MotoGP News
Date: 14/June/2013
Valentino Rossi caused a stir in Catalunya on Friday when he
outpaced the three home favourites to lead a MotoGP timesheet for the first
time in 2013.
The Italian legend, 34, has been left disappointed in the
four events since claiming a fighting second place on his Yamaha return in Qatar.
Rossi’s season then sunk to a new low when he was knocked
off on the opening lap of his home round, last time at Mugello.
But the nine time world champion scored a welcome morale boost
by blasting to the top in the closing stages of afternoon practice in
Barcelona, beating team-mate and home favourite Jorge Lorenzo by just 0.049s.
Rossi said: “It
is just Friday, but we are so happy. To be in front is a great feeling. We
still need to improve and there are some parts of the racetrack where we can do
better. But I am very fast in the other sections.
“It will be important to start the race in a good position
and especially make the right tyre choice for these hot conditions because it is
hard to keep the pace. I did a lot of laps on the hard tyre this afternoon,
then switched to the soft just at the end when I did my best time.”
Championship leader Dani Pedrosa was third fastest and just
0.148s from the top. Pedrosa’s rookie Repsol Honda team-mate Marc Marquez was
sixth, but halved the gap to the front to 0.6s over the two sessions.
Spanish stars Lorenzo (two), Pedrosa (two) and Marquez (one)
have divided the race victories between them so far this year. The trio all
consider Catalunya to be their home round.
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