Saturday, August 16, 2008
{ 12:42 PM }
Valentino Rossi took an important psychological victory in the first MotoGP practice session for the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky, knocking Casey Stoner off the top spot in the final seconds of the run.
Rossi found two-tenths of a second on his last lap to clock a 1´57.782 time, 0.129 faster than fellow title contender Stoner. The two look set for another epic battle this weekend if the early times are anything to go by, having recorded similar race pace in their opening outings.
Over a second down on the championship-leading duo, Shinya Nakano can nonetheless be pleased with his performance in FP1. The Japanese rider was immediately fast with the factory spec Honda RC212V, given to him for the remainder of the season in order to prep the 2009 satellite project. San Carlo Honda Gresini´s other rider, Alex de Angelis, showed that there was still plenty of fight in the 2008 satellite machine, fourth behind teammate Nakano.
Returning from injury after three races out of action, John Hopkins was fifth fastest at the track where he finished runner-up in 2007. The Anglo-American once again crashed his Kawasaki Ninja ZX-RR, but this time suffered no injuries and was able to continue with the session.
Chris Vermeulen, Toni Elias, Loris Capirossi, Colin Edwards and Marco Melandri also occupied spots in the top ten. Dani Pedrosa´s comeback was much the same as his previous attempt at Laguna Seca, as the Spaniard took his time to adjust to riding post-hand injuries. He was last classified, nearly 3.5 seconds down on Rossi.
Valentino Rossi took an important psychological victory in the first MotoGP practice session for the Cardion ab Grand Prix Ceske republiky, knocking Casey Stoner off the top spot in the final seconds of the run.
