Veteran Valentino Rossi was the fastest rider during the opening MotoGP practice Friday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway (IMS).
Riding his Movistar Yamaha YZR-M1, the nine-time World Champion lapped the newly-reconfigured and newly-repaved 2.591-mile, 16-turn road course in 1:34.535. That’s 3.4 seconds under Marc Marquez’s previous Circuit Best lap record of 1:37.958, which he set in 2013.
Judging from the lap times (20 of the 23 riders were under the old Circuit Best lap record), the revisions to the infield road course’s layout were a big factor in the faster lap times. In fact, the opening up of the final corners leading to the front straightaway also resulted in Dani Pedrosa’s top speed record of 210.085 mph (338.1 kph) being surpassed by Alvaro Bautista’s 211.825 mph (340.9 kph) during FP1.
It’s also important to note that during previous MotoGP events at Indy riders never got close to race pace during Free Practice One and often complained about the lack of grip from the rarely-used surface. Apparently, the new surface, which was even rained on overnight and during the early morning, has much better grip than the previous surface.
Rossi by no means dominated the session. Reigning World Champion and Championship leader Marc Marquez jumped out in front early, and Pramac Ducati’s Andrea Iannone was on top in the late going. But Rossi secured the fast-lap honors on his last lap.
Bradley Smith, riding his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine, jumped up to second with a late lap of 1:34.569. Iannone ended up third at 1:34.579, just ahead of Smith’s teammate Pol Espargaro (1:34.678). Marquez (1:34.885) finished the session fifth, a relatively unusual position for the man who has won all nine MotoGP races so far this season. Marquez’s teammate Pedrosa was a lowly 16th in the session with a time of 1:36.419.
American Colin Edwards was fourth at one point with a lap of 1:35.743 but slipped to 11th by the end of the practice.
No riders crashed during the session.
Red Bull Indianapolis Grand Prix
FIM MotoGP World Championship
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
Indianapolis, Indiana
August 8, 2014
Free Practice One Results (all on Bridgestone tires):
1. Valentino Rossi, Italy (Yamaha), 1:34.535 (New Circuit Best Lap Record)
2. Bradley Smith, UK (Yamaha), 1:34.569
3. Andrea Iannone, Italy (Ducati), 1:34.579
4. Pol Espargaro, Spain (Yamaha), 1:34.678
5. Marc Marquez, Spain (Honda), 1:34.885
6. Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha (Yamaha), 1:35.084
7. Scott Redding, UK (Honda), 1:35.122
8. Aleix Espargaro, Spain (Forward Yamaha), 1:35.283
9. Andrea Dovizioso, Italy (Ducati), 1:35.445
10. Yonny Hernandez, Colombia (Ducati), 1:35.501
11. Colin Edwards, USA (Forward Yamaha), 1:35.743
12. Cal Crutchlow, UK (Ducati), 1:35.935
13. Hiroshi Aoyama, Japan (Honda), 1:35.953
14. Stefan Bradl, Germany (Honda), 1:35.972
15. Karel Abraham, Czech Republic (Honda), 1:35.995
16. Dani Pedrosa, Spain (Honda), 1:36.419
17. Alvaro Bautista, Spain (Honda), 1:36.436
18. Hector Barbera, Spain (FTR-Kawasaki), 1:36.444
19. Broc Parkes, Australia (PBM-Aprilia), 1:36.445
20. Danilo Petrucci, Italy (ART-Aprilia), 1:36.837
21. Michael Laverty, UK (PBM-Aprilia), 1:38.399
22. Mike Di Meglio, France (FTR-Kawasaki), 1:38.405
23. Leon Camier, UK (Honda), 1:39.962
More, from a press release issued by Repsol Honda:
Riders get first taste of new-look Indianapolis
Repsol Honda’s Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa have had their first experience of the new surface and amended track layout for this weekend’s Red Bull Indianapolis GP.
It was a chaotic session with many riders finding themselves on a heavily congested and slippery track. The new surface and revised layout has cut the lap time considerably with the fastest time of the session (1’34.535, Rossi) being almost 3.5s quicker than Marc’s pole from 2013 (1’37.958).
Championship leader, Marc, was 5th for the session with his time of 1’34.885 on lap 16 of 18. Teammate Dani finished this first session 16th with his time of 1’36.419 on lap 15 of 17.
FP2 will commence at 14h05 local time.
TEAM QUOTES
Marc Marquez
5th – 1’34.885
“It’s been a positive morning and after the holidays it was good to get back on the bike. There were a few wet patches at the beginning of the session but it soon dried up. The new surface is quite similar to the one we had last year but it’s less bumpy and the grip will of course improve throughout the weekend. Maybe for our bike the old layout worked better and the new corners make the lap a little easier. There is certainly more corner speed, more banking in the exit of the corner and we stay on the throttle longer – It’s not like before when we could stop the bike and pick it up and go”
Dani Pedrosa
16th – 1’36.419
“The track was quite dirty and with the new surface the tyres suffered a little towards the end of the session. In general it looks like the track is flatter now with less bumps than before and we need to check which rear compound tyre we can use as the hard option might be possible, due to the new asphalt. The layout is quite different especially the last chicane where previously we had to brake but now there is almost no need to slow down! We need to go over the data to analyse how these changes affect us but for sure we have less wheelie than before. At the end of the session some riders put on a new rear tyre, hard and soft, but I decided to stay on the same one as I knew I couldn’t improve my lap time and I think this is a safer option for the weekend”