way. This makes it very difficult for riders to get a consistent feeling throughout a lap, and gives Bridgestone’s tyres much more to contend with. Tohru Ubukata Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “For the second year at Indianapolis we have seen rain, which makes the track very slippery especially with the surface changes between the three main sections of the circuit. It also means that we still do not have much data for running in dry conditions here. There was a lot of standing water mid-corner which is when the tyres are under their peak load, so the conditions were very tricky. I am happy with the performance of our hard compound wet tyres today, especially with their ability to deal with the wide range of conditions we see as a result of surface changes during a single lap. “The only other circuit at which we have used the hard compound wets so far this season is Sachsenring, where again we saw a great deal of standing water, so I can say they are performing well. If we have a wet race on Sunday I am confident of the consistency and durability of our wet tyres on this abrasive circuit, even if the track temperature is as warm as it was today at nearly 30 degrees Celsius which is high for rain conditions.” Top ten from free practice (Friday 13:55 14:55 GMT-4) Pos Rider Team Practice Time Gap Tyres 1 Dani Pedrosa Repsol Honda Team 1m51.507s Bridgestone wets 2 Nicky Hayden Ducati Team 1m51.662s +0.155s Bridgestone wets 3 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m51.814s +0.307s Bridgestone wets 4 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1m51.894s +0.387s Bridgestone wets 5 Alex de Angelis San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m52.264s +0.757s Bridgestone wets 6 James Toseland Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m52.888s +1.381s Bridgestone wets 7 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m52.928s +1.421s Bridgestone wets 8 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m53.128s +1.621s Bridgestone wets 9 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1m53.151s +1.644s Bridgestone wets 10 Marco Melandri Hayate Racing Team 1m53.590s +2.083s Bridgestone wets Weather: Wet. Ambient 24°C; Track 29-26°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: ROSSI AND LORENZO THIRD AND FOURTH ON RAIN-HIT OPENING DAY IN INDIANAPOLIS Hot and humid weather gave way to heavy rain at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway this afternoon, bringing back memories of last year’s hurricane-struck race as the riders splashed through puddles of standing water. Today’s bad weather looks like being a one-off however and the forecast for the rest of the weekend looks much better. The Fiat Yamaha pair of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo, who has just signed a one-year extension to his current deal with Yamaha, finished the day in third and fourth respectively. Rossi chose to sit out the first twenty minutes of the session in order to save mileage on his engine and only ventured out once the track was fully wet. The victor in last year’s storm, he was one of the fastest in the later stages on the soaking track and moved into third position on his final lap of the session, three tenths off Dani Pedrosa at the top. Lorenzo gained his first ever wet-weather podium here last year and was happy to find that he felt just as confident this time around in the wet on his YZR-M1, continuing to set consistently fast laps throughout the soaking session and finishing under a tenth off the time of his team-mate. The 22-year-old is sporting a one-off ‘Captain America’ helmet here, inspired by the famous comic-book hero. Valentino Rossi Position: 3rd Time: 1’51.814 Laps: 16 “I sat out the first twenty minutes in order to save the engine mileage and by the time I went out it was very wet. Unfortunately the track wasn’t draining so well where there is new asphalt and in some corners it was quite dangerous with standing water and a risk of aquaplaning. This weather was unlucky but it wasn’t such a bad session and our pace and setting in the wet was quite good. We were able to improve the balance of the bike and if the conditions are like this again then we have some ideas to improve further. Luckily however it looks like the weather will be much better and so tomorrow we will start again from zero in the dry!” Jorge Lorenzo Position: 4th Time: 1’51.894 Laps: 23 “This track has three kinds of asphalt and in some places the bikes looked like they were at sea! The riding style was very complicated to get right today, above all in the first two sectors, but anyway I’m quite happy, especially because this is my first start after confirming that I’ll stay with Yamaha next year and I’m proud to be here. I felt quite confident today even in the bad weather but hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine and we can see where we are in the dry.” Davide Brivio Team Manager “We did a few laps today because you never know what can happen with the weather and even though the forecast is good for the rest of the weekend, we need to be prepared for anything. We were strong in the wet today with Valentino finishing near the top so it was a useful session, but hopefully we won’t need this data for the race. Our real work should start tomorrow, hopefully in the sunshine!” Daniele Romagnoli Team Manager “Unfortunately today the rain got in the way of our plans and it was a slightly difficult first session in some areas, especially in the first two splits where there was a lot of water on the track. Overall however it was a useful day and we will be ready in case it does rain over the rest of the weekend. Now we’re looking forward to seeing how we are in the dry tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: PEDROSA ON TOP FOR REPSOL HONDA ON RETURN TO INDY The 2009 Indianapolis Grand Prix began today as the 2008 event finished – wet. Thankfully however, the hurricane force winds that played havoc with last year’s race at the iconic Indianapolis Motor Speedway stayed away this time, and it was Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa who made the best of the conditions to set the fastest time in the weekend’s first hour-long practice session. In fact both Pedrosa and his Repsol Honda team-mate Andrea Dovizioso displayed impressive commitment on the wet track, with each rider spending time at the top of the timesheets as the famous “brickyard” welcomed MotoGP for a second year. For the first 20 minutes of the session as the track got increasingly wet, Dovizioso set the pace on his factory RC212V, displaying the peerless ability in tricky conditions that saw him win the British Grand Prix at Donington in July and lead the first two laps of last year’s race here. After Dovizioso’s early showing it was Pedrosa’s turn to take the lead, confidently using Bridgestone’s treaded wet tyres to maximum effect and achieving inspiring angles of lean on the track’s grippy surface. His fastest lap of 1m 51.507s was set in the first half of the session and, though some riders came close in the dying moments, his impressive mark remained unchallenged. In the final flurry, Dovizioso slipped to 9th but, with dry weather forecast for the rest of the weekend, today’s practice session could prove to be academic and both Repsol Honda riders are confident of another strong showing in tomorrow’s two sessions. DANI PEDROSA 1st 1m 51.507s “This was a very good start to the weekend and in wet conditions we are looking in good shape. It was raining for the whole session and we had good grip, even though there were some big patches of standing water around the track. I felt confident and was able to push hard – and actually it’s been a quite long time since I’ve felt that confident in wet conditions and been happy to push to the maximum. If it’s dry tomorrow, that’s also good for us, even though the only thing we can really take forward from today’s session is the gearing information. This track is unusual to ride because it’s been designed to run in the other direction and so the apex of some of the corners feels very strange. Still, even in the rain there is a unique atmosphere here and it’s a special place to ride.” ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 9th 1m 53.151 “I was fast early in the session and overall I’m satisfied with how today went. It was a difficult practice session because it was raining a lot and the different types of tarmac at this track responded in a different way. There were also some big puddles out there which made things tricky. At the beginning I was riding with a good rhythm and going quickly, but I couldn’t improve my lap time at the end of the session because we decided to use only one tyre and spare our wet tyre allocation for the weekend. So by the end the tyres had become slick and it was difficult to control the bike, especially on the dark asphalt. I’m not worried about today’s position though. The conditions were particular for this situation and the weather forecast for tomorrow and Sunday is good, so I’m confident that I can improve.” KAZUHIKO YAMANO – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “Both riders did a good job this afternoon and we are looking quite strong in the wet conditions. For the rest of the weekend it looks like we may have dry weather so tomorrow’s two sessions will be very important. We had very little dry track time last year which means there’s still plenty of work to do to be fully prepared for Sunday’s race. The Repsol Honda team is very motivated at the moment and both riders are in good condition so we’ll be looking for a strong weekend for all the Honda fans here in America.” More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Capirossi on the pace at a wet Indianapolis Rizla Suzuki’s Loris Capirossi recorded the seventh quickest time at a rain-soaked Indianapolis today as the MotoGP field began testing for this weekend’s race. Capirossi (1’52.928, 19 laps) used the wet track to full advantage as he was able to evaluate the new parts that were tested at Brno recently in completely different conditions. He set his quickest time on his penultimate lap of the session as he improved throughout the hour. Unfortunately for Capirossi, his session came to an abrupt halt as he high-sided his bike towards the end; he was uninjured and will be ok for tomorrow. Chris Vermeulen (P12, 1’54.554, 20 laps) tried a new setting on his bike at the start of the practice, but had to come in to the pit-box early on to make some significant changes to the Suzuki GSV-R, causing him to lose valuable track-time. He continued to make several modifications to his bike and was quite satisfied that he has a good setting for Sunday’s race if conditions are similar to today. The weather intervened just before the start of this afternoon’s session and heavy rain fell over the 4,216m Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Track and air temperatures were both in the mid 20ºCs as the rain cooled the surface dramatically from early warm and sunny conditions. Today’s fastest time was set by Dani Pedrosa on a factory Honda. Rizla Suzuki has one more free session tomorrow morning, followed by an hour of qualifying in the afternoon. Sunday’s 28-lap race gets underway at 15.00hrs local time (19.00hrs GMT). Loris Capirossi: “It has been a quite positive day because we were able test the new chassis in the wet and the reaction was good straight away. I crashed right at the end of the session when I hit a big puddle of water and high-sided, but I am ok. I felt good on the bike today and that is very encouraging. From my point of view I really want some good weather for the rest of the weekend because I don’t like riding in the rain and for us it will be better to work on the bike in the dry.” Chris Vermeulen: “We tried something different at the start, but the setting just didn’t work, I came straight in to get it sorted and we lost quite a bit of time as we made the changes. In the wettest part of the session the bike worked quite well and my lap-times in those conditions were quite good. Towards the end we made some fine-tune adjustments but I didn’t get a clear lap in to improve my time. I am quite happy with the bike, but we do still have a bit of work to do to get it spot-on in the very wet conditions. I am feeling quite positive and looking forward to getting back out there tomorrow – hopefully in the dry.” Paul Denning – Team Manager: “After a successful test at Brno with some of the new stuff that Suzuki had introduced, it was good to be able to test them at a completely different circuit and in such different conditions today. Loris has struggled to be competitive in the rain all year, but the bike was much better here and he set his best lap in the later part of the session when the conditions were less favourable. He was fortunate that he is completely ok after his high-side and his attitude is totally positive about the direction Suzuki has taken for the future. “It is quite usual to see Chris near the front in the wet, but that wasn’t quite the case today. His guys improved the bike throughout the course of the session and we’re convinced that if we have to race in these conditions on Sunday he will be competitive. That said, the fans at Indianapolis deserve better than to sit in the rain and we hope that the sun comes out and this venue can experience MotoGP bikes being ridden to the maximum.” More, from a press release issued by Indianapolis Motor Speedway: RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GP MotoGP POST-PRACTICE QUOTES Friday, Aug. 28 CHRIS VERMEULEN (No. 7 Rizla Suzuki MotoGP): “What normally works in the rain gives us a general indication of what will work in the dry, so this session was very important. This track is very difficult in wet conditions. There are two very different surfaces out there. The new part (Turns 1, 2, 3, 4) is the new tarmac, and the very end of the circuit is the very old tarmac. In the wet, it’s very difficult to ride in. It was difficult, but it will help us prepare. I didn’t really get a clear lap when the track was at its best, its driest. There’s a lot more potential in me and the bike. We have some improvements to make. I’m sure we’ll be closer to the front Saturday.” RANDY DE PUNIET (No. 14 LCR Honda MotoGP): “Today was a special day because it was raining, and it wasn’t necessary for me to make too many laps. The most important thing for me was to keep my ankle (broken in a motocross accident during the summer break) fit for qualifying and the race. I heard the weather forecast was much better for Sunday. That’s why, for me, the session was sufficient. My ankle is feeling better. I have more flexibility. and I can push more on the left side. I think it will be better. Shifting is not so easy because we have so many left-hand corners. I think Sunday it will be better.” NICKY HAYDEN (No. 69 Ducati Team): “It felt pretty good. Obviously, I need dry setup time, but we were up front, so I felt quite good. The team did a good job and made a couple of changes on the front suspension that allowed us to turn a lot better. It was slippery and then quite technical because parts of the track was wetter than others. But we stayed on and ended up top and got some good data. Indy is good to me in the wet. Last year it was good in the wet. If I get a good result, I don’t care if it snows. Certainly you can learn stuff on the data as far as setting up the electronics or fuel mapping and stuff, but you learn more in case it does get wet on Sunday. We learned a couple little things. Any wet time you can get maybe it’s not going to help us this weekend, but it’s going to rain again this year. It’s good information. I like being up front. Certainly, it’s been a hard season for me. Everybody knows that I’ve had big crashes and not a lot of great results, and my job is on the line. So it is good to come here and man up with it. But I’ve got to do it Sunday. Ain’t nobody going to remember Friday afternoon, so that’s what I’ve got to do on Sunday.” VALENTINO ROSSI (No. 46 Fiat Yamaha Team): “The forecasters say that the rain arrive around 5 o’clock, but the rain arrive a lot before and it made for a wet practice. Unfortunately, there are two or three parts of the track, especially the new surface, that don’t have enough drainage. So when there’s a lot of rain, there’s a big amount of water on the track, and it’s quite dangerous. We look forward to tomorrow for the conditions to improve, especially for Sunday.” (On the better weather forecast for the weekend): “Fantastic; a lot better. This track has good grip in the dry, so everybody hopes for a good condition after the bad conditions last year.” (You stayed in the garage a long time. Did you think the conditions were going to get better?): “No, I stay in to save the engine.” MARCO MELANDRI (No. 33 Hayate Racing Team): “It was a difficult day. On the wet, this is a very difficult track because we have so many different surfaces. It was a good session. My lap time wasn’t so great at the end, but my lap time in the middle session was good. I’m very confident in these conditions. We have only one set of rain tires per session, so we ran in the middle of the session. In the end, I couldn’t improve my lap because the tire was completely gone. It’s OK. I was working, thinking about the race. I’m looking forward to it.” MIKA KALLIO (No. 36 Ducati Team): “I think for everybody it was really difficult. We knew already from last year, with weather like this, it is difficult to understand how fast you can be. It is important to be out in these kinds of conditions because if the weather is like this on Sunday, we need to have some information. Anyway, I hope that we can have better weather on Sunday because, like I said, it was really difficult for everyone.” COLIN EDWARDS (No. 5 Monster Yamaha Tech 3): “You know, we had a hurricane here last year. We waited a whole year to come back and ride in some rain again. But it is what it is. Hopefully we’ll get some dry weather tomorrow; especially Sunday. I’d like to give these fans a good show out here. Enough rain; let’s start over.” (Compared to last year this is easy, right?): “This is a piece of cake compared to last year without the wind and all of that stuff. It was pretty good. I was pretty happy with our setting. We did quite a bit of work, got the bike working good. We’ll just have to work backwards, find a dry setting and be ready tomorrow.” (On the track conditions throughout the course): “It’s strange; you just have to commit. You see standing water all over the place. Normally you get sphincter overload, I call it, whenever you start running across it. It just wasn’t that bad today. You had little puddles that you’d try to dodge, really. But once you found a good line, you were OK.” GABOR TALMACSI (No. 41 Scot Racing Team MotoGP): “I was here last year in the 125cc class, and I was very much impressed. This will be only my second event in MotoGP. We are a small team, but we are hoping to continue to improve and do well. We tried some new setups here, and I was happy with them. I am not so much concerned with qualifying. I just want to continue to improve.” JAMES TOSELAND (No. 52 Monster Yamaha Tech 3): “MotoGP is used to this weather the last two years. Everywhere we go, we seem to get some rain. Being a British guy, I’m used to it. The new surface on the track is really, really tricky. It holds the water and it starts to puddle, and you aqua-plane. It’s quite dangerous. The old surface is one of the grippiest surfaces I’ve ever ridden in the wet. So you’ve got half the track where you’ve never had so much grip in your life and half the track where you have completely zero grip. It’s a completely different balance with the bike you’ve got to find.” (On going into qualifying Saturday): “Today was a 40 percent chance (of rain), so I hope it’s not 41 tomorrow. We’ve got a 60 percent chance of it not doing too much. We’ve got to look on the positive side and hope for the fans and everybody they’re not going to get wet tomorrow.” (On his concert performance with his band Crash, scheduled for Saturday): “That’s the easy part. I can play the piano and sing without even thinking about it. But out there when there’s puddles to challenge at 150 mph, you’ve got to concentrate. But I’ll get tomorrow out of the way, get qualifying done and do the best we can. Then, once I calm down, I can chill out and play some keyboards.” JORGE LORENZO (No. 99 Fiat Yamaha Team): “This track has three kinds of asphalt, and in some places the bikes looked like they were at sea! The riding style was very complicated to get right today, above all in the first two sectors, but anyway I’m quite happy, especially because this is my first start after confirming that I’ll stay with Yamaha next year, and I’m proud to be here. I felt quite confident today even in the bad weather, but hopefully tomorrow the sun will shine and we can see where we are in the dry.” (About re-signing with Yamaha for 2010): “Yeah, I’m happy, very happy. It’s good thing to continue with Yamaha because I know the bike. I think we can do better next year. We can be faster.” (About chance of catching Valentino Rossi in the points this year): “I think it’s almost impossible. It’s possible, but 50 points may be too much.” (On the conditions compared to last year): “It’s the same, but we couldn’t use the data from last year because we’re not on Michelin tires now.” TONI ELIAS (No. 24 San Carlo Honda Gresini): “I’m not happy that we (didn’t) start how we start before. But we (saw) what the biggest problem for tomorrow (is) if it rains. We will be much faster than we were today.” DANI PEDROSA (No. 3 Repsol Honda Team): “This was a very good start to the weekend, and in wet conditions we are looking in good shape. It was raining for the whole session, and we had good grip even though there were some big patches of standing water around the track. I felt confident and was able to push hard, and actually it’s been a quite long time since I’ve felt that confident in wet conditions and been happy to push to the maximum. If it’s dry tomorrow, that’s also good for us, even though the only thing we can really take forward from today’s session is the gearing information. This track is unusual to ride because it’s been designed to run in the other direction and so the apex of some of the corners feels very strange. Still, even in the rain, there is a unique atmosphere here, and it’s a special place to ride.” ANDREA DOVIZIOSO (No. 4 Repsol Honda Team): “(Running in the rain today) was really strange, but similar to last year. There (are) two different asphalts and on the black one, the grip is really bad, especially on the wet parts. It’s so difficult to manage the bike. The problem is, on the old asphalt the grip is so good it really consumes a lot of tire. And when we go on black asphalt there is no grip, and it’s so difficult to manage. We don’t want to use two sets of tires because we have just four for all of the weekend. So we kept one set, and at the end it was completely slick tires, and it was so dangerous to ride the bike. In the wet conditions this is a problem, but (on a dry track) it’s completely different. Sure, consumption of the tire will still be really strong, but Bridgestone brought a really hard tire here. Everybody says it will be dry but cooler (the rest of the weekend). I think the track will be a little bit better tomorrow. We just have to drive on the dry track to understand our situation.” More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: The man setting the best lap of the opening MotoGP practice session of the Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix was Repsol Honda’s Dani Pedrosa, who went round the 4.216km track in 1’51.507s in wet conditions. With the riders lapping more than ten seconds off the sort of pace that would be expected on a dry track, it was Pedrosa who adapted best to the conditions on his factory RC212V as he produced his best time on the sixth of just 16 laps. Late charges from Pedrosa’s former team-mate Nicky Hayden (Ducati) and the reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi (Fiat Yamaha) saw them place themselves in second and third positions on the timesheets, with times respectively 0.155s and 0.307s behind the Spaniard. Like Hayden and Rossi, the Italian’s Yamaha colleague Jorge Lorenzo also produced his fastest pace on his final lap, putting himself fourth with a 1’51.894 time. Satellite pair Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini) and James Toseland (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) were fifth and sixth, with both hoping for good results this weekend as they attempt to secure 2010 rides. The top ten was completed by Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki), home rider Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda) and Marco Melandri (Hayate Racing). Aleix Espargaró got his first ever MotoGP ride in the session and did well to end up in 15th place, lapping ahead of Gabor Talmacsi and his temporary team-mate Niccolò Canepa. 250cc The surprise pace man in the wet 250cc session was Frenchman Jules Cluzel who laid down a 1’53.512 lap midway through the practice on his Aprilia machine. The Matteoni Racing rider, who has had a modest season since his opening round podium at Qatar also in wet conditions, was the fastest participant by a 0.732s margin ahead of his nearest rival, Spaniard Héctor Barberá (Pepe World Team). World Champion Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) was third on the timesheet, with a time more than a second off Cluzel’s pace, whilst Czech competitor Karel Abraham crashed late in the session when pushing too hard and ended up fourth. Mike di Meglio (Mapfre Aspar) and Héctor Faubel (Valencia CF – Honda SAG) were fifth and sixth, with title-chaser Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar Team) lapping in tenth place and standings leader Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing Team) placing discreetly down in 14th. 125cc Last year’s Indianapolis 125cc race winner Nico Terol (Jack & Jones Team) showed his strengths again at the famous American circuit as the action got underway earlier in the day, the Spaniard lapping in 1’50.603 to head the FP1 timesheet for the single cylinder class. The 20 year-old, who was also victorious in Brno two weeks ago, laid down his best time on the 20th of his 21 laps, before precipitation brought the riders back into their pit-boxes before the end of the session. Second fastest was Terol’s former team-mate Simone Corsi (Fontana Racing), who was a tenth of a second off the pace man, whilst Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar), Sandro Cortese (Ajo Interwetten) and Marc Márquez (Red Bull KTM) all went round within 0.5s of Terol. With Efrén Vázquez (Derbi Racing Team), Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing), Sergio Gadea (Bancaja Aspar), Julián Simón (Bancaja Aspar) and Joan Olivé (Derbi Racing Team) all at the business end of the timesheet there were six Spanish riders in the top ten. More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: RAIN HIT INDIANAPOLIS GP OPENING DAY Indianapolis, 28 August: LCR Honda MotoGP rider Randy De Puniet clocked the 13th fastest lap time at today’s opening free practice session at Indianapolis Speedway race track which hosts the 12th round of the calendar. Sunny skies welcomed the MotoGP circus this morning at the famous American race track which celebrates its 100th anniversary but the 4.216 km circuit was hit by torrential rain 10 minutes before the premier class session beginning. The Frenchman aboard the Honda RC212V no. 14 is still struggling with the left ankle injury he suffered in a motocross accident prior to the Czech GP in Brno when he rode through the pain to finish tenth place despite the broken ankle. De Puniet rode his machine for 9 laps only on the rain-lashed and slippery track clocking his quickest lap time of 1’55.674 then he wisely cut the session earlier to avoid further risks. De Puniet 13th 1’55.674 De Puniet 13th: “Obviously it’s really hard in these conditions. We decided to go out just to check the bike set up and I have been very careful to avoid silly crashes and further damages on my broken ankle. I rode for few laps but I can feel that the ankle is improving although this track has many left corners. The weather is getting better tomorrow and we will have the time to fine-tune the bike for the race”. More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Fast start for Toseland and Edwards at rain-hit Indy James Toseland produced a skilful display of wet weather riding at the world famous Indianapolis Motor Speedway today, the British rider a hugely encouraging sixth quickest in a rain-lashed first MotoGP practice session. The 28-year-old quickly mastered treacherous conditions and varying grip levels to occupy a top three place for much of the opening half of the session as round 12 of the 2009 MotoGP world championship started under grey and gloomy skies at the historic Indy circuit. Using a new softer wet weather suspension setting on his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 YZR-M1 machine, Toseland was as high as second position before he finished in an e ncouraging sixth place. His best time of 1.52.888 was just over 1.3s away from Dani Pedrosa’s best pace and 0.240s quicker than team-mate Edwards. Making a solid and steady start to his second home race in less than three months, Texan Edwards grew in confidence and a best lap of 1.53.128 in the final stages secured him eighth position Edwards is bidding for an incredible 20th successive points-scoring finish in Sunday’s 28-lap race and will be boosted by forecasts for much more favourable weather conditions over the remainder of the weekend. James Toseland 6th 1.52.588 18 laps “I’m really happy with that session and it was definitely the positive way I wanted to start the weekend. For most of the session I was running in the top four or higher once I’d built up my confi dence after the first few laps. I went with a wet setting that was a bit softer than usual and it worked really well and gave me a lot of confidence with the front-end. I could really push in the places where you could make up a bit of time and that helped me a lot. This track is really strange in the wet with the different sections of tarmac. Some places it can seem really dangerous with a lot of standing water and in another part the grip is phenomenal and it feels so good you can almost push like you’re riding in the dry. Some sections of the track are so good in the wet it’s better than Assen, and that was always the best track for grip in the wet. At times it almost feels like you are going from a wet to a dry track. You need to have a compromise with the setting because of that but my team did a great job today with the soft setting and if we get some more bad weather we look in really good shape. Hopefully it will be dry and we can put on a good show for the Indy fans .” Colin Edwards 8th 1.53.128 22 laps “I can’t believe we waited a whole year to come back to this amazing venue after what happened with the weather in 2008 and it ends up raining again. Hopefully for tomorrow we’ll get a dry track and also on Sunday so the fans will get to see MotoGP at its best. This place really freaks me out because some sections of the track look really slippery. But in reality there is so much grip that you can ride almost like it’s dry. You can be so aggressive in some parts that at the start you have to convince yourself just how hard you can push. The track is so wet it looks like a mirror but that’s where you can really attack with such good grip. You just have to take bigger bites each lap and how fast you go depends if you hit some of the standing water on the new sections. Thankfully the forecast is for dry weather for the rest of the weekend, b ut if it changes I’m sure we’ve got a really good wet setting and we definitely learned some things that will help for the future.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: HAYDEN SECOND FASTEST, KALLIO ELEVENTH AS WET WEATHER WELCOMES MotoGP BACK TO INDY The MotoGP World Championship returned to Indianapolis today and was again struck by the wet weather curse that saw last year’s race cancelled with eight laps remaining. Thankfully there was no sign of the high winds from twelve months ago and the first free practice session went ahead without delay, with the impressive Nicky Hayden and stand-in team-mate Mika Kallio lapping second and eleventh fastest respectively in the soaking conditions. NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati MotoGP Team) (2nd; 1’51.662) “It feels good to be near the top again! The bike felt pretty good from the beginning and after trying something new on the other bike, which didn’t work, we went back to the standard setting and went from there. The track was really tricky because there were sections with a lot of standing water and others where the grip was amazing – you had to be really on your toes. Midway through the session a funny line formed I’m not sure if some kind of chemical came up through the asphalt from when they cleaned it but it was pretty slick. Over the last couple of laps I just went for it because I knew I had a chance to be on top today and this is the highest I’ve been in any session this year. Truthfully though I need dry track time because I tend to start the weekend slowly and build up, so to lose a session to the weather is not an advantage to me. We need to start out strong in the morning and go from there. P1 would have been sweet but P2 at just a tenth of a second off gives us reason to smile. I’m delighted to be racing here at Indy so let’s hope tomorrow brings more joy!” MIKA KALLIO (Ducati MotoGP Team) (11th; 1’53.967) “I struggled for grip and feeling at the start of the session and that made it hard for me to get confident. The front spring was a little too hard and the suspension was sat up a bit too high so we went for some softer springs and that improved things. We also made a few small changes to the rear and the last run was much better – I think with a few more laps we could have made some big progress. I’m not happy because a 2.4 second gap to the leader is big but I think we can be much closer if I can find a little more feeling with the bike. They say the weather could be a lot different tomorrow, which would change everything again, so we’ll wait and see what happens.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: GOOD DEBUT FOR ESPARGARO AT INDY. CANEPA SEVENTEENTH Good debut for the new Pramac Racing rider, Aleix Espargaro, who has concluded his first practice session valid for the Indianapolis Grand Prix with the fifteenth fastest lap time. Rain has characterized today’s session, but the Spanish rider, who has stepped on the Ducati Desmosedici GP9 Sat for the first time, has easily adapted to the bike conquering a good result. His teammate, Niccolò Canepa, has encountered some difficulties not making it to push to the limit as he didn’t find the right feeling with the rear part of the bike. The Italian rider will try to make up for it tomorrow in the two hours of practice available. Aleix Espargaro – Pramac Racing rider “Tonight I think I woke up about one hundred times, I was so excited. Now I am a bit more relaxed. It has been a fantastic experience. It would have probably be better ride for my first time on the Ducati Desmosedici GP9 with dry track, but at the end things went well. I found my self at ease since the first laps. It has an impressive acceleration but tomorrow, when the track should be dry, I would have a clearer idea of what this bike can do. I am very happy to have this opportunity and I will do all I can to obtain the best result possible.” Niccolò Canepa – Pramac Racing rider “Today’s weather has complicated the work we have planned. Due to the limited number of tyres we have at our disposal, I preferred to use only one set of wet tyre today so that I would have more in case I would need them when it really counts. The left side of the rear tyre gotten worst and I couldn’t manage to improve. Tomorrow I will surely be able to do better: this will be for me a really important race.” More, from a press release issued by Indianapolis Motor Speedway: PEDROSA TOPS, HAYDEN SECOND IN RED BULL INDIANAPOLIS GP PRACTICE INDIANAPOLIS, Friday, Aug. 28, 2009 Spaniard Dani Pedrosa led the first day of MotoGP practice at the 2009 Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Friday, Aug. 28 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, turning a top lap of 1 minute, 51.507 seconds in wet conditions on the No. 3 Repsol Honda Team entry. Nicky Hayden, of nearby Owensboro, Ky., was second-quickest at 1:51.662 on the No. 69 Ducati Team bike, and defending Red Bull Indianapolis GP winner Valentino Rossi was third at 1:51.814 on the No. 46 Fiat Yamaha Team MotoGP entry on the Speedway’s 16-turn, 2.621-mile road course. Rossi’s teammate No. 99 Jorge Lorenzo was fourth-quickest at 1:51.894, and Alex de Angelis was fifth at 1:52.264 on the No. 15 San Carlo Honda Gresini machine. Rain began falling at IMS approximately 15 minutes before the start of the MotoGP practice session, reminding riders of the wet conditions they experienced at IMS on Friday and Race Day of the inaugural event in 2008. “This was a very good start to the weekend, and in wet conditions we are looking in good shape,” Pedrosa said. “It was raining for the whole session, and we had good grip even though there were some big patches of standing water around the track. I felt confident and was able to push hard, and actually it’s been a quite long time since I’ve felt that confident in wet conditions and been happy to push to the maximum. If it’s dry tomorrow, that’s also good for us, even though the only thing we can really take forward from today’s session is the gearing information.” Weather for Saturday’s qualifying and Sunday’s second-annual Red Bull Indianapolis GP is forecasted for dry conditions and mild temperatures. Track activity takes place rain or shine in MotoGP and the supporting 250cc and 125cc classes. Hayden considers Indianapolis Motor Speedway his home track on the global MotoGP circuit as he lives only three hours to the south. He was mid-pack through most of the one-hour session and dramatically jumped to second on his last high-speed lap. “Obviously, I need dry setup time, but we were up front so I felt quite good,” Hayden said. “The team did a good job and made a couple of changes on the front suspension that allowed us to turn a lot better. It was slippery and then quite technical because parts of the track was wetter than others. If I get a good result, I don’t care if it snows.” In his first year with Ducati, 2006 MotoGP World Champion Hayden has struggled and considered Friday’s result a nice boost. “It’s been a hard season for me; everybody knows that I’ve had big crashes and not a lot of great results and my job is on the line,” he said. “So it is good to come here and man up with it. But I’ve got to do it Sunday. Ain’t nobody going to remember Friday afternoon.” Both of the American MotoGP riders were in the top 10 in Friday practice, as Colin Edwards of Houston was eighth at 1:53.128 on the No. 5 Monster Yamaha Tech 3. “You know, we had a hurricane here last year,” Edwards said. “We waited a whole year to come back and ride in some rain again. But it is what it is. Hopefully we’ll get some dry weather tomorrow, especially Sunday. I’d like to give these fans a good show out here. Enough rain; let’s start over.” French rider Jules Cluzel was fastest in the 250cc World Championship practice with a lap of 1:53.512 on the No. 16 Matteoni Racing Aprilia. The entire practice, which followed the MotoGP session, took place in steady rain showers. In 125cc World Championship practice, 2008 125cc Red Bull Indianapolis GP race winner Nicolas Terol of Spain was fastest at 1:50.603 on the No. 18 Jack & Jones Team Aprilia in dry conditions. Public gates open for Saturday’s practice and qualifying sessions at 7 a.m. (ET). Track activity begins with 125cc practice at 9 a.m. MotoGP and 250cc practices follow at 9:55 and 11:10 a.m., respectively. Red Bull Indianapolis GP qualifying for the MotoGP class is from 1:55-2:55 p.m. The 125cc and 250cc classes qualify at 1 p.m. and 3:10 p.m., respectively. There will be a demonstration of the new Moto2 class at 4 p.m. and Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider James Toseland and his band, Crash, will play a live one-hour set starting at 4:30 p.m. on the 6th Street Stage. The second Red Bull Indianapolis GP is set for Sunday, Aug. 30. *** 2009 IMS tickets: Established in 1909, the Indianapolis Motor Speedway has long prevailed as an icon of motorsports excellence. Beginning in 2009, the Speedway celebrates its Centennial Era, commemorating the 100th anniversary of the facility in 2009 and the 100th anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 Mile Race in 2011. Tickets for the final event of 2009 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway the Red Bull Indianapolis GP on Aug. 28-30 can be purchased online at www.indianapolismotorspeedway.com at any time. Tickets for groups of 20 or more also are on sale. Contact the IMS Group Sales Department at (866) 221-8775 for more information.