FIM MotoGP World Championship Motegi, Japan October 1, 2010 Free Practice One Results (all on Bridgestone tires): 1. Valentino ROSSI, Italy (YAMAHA), 1:48.174 2. Andrea DOVIZIOSO, Italy (HONDA), 1:48.387 3. Jorge LORENZO, Spain (YAMAHA), 1:48.474 4. Casey STONER, Australia (DUCATI), 1:48.481 5. Ben SPIES, USA (YAMAHA), 1:49.302 6. Hiroshi AOYAMA, Japan (HONDA), 1:49.357 7. Colin EDWARDS, USA (YAMAHA), 1:49.377 8. Hector BARBERA, Spain (DUCATI), 1:49.544 9. Loris CAPIROSSI, Italy (SUZUKI), 1:49.568 10. Marco SIMONCELLI, Italy (HONDA), 1:49.581 11. Marco MELANDRI, Italy (HONDA), 1:49.620 12. Alvaro BAUTISTA, Spain (SUZUKI), 1:49.644 13. Nicky HAYDEN, USA (DUCATI), 1:49.882 14. Randy DE PUNIET, France (HONDA), 1:49.957 15. Aleix ESPARGARO, Spain (DUCATI), 1:50.158 16. Mika KALLIO, Finland (DUCATI), 1:51.105 17. Dani PEDROSA, Spain (HONDA), 2:00.131, crash More, from a press release issued by Rizla Suzuki: Encouraging first day at Suzuki’s home Grand Prix Rizla Suzuki had a positive first day’s practice in Motegi with both riders in touching distance of a top-five position. Loris Capirossi (P9, 1’49.568, 23 laps) made a strong return from his recent injury as he was consistently inside the top-10 throughout the hour-long session. Although he had some discomfort from the wound that was the result of extensive surgery to save his little finger, Capirossi was pleased with his first day’s work and is sure that as he gets stronger and improves the bike to compensate for the injury, his times and position will also improve. Álvaro Bautista (P12, 1’49.644, 24 laps) also had a good first day, finishing only 0.342 seconds off fifth place despite not being able to find the grip he was looking for around the 4,801m Japanese circuit. The Spaniard was in a very confident mood and is looking to impress over the weekend at Suzuki’s home Grand Prix. Today’s practice session was held in warm and sunny conditions with track temperatures reaching 41ºC. The fastest time of the day was set by reigning World Champion Valentino Rossi on his Factory Yamaha. Rizla Suzuki has one more practice session tomorrow morning, before an hour of qualifying in the afternoon will decide grid positions for Sunday’s 24-lap race. Loris Capirossi: “Overall I am happy with my condition today, I didn’t quite ride like I wanted to – or know that I can but I found a good feeling with the bike and the team took a big step in the session to help me. To run in the top-10 in the first practice and be only a couple of tenths off the top-five – is really good for me. We have to keep improving and with my condition which I felt today was not 100% – we have to keep working hard to make the bike better for me to ride.” Álvaro Bautista: “It has been quite a good first practice compared with some of the other races. I started with the harder compound tyres, but I didn’t feel much rear grip exiting the corners so I changed to the softer version and that was better. I also tried the soft front later in the session, because under hard braking conditions it was difficult to turn the bike with the harder compound, but this didn’t seem to make much difference so we switched back to the previous one. I do still have a bit of a problem with the exit from the corner because I don’t really have good grip and we must work to improve this as quickly as possible. Tomorrow we have a lot to do, but I am happy with today because I am not that far from fifth position and this means that we are going in the right direction. I want to have a good weekend here in Suzuki’s homeland and my team and I will try as hard as we can to get a good result.” Paul Denning Team Manager: “After yesterday’s deluge everybody was happy to see the sun shining and to be able to get some work done. Following extensive surgery to save his little finger, Loris is obviously riding in some pain, but the base level of the GSV-R and his fitness has been enough for quite a competitive showing especially when we consider that Loris did the whole session on the same set of tyres. Álvaro has also shown strong and consistent pace in this first session and whilst he is looking for improved rear grip and additional steps in performance the base for the weekend seems quite solid. Suzuki has brought some updates here to Motegi and they look like they’ll help us come race day. The whole team would like to thank the factory engineers for their continued efforts to improve the performance level of the GSV-R.” More, from a press release issued by Bridgestone: Rossi tops first free practice in Japan Round 14: Japanese Grand Prix Free Practice Twin Ring Motegi, Friday 1 October 2010 Bridgestone tyre compounds available: Slick: Front: Medium, Hard. Rear: Medium, Hard (asymmetric) After a changeable couple of days at Motegi, the weather for the opening practice session of the Japanese Grand Prix was dry and, as expected from this new October date, the ambient temperature was warm. Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi secured his position at the top of the timesheets on his very last lap of the hour-long session, 0.2seconds ahead of Repsol Honda’s Andrea Dovizioso. Rossi used the harder option Bridgestone slicks both front and rear as the track temperature reached 36 degrees Celsius, as opposed 22 degrees during Friday practice last year when the event was held in April. The rain that fell so heavily yesterday affected the track conditions however, and with no morning practice and only the 125cc practice session before the MotoGP machines took to the track, the surface was still slippery. After completing just two laps, Dani Pedrosa crashed heavily on the approach to turn nine, V Corner, and fractured his collarbone at a crucial time in the championship race between he and Jorge Lorenzo. Third fastest was championship leader and Fiat Yamaha rider Lorenzo, just 0.007 seconds ahead of Aragon winner Casey Stoner of Ducati. Tohru Ubukata Manager, Bridgestone Motorcycle Tyre Development Department “The recent rain affected track conditions today as the surface was dirty and some parts were still damp and slippery, especially under the bridge. Some riders used just one set of tyres for the session so we could confirm race distance consistency even for the softer option. “Some riders tried both specs in preparation for their race tyre choice, and this also showed us that the harder options are working well even in these conditions, as Valentino was fastest using the harder front and rear slicks. Race tyre choice is most likely to be decided based on tomorrow’s data however because the track conditions were not ideal today, but of course there is still the possibility of rain on Sunday.” Top ten from Free Practice (Friday 13:55 14:55 GMT+9) Pos Rider Team Practice Time Gap Tyres 1 Valentino Rossi Fiat Yamaha Team 1m48.174s Bridgestone slicks 2 Andrea Dovizioso Repsol Honda Team 1m48.387s +0.213s Bridgestone slicks 3 Jorge Lorenzo Fiat Yamaha Team 1m48.474s +0.300s Bridgestone slicks 4 Casey Stoner Ducati Team 1m48.481s +0.307s Bridgestone slicks 5 Ben Spies Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m49.302s +1.128s Bridgestone slicks 6 Hiroshi Aoyama Interwetten Honda MotoGP 1m49.357s +1.183s Bridgestone slicks 7 Colin Edwards Monster Yamaha Tech3 1m49.377s +1.203s Bridgestone slicks 8 Hector Barbera Paginas Amarillas Aspar 1m49.544s +1.370s Bridgestone slicks 9 Loris Capirossi Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m49.568s +1.394s Bridgestone slicks 10 Marco Simoncelli San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m49.581s +1.407s Bridgestone slicks Weather: Dry. Ambient 24-26°C; Track 35-36°C (Bridgestone measurement) More, from a press release issued by Interwetten Honda: Home pressure blasts Aoyama into Top 6 The home Grand Prix of Hiroshi Aoyama at the Twin Ring Motegi in Japan started promising for the Interwetten Honda MotoGP Team as the pressure of his home crowd of fans and family and the improvements of his physical condition after the crash in Silverstone three months ago blast him into the Top 6 today in the first free practice. Aoyama is hoping to at least keep this result also in the Qualifying session tomorrow. Hiroshi Aoyama, 6 1’49.357: “Everybody said that it will rain today and nobody expected such a nice weather. This helped a lot to try many different settings today, that we wanted to try out since Aragón. This track is not the best for finding the set up, but I have the advantage that I know this track very well and I could help with the set up. It seems not to be perfect yet, but we could improve a lot and we will continue in this direction. For the first time out I had a very good feeling today. It is my home race and special for me. I am under a lot of pressure here and I hope that I can improve my result in each session.” Daniel M. Epp, Team Manager: “About three months ago Hiro had his bad injury and you can see that he is almost recovered from that, so he can open the throttle again. His sixth position in today’s practice showed that he wants to announce himself back in the Top 10 for Motegi and the following races.” More, from a press release issued by Monster Yamaha Tech 3: Spies and Edwards make fast start in Japan Ben Spies and Colin Edwards made a confident start to the Japanese MotoGP weekend today, the American duo posting competitive lap times to finish inside the top seven at the end of first free practice. The Japanese MotoGP race was cancelled in April when an Icelandic volcano eruption caused global travel chaos. But when the Monster Yamaha Tech 3 finally took to the Twin Ring Motegi circuit this afternoon, Spies showed his debut performance at the track was well worth the wait. Spies slipped seamlessly back into learner mode today, the 26-year-old quickly getting accustomed to the 4.801km circuit, which provides a tough examination of braking sta bility and acceleration with its stop-and-go nature. A small mistake at turn three while evaluating Bridgestone’s soft front tyre compound saw Spies suffer a slow speed tumble. The crash though failed to halt his rapid rise up the timesheets and a best lap of 1.49.302 put him an impressive fifth quickest. Edwards was also delighted with his progress this afternoon, the 36-year-old finishing seventh fastest with a best time of 1.49.377. Edwards experimented with a new weight distribution set-up that helped corner exit acceleration and he is confident he can fight for a first top six finish of the campaign in Sunday’s 24-lap race. Today’s session was run in warm but windy conditions with air temperatures peaking at 26 degrees. Conditions were in stark contrast to the gloomy skies that produced torrential rain for much of yesterday. Sunday’s race is the first of a grue lling flyaway triple header with the Sepang race in Malaysia and Phillip Island clash in Australia following in quick succession. Ben Spies 5th 1.49.302 27 laps “Being in the top five having never seen this track before is a really good start. This track isn’t super technical and it doesn’t really help us much with all the stop and go sections that hurt us a little bit on speed. It was a little tricky learning the track because the conditions don’t seem to be what everybody is used to. So it was even trickier for me trying to build up trust in some corners. I used the soft front tyre at the start of the session and I wasn’t too keen on it. I came in for the hard tyre but the team wanted me to do one more stint on the soft and on the second lap of that run I got in deep at turn three. I had to let off the brake to gather it back up but I was trying to keep the bike on the t rack because I didn’t want to get into the gravel with all the rain we’d had yesterday. As soon as I got to the edge of the track I lost the front. I was only going really slow, probably like 10ks, but I landed really hard on my left elbow on the kerb. It’s not too painful and shouldn’t be a problem for me on the bike. It kind of proved that I didn’t like the soft front tyre but the hard one felt good on the spare bike and the rest of the session went pretty smooth.” Colin Edwards 7th 1.49.377 24 laps “It was a decent start and I’m reasonably happy because we tried a new setting today to try and help with a wheelie issue that we’ve always seemed to struggle with at this track. You’ve got all this hard acceleration out of low gear corners and we’ve always found it difficult to control wheelies here. I remember last year it felt like the whole weekend was wheelie manage ment, so we put a lot of weight on the front-end today and it felt good. We were actually moving forward out of the corner under acceleration, so we might have found something that can help us at a few other tracks. Without having to concentrate so much on stopping the wheelie problem, I can focus on accelerating a bit harder and that is helping us a lot. I was really close to sixth and not far behind Ben, so hopefully this is the start of a good weekend for me.” More, from a press release issued by Fiat Yamaha: FIAT YAMAHA OFF TO FLYING START AT MOTEGI The Fiat Yamaha Team made a flying start to the Japanese Grand Prix at Motegi today in a close-fought qualifying session, with Valentino Rossi making a welcome return to the top of the time sheets and Jorge Lorenzo finishing the day in third. Rossi was expecting this track to be particularly hard on his shoulder so he was delighted to find himself in less pain than last time out and feeling much stronger on the bike. The Italian used an upgraded engine specification for the first time today and his feedback was positive, finding particular improvements in the higher gears. He was fast from the very start of the session and then put in a blistering final lap to finish on top, two-tenths ahead of Andrea Dovizioso. Championship leader and last year’s race winner Lorenzo also made a good start to the weekend, putting in a consistently fast performance despite not yet having the engine upgrade. Lorenzo has one less engine left from his allocation than Rossi at this stage of the season so he is likely to wait until later in the weekend to use the new one. He is hopeful that he and his crew can make some small improvements to their rear traction tomorrow but he is already in good shape and finished the day three-tenths off his team-mate. The Mallorcan’s only championship rival, Dani Pedrosa, fell during the session and is expected to undergo surgery tomorrow to fix a broken collarbone. Valentino Rossi Position: 1st Time: 1’48.174 Laps: 27 “I’m really happy about today, it is honestly a big surprise for me to be first! I was expecting to suffer a lot here with my shoulder because there are so many hard braking areas but in fact they are all quite straight so I was happy to find I was okay. In fact I felt very good on the bike right from the start and we have done a great job here with the setting. I used the new engine and Yamaha have done an excellent job on it, it is especially better in fourth and fifth gears and everything is working very well. I know it’s only Friday but it’s a long time since I have been in front like this so I have to enjoy this sweet feeling! I know there’s a chance of rain for the rest of the weekend, which is a pity, and if it is wet we will do our best. I am sorry for Dani; I saw the crash from far off and it’s bad luck, I hope it is not to o bad.” Jorge Lorenzo Position: 3rd Time: 1’48.474 Laps: 27 “We are much better here than in Aragon, which is a relief! I don’t have the new engine yet like Valentino, I hope we can use it soon, but anyway here we lose much less in the straight here compared to at the last race and we have better acceleration. We can improve the traction a bit in some parts of the track but in general this was a good day and we are not so far off Valentino. I hope the rain stays away so we can continue to improve tomorrow. I don’t want to think for now how Dani’s situation will affect me, but I am sorry for him, it’s very bad luck to be injured at this stage of the season.” Davide Brivio Team Manager “It’s been a while since we finished a session in first! This was a really good practice for us because firstly it’s nice to be in front but more importantly because Valentino was able to ride fast from the start. Our base setting worked very well here. We used the new upgraded engine for the first time and it is working well. We are in good shape and we hope to continue like this tomorrow.” Wilco Zeelenberg Team Manager “Firstly I want to say that we are really sorry for Dani and we wish him all the best. Today we tried two different settings and Jorge was able to ride fast with both, so tomorrow we will continue in the same way and try to find the best package. Valentino was using the new engine and it looks very good, so we are looking forward to being able to use it soon as well. Tomorrow we need to find a little bit more rear grip but all in all we have a good rhythm and the bike is feeling good for Jorge.” More, from a press release issued by Marlboro Ducati: DUCATI MARLBORO RIDERS BEGIN SET-UP QUEST AT ‘UNIQUE’ MOTEGI Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden were hard at work today as they began the tricky task of adapting their bike settings to the unique ‘stop and go’ demands of the Motegi circuit. First free practice for the Grand Prix of Japan saw Stoner lap fourth quickest and Hayden thirteenth, with both riders confident of major improvements tomorrow. After his victory last time out in Spain Stoner was quickly on the pace in the Japanese sunshine, which defied wet weather forecasts, although an impressive effort on his ninth lap proved to be his best of nineteen as he struggled to make improvements in the second half of the hour. Hayden, on the other hand, overcame an early technical problem to steadily improve his pace before a late crash halted his progress after eighteen laps. CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 4th 1’48.481 “From the first setting we tried to the second one and we made a huge step forward but after that, as I got more used to the track and found my braking points, we went a little bit backwards with the set-up. Also the rear tyre dropped off a lot towards the end, which affected my pace although it was the softer compound tyre and it had pretty much done race distance so that is not a concern. The question for us is whether we can get our bike working with the hard compound tomorrow. Hopefully the weather stays like this and allows us that opportunity because we have plenty of things we want to try.” NICKY HAYDEN (Ducati Marlboro Team) 13th 1’49.882 “The session didn’t start so well, I had a brake problem and had to come in after one lap and just generally struggled to get into a rhythm over my first couple of runs. After that we made a change and immediately I felt better and improved my time. Unfortunately halfway around my next lap I made a mistake in the hairpin and crashed. It was only a little one I lost the front and then saved it but my left foot came up and I just tipped off the inside of the bike. It was a bummer because I lost quite a bit of track time and looking at my ideal lap I would have been seventh fastest. This track is quite unique and always takes a little bit of work on the set-up so even though things haven’t gone smoothly today I am satisfied that we are close to where we need to be and we have some clear ideas about tomorrow.” More, from a press release issued by Pramac Racing Team: THE PRAMAC RACING TEAM RIDERS APPEAR ON THE FOURTEEHTH AND FIFTEEHNTH POSITION AFTER THE FIRST FREE PRACTISE OF JAPAN GRAND PRIX. Difficult start for the Pramac Racing Team riders on Motegi’s track in first free practice of the Japanese Grand Prix. Aleix Espargar stops the clock with almost two seconds of gap from the fastest lap time clocked by Valentino Rossi. Same goes for Mika Kallio who had a gap of almost three seconds. Both riders have scored their best lap time during their last lap. During the first free practice sessions there have been some changes on the bikes of both riders to allow them to be more stable in curve entrance. Aleix’s second sector time was very good, the Spaniard was in fact the ninth fastest rider, a fact on which the technicians will be able to work this afternoon to try to close the gap accused by other riders also in the other sectors. The hope now is that the changes made today will allow both to mark an important lap time during the second free practice session tomorrow, so that they can fight with other riders for a good starting grid position on the twelfth MotoGP Gr and Prix on this track. Fabiano Sterlacchini – Technical Director “During today’s free practice we worked on both bikes to try some settings that we will use tomorrow during qualifying session. We worked on the tyres trying both compounds. In particular, we noticed that the first setting we have try on Mika’s bike was not ideal because it didn’t allowed him to enter with the right speed through the corners, once pitted in we had try a different suspension set up, the work undertaken had a good response but not as we expected. We then made a further modify which allowed Mika to turn on a low 1′.51. The good response we had with the last setting on both bikes bodes us well for tomorrow’s second free practice, where we will try to reduce the gap we had from the first rider and find the right setting that will allows us to compete for a good position on the starting grid. ” Aleix Espargar – Pramac Racing Team – 15th best time in 1’50 .158 “I’m partially happy with how things went today, I had some problems with my forearm that did not allow me to push hard as I wanted. Certainly the result and the two seconds of gap from the first is not exciting, but we’ve got to work a lot and find the right setup that will allow us to gain a good starting grid position tomorrow for the Sunday’s Grand Prix. I have never race on this circuit with a MotoGP bike, and for this reason that during tomorrow second free practice session I’ll continue to improve my feeling with this track. In particular I have to work more in the third and last sector where I accuse the greatest gap from other riders. ” Mika Kallio – Pramac Racing Team – 16th best time in 1’51 .105 “I hadn’t got big problems with my bike even though it was slightly unstable in the curve in some sectors. Thanks to the latest setup made by my technicians, I was able to score my best lap time. Also during the last exit from the pits I had find some instructions to give to my technical to made them work on my bike so that they will made it perfectly balanced. Tomorrow we will start from here to reduce the gap that separates me from the best riders. ” More, from a press release issued by LCR Honda: REAR GRIP ISSUE FOR RANDY AT MOTEGI GP OPENING DAY Motegi, 1 October: sunny skies and air temperature of 26 degrees welcomed the premier class riders today at opening free practice for the Japanese Grand Prix at the Motegi Circuit which hosts the fourteenth round of the season. The 4.801 km track was built as a Honda track and the HRC riders have the added motivation for a good performance. This is the event that was postponed from its original date in April this year due to the widespread travel disruption caused by the erupting Icelandic volcano. LCR Honda racer Randy de Puniet completed the first session 14th overall clocking his fastest lap time of 1’49.957 (on lap 22 of 24). LCR squad worked to fine tune the base set-up testing some tyres ahead tomorrow’s predicted bad weather but the Frenchman aboard the RC212V struggled with rear grip issue. De Puniet 14th 1’49.957 De Puniet: “Well… the first part of the session was pretty positive but when I tried to push I could not really improve my lap time. We had some rear grip problems and I could not handle the bike as I would like. We are missing edge grip and I can not do consistent lap times in these conditions. I am not happy about this first practice but I know the guys will work on suspension regulations to give me a better bike for tomorrows qualifying session”. More, from a press release issued by Dorna Communications: After having experienced dip in form in recent weeks following his injury-plagued season, Valentino Rossi got his Grand Prix of Japan weekend off to a promising start with the fastest lap of the first free practice session on Friday. The reigning World Champion clocked a best time of 1’48.174 with his final lap of the Twin Ring Motegi circuit and in doing so snatched top spot from fellow Italian Andrea Dovizioso, leaving him 0.213s clear at the end of the hour-long practice. However the major talking point of the day was an extremely unfortunate stroke of bad luck for Spain’s Dani Pedrosa. Heading into the weekend Pedrosa sat 56 points behind compatriot Jorge Lorenzo and is the only rider capable of preventing the Mallorcan from winning the title, however inside the opening five minutes of the session the Repsol Honda rider crashed out, fracturing his left collarbone in three places. The 25 year-old had completed just two laps when he came off his factory RC212V between turns eight and nine, and was stretchered to the medical centre where his injury was confirmed following X-rays. Pedrosa will miss this weekend’s race and will return to Spain where he will undergo surgery before making a decision on when he will make his racing return. That left Dovizioso to carry the flag for the factory team and the Italian led until the final moments of the session, eventually placing second with his time of 1’48.387. Just 0.087s behind him was Lorenzo, who was exactly three-tenths of a second off his team-mate Rossi’s pace. Casey Stoner set the fourth fastest time on his Ducati Desmosedici GP10, just seven-thousandths off Lorenzo, with Ben Spies (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) recovering from a moment midway through the session to place fifth. Hiroshi Aoyama (Interwetten Honda MotoGP) completed the top six after an impressive session ended with the Japanese rider looking in good shape for his home GP. Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Héctor Barberá (Páginas Amarillas Aspar), Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) on his return after a one-race absence through injury and Marco Simoncelli (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) were all inside the top ten. There were run-offs during the session for Randy de Puniet (LCR Honda), Marco Melandri (San Carlo Honda Gresini Team) and Aleix Espargaró (Pramac Racing), whilst Nicky Hayden (Ducati Team) had a crash inside the final five minutes, from which the American walked away uninjured. Moto2 Julián Simón laid down the fastest time in the first practice for the Moto2 class at Motegi with a lap of 1’54.203, however the Mapfre Aspar rider’s positive signal of intent fell flat as he crashed out at the very end of the hour-long session. It was a minor incident thankfully, and Simón led Championship frontrunner Toni Elías of the Gresini Racing team on the timesheet. Elías was 0.124s off his compatriot’s pace, with Alex de Angelis (JiR Moto2) completing the top three at an almost identical distance further back. Scott Redding, whom it was announced will continue with the Marc VDS Racing Team for the 2011 and 2012 seasons yesterday, was fourth and just two-thousandths of a second down on De Angelis. Yonny Hernández (Blusens-STX) and Simone Corsi (JiR Moto2) completed the top six, with Yusuke Teshima (FCC TSR) the highest placing home rider of the session in seventh. Dominique Aegerter (Technomag-CIP), Gabor Talmacsi (Fimmco Speed Up) and Claudio Corti (Forward Racing) were all inside the top ten, with the race winner from last time out at Aragón, Andrea Iannone (Fimmco Speed Up), down in 27th position by the end of the practice. 125cc Nico Terol settled into his rhythm immediately as the Bancaja Aspar rider set the fastest lap of the opening 125cc practice session. The Spaniard’s best time of the hour a 1’59.882 was the only lap under two minutes as he broke that barrier and then improved on his own effort again, finishing 0.203s ahead of rival Marc Márquez (Red Bull Ajo Motorsport). The gap from Márquez to third-placed Sandro Cortese (Avant Mitsubishi Ajo) was 0.320s, with Bradley Smith (Bancaja Aspar) a fraction over three-hundredths further back. The Brit had a minor run-off as he pushed hard to improve his time, eventually marking his best effort on his 15th and final lap. Pol Espargaró, fresh off the back of his victory at Aragón, had a difficult session which saw the Tuenti Racing rider crash twice. The first incident, at turn four, was a slow speed slide from which he recovered immediately to climb back aboard his Derbi machine. Towards the end of the session the Spanish rider then had a high-side coming out of the same turn which saw him limp off the side of the track. He ended fifth fastest at over seven-tenths off Terol’s pace. Efrén Vázquez (Tuenti Racing), Tomoyoshi Koyama (Racing Team Germany) and Alberto Moncayo (Andalucia Cajasol) completed the top eight. There were also falls for wild card rider Hikari Ookubo (18 Garage Racing Team) and Jonas Folger of Team Ongetta towards the start of the session, neither of which resulted in any further problems. More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda: DOVIZIOSO SECOND AT MOTEGI, PEDROSA FALLS AND BREAKS COLLARBONE Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso finished in second place in the first free practice session for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Japan. The 24-year-old Italian was quickly into his stride at the Twin Ring Motegi and rapidly established a promising machine set-up for his Honda RC212V. Steadily improving his pace throughout the hour, Dovizioso was in first position in the closing minutes until Valentino Rossi pipped him for top spot with his final lap. Dovizioso is confident of further improvements in tomorrow’s practice and qualifying session, should the dry weather hold at Motegi. For Dovizioso’s team-mate, it was a much less happy day, Pedrosa falling early in the session and suffering a double fracture of the left collarbone which means the Spaniard is unfortunately out of the Grand Prix of Japan. The crash happened only five minutes into the session when the 25-year-old was still getting up to speed. As he began braking for tur n nine, he lost control and fell, with his left leg at first remaining under the bike as he slid into the gravel. The unlucky fall, just three laps into the session, was caused when a small problem with the throttle cable didn’t allow Pedrosa to close the throttle when he came to brake, an issue which has already been investigated and resolved. Pedrosa will return home to Spain tonight, with an operation scheduled for tomorrow to plate the fractured collarbone. Dovizioso will be back on track tomorrow morning for practice, with qualifying taking place at 13.55. ANDREA DOVIZIOSO 2nd 1m 48.387s +0.213s “I’m happy with today’s session and especially with the lap time – today we started from a good base. In fact I think that we have a margin to improve further so I’m confident for the rest of the weekend. This is a track with particular characteristics; it has sections of strong acceleration and also parts where you brake aggressively, that’s why it’s important to find a good compromise to control the bike wheeling and get the best acceleration. I’m also very confident that we can improve because today we used the same tyres throughout the session and I didn’t test the front hard tyre that seems to give an advantage. I’m really sorry for Dani. It’s always very bad for a rider when there are injuries. I was behind him and it was a bad crash. He fell quite hard and stayed under the bike when he slid. I hope he can recover soon.” DANI PEDROSA “Obviously this has been a really bad day for us. It was a strange crash in only my second full lap, in a slow section of the track. I tried to stop the bike as usual but I knew something was wrong and couldn’t avoid going down. After the crash I knew immediately that I was injured because it was very painful. I had a big impact in my left ankle and also my collarbone was broken as I hit the track – so obviously it feels very unlucky because recently we have had really good results. I’ve been very healthy through the pre-season and through the year and we had been working a lot to get to and stay at the maximum level. Another injury to contend with is really not what I needed – I don’t feel as though I deserve it. Anyway, once the doctors had checked everything here, we decided it was best to go back to Spain for the operation. I hope it goes as well as possible and that I can return to racing soon.” TOSHIYUKI YAMAJI – REPSOL HONDA TEAM MANAGER “Andrea did a good job today and he has the potential to improve his pace still further. He and his team worked will today and he’s looking on course for a strong race. For Dani it’s obviously very disappointing that he has suffered this injury. At any time this wouldn’t be good, but Dani was in excellent form and so the timing – at the start of three races in close succession – is very unfortunate. We have looked closely into the reasons for the crash and hope that Dani can return to fitness and to racing quickly.”