Dani Pedrosa dominated both sessions of Friday practice with a blistering performance to lead the way for the Malaysian Grand Prix at Sepang. (Next: MotoGP Malaysia Free Practice 3)
Honda team mate Casey Stoner, who clinched his second premier class title at his home race in Australia last weekend, was the only rider within a second of the Spaniard.
Italian Andrea Dovizioso completed a Honda top-three ahead of Sunday’s race.
“Today we went pretty quick, even though the track wasn’t very clean,” said Pedrosa.
“We’ve taken some good steps but we have to perform in the same style tomorrow and Sunday.”
After dominating the morning, Pedrosa and Stoner tussled for top spot for the first half of practice two before Pedrosa opened the throttle to pull clear.
Pedrosa, fourth in Phillip Island last week and fourth in the world championship standings, was 0.641 seconds faster than Stoner in the morning session.
He stretched his advantage to 0.820 over Stoner in the afternoon with a scorching lap of two minutes, 1.250 seconds in the closing minutes with Dovizioso on their coat-tails.
Ben Spies, who missed last Sunday’s race after a crash in qualifying, rode bravely to ninth for Yamaha while seven-times MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi was a distant 13th.
Rossi, winless since victory for Yamaha at Sepang last season, was 2.427 seconds slower than Pedrosa, encapsulating the Italian’s troubled season at Ducati.
Stoner, world champion in 2007 with Ducati, captured his second title with a fifth successive Australian GP victory as nearest rival, Yamaha’s Jorge Lorenzo was rushed to hospital for finger surgery after a crash in practice.
World championship leader Stefan Bradl was quickest for Kalex in Moto2 practice after title Marc Marquez crashed out in the morning to miss the afternoon session.
The Spanish Suter rider suffered a Friday morning spill last weekend and is on 251 points to German Bradl’s 254 as the title appears headed to go to the wire.
Race organisers were fined 15,000 Euros by the sport’s governing FIM after marshals failed to warn Moto2 riders of a wet patch of track at the start of the morning session.
The failure to produce warning flags forced Marquez to sit out the afternoon session after landing heavily on his shoulder and also led to a broken collarbone for Briton Bradley Smith.
Aprilia’s world championship leader Nico Terol took the initiative during 125cc practice with a lap time 0.6 seconds clear of Phillip Island winner Sandro Cortese.
The Spaniard starts the race with a 25-point lead over Derbi’s Johann Zarco and will be win the title if he finishes ahead of the Frenchman, or Zarco fails to score, on Sunday.
Source: Yahoo SPorts
