First blood to Lorenzo but all eyes on tyres

MotoGP News
Date: 1/June/2012

A pseudo qualifying session on Friday afternoon in Catalunya ended with MotoGP championship leader Jorge Lorenzo on top of the free practice timesheets for his home Grand Prix of Catalunya.

By contrast, title rival and morning pace setter Casey Stoner was left down in tenth place for Repsol Honda.

That’s because Stoner elected to stay on the harder compound rear tyre whilst many riders, Lorenzo included, fitted the softer option in the closing stages - producing a flurry of changes.

“Everyone seemed to treat this afternoon's session like it was qualifying, using the softer tyre, but in the end this is their choice!” shrugged Stoner, who had been fastest in the morning.

While the likes of Alvaro Bautista (Gresini) and Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3) shot momentarily to the top with the aid of the softer rubber, Lorenzo set the pace on both types of tyre.

The Spaniard ran the harder option early on, then reclaimed the top spot from Bautista by 0.2sec while using the softer tyre.

Lorenzo said: “We started this morning two tenths behind Casey, then this afternoon from the beginning we’ve been in first position. We tried the hard rear tyre which is very important for this track because it’s a real possibility for the race on Sunday.”

One rider hoping that the soft tyre can last the distance is Bautista, whose second place was by far his best performance as a Honda rider.

“I didn't have a good feeling on the hard tyre no matter what we changed on the setting, but on the soft tyre my pace was decent,” he said. “Tomorrow we'll try to see if we can do full race distance on the soft tyre because it would be a great option for us if we can.”