MotoGP: Catalonia, not Catalunya (Spoilers)

After the last session, it looks like the fastest and most consistent is Vale and Dani. Knocking of 42's lap after lap after lap.

It's only FP, but who put the fire ants in Nicky's shorts? 2nd behind MM???

Too bad the Duc's tires will never last for race distance

1 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 340.5 1'41.853
2 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 341.4 1'41.916 0.063 / 0.063
3 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 339.1 1'41.987 0.134 / 0.071
4 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 336.7 1'42.009 0.156 / 0.022
5 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 336.7 1'42.064 0.211 / 0.055
6 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 337.6 1'42.166 0.313 / 0.102
7 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 339.3 1'42.258 0.405 / 0.092
8 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 337.2 1'42.345 0.492 / 0.087
9 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 339.5 1'42.582 0.729 / 0.237
10 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 327.2 1'42.795 0.942 / 0.213
11 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 334.0 1'42.957 1.104 / 0.162
12 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati 332.9 1'42.970 1.117 / 0.013
13 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 339.3 1'43.106 1.253 / 0.136
14 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 320.2 1'43.260 1.407 / 0.154
15 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 317.5 1'43.652 1.799 / 0.392
16 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 320.4 1'43.942 2.089 / 0.290
17 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 319.0 1'44.167 2.314 / 0.225
18 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing ART 320.7 1'44.434 2.581 / 0.267
19 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 321.5 1'45.136 3.283 / 0.702
20 71 Claudio CORTI ITA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 319.4 1'45.252 3.399 / 0.116
21 7 Hiroshi AOYAMA JPN Avintia Blusens FTR 318.3 1'45.407 3.554 / 0.155
22 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Paul Bird Motorsport ART 318.5 1'45.612 3.759 / 0.205
23 67 Bryan STARING AUS GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 314.9 1'45.686 3.833 / 0.074
24 52 Lukas PESEK CZE Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 313.1 1'46.037 4.184 / 0.351
Weather Conditions:
| Track Condition: Dry| Air: 27º| Humidity: 44%| Ground: 38º

1 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 339.8 1'42.078
2 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 336.1 1'42.122 0.044 / 0.044
3 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 338.8 1'42.387 0.309 / 0.265
4 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 336.3 1'42.606 0.528 / 0.219
5 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 339.4 1'42.721 0.643 / 0.115
6 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 341.5 1'42.865 0.787 / 0.144
7 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 341.0 1'42.921 0.843 / 0.056
8 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 323.5 1'43.173 1.095 / 0.252
9 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 337.5 1'43.478 1.400 / 0.305
10 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 338.9 1'43.539 1.461 / 0.061
11 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 339.1 1'43.584 1.506 / 0.045
12 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 331.8 1'43.788 1.710 / 0.204
13 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati 332.2 1'44.238 2.160 / 0.450
14 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 320.0 1'44.351 2.273 / 0.113
15 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing ART 320.8 1'44.845 2.767 / 0.494
16 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 321.1 1'44.872 2.794 / 0.027
17 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 319.4 1'44.914 2.836 / 0.042
18 71 Claudio CORTI ITA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 322.0 1'45.068 2.990 / 0.154
19 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 322.0 1'45.072 2.994 / 0.004
20 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 322.7 1'45.166 3.088 / 0.094
21 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Paul Bird Motorsport ART 319.3 1'45.654 3.576 / 0.488
22 67 Bryan STARING AUS GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 316.9 1'45.869 3.791 / 0.215
23 52 Lukas PESEK CZE Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 313.8 1'46.516 4.438 / 0.647
24 77 Javier DEL AMOR SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 312.4 1'48.950 6.872 / 2.434
Weather Conditions:
| Track Condition: Dry| Air: 31º| Humidity: 27%| Ground: 49º
Records:

not bad for a shitty satleite bike eh?

Aoyama crashed this morning and got hurt in one hand. He's being operated today en Barcelona.

The team found itself before FP4 at the home GP without its rider, a problem with the sponsors there.

Javier del Amor, a veteran rider of the CEV (spanish championship), who had went to the race as a tourist was called by the team manager.

-You said you were comming to see the race, right?
-Yes I am here, can you see me waving in the stand?
-No I don't, but you come here to the box ASAP, OK?
-we have a good view from here, can I come after the FP?
-NO, you come now. You want to ride our bike at FP4? You want.
-




Basically how it went (he was not in the stand but hanging around in boxes, he might have even crossed path by chance with the manager as Aoyama was put in the ambulance).

My feed just died in Q2

Great. Bautista 4th, directly in front of Rossi in 7th.

And next to Bautista, Hayden in 5th, on the Duc. Oh, the irony.

Just as well Dovi had a bad day.

Happy for Cal, front row.

Watching Moto2 now; go Scott

Petrobot is smokin! If his race pace is anything like QP his only problem will be in getting through the lapped back markers.

Helluva a fast lap, but not so sure Lorenzo won't have a response in the race. The track temp seems to be the wild card -- what's it going to do to the M1's traction over 25 laps?

Love the usual pattern -- lots of anti-Pedrosa predictions, and as the weekend progresses, silence.

Was there really anyone who thought Rossi was going to keep a similar spot on the timing sheet as he did after FP2?

CC super impressive.

Pedrosa fan boy feeling good!

I guess I was the only fool.


©

If it as hot or hotter tomorrow the tires will be a big factor. The bikes and riders who can save the tires the best will likely pick up a position or three between mid point and the finish. Race distance is a long hot ol' way.

Certainly the makings of a good race tomorrow with VR and MM surely to have pretty good race pace and CC hanging onto JLo and DP for dear life.

Flock of Seagulls will be P6 after the 1st lap.

Hm, well strike what I said about soft vs. hard -- Pedrosa says he's probably going with the soft cause the feel with the hard isn't good, but Crutchlow said the hard wasn't too bad. Lorenzo wouldn't say.

With tire drop-off issues, DP will likely try to pull a big gap in the first few laps.

The podium racing will likely occur between JLo, Crutchlow and Marquez.
We could have another finger waving finish.

Rossi would do well to let MM pull him along. Rossi will be lucky to finish ahead of Bautista.




DP
MM
JL
CC

1 26 Dani PEDROSA SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 339.3 1'40.893
2 35 Cal CRUTCHLOW GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 336.3 1'41.501 0.608 / 0.608
3 99 Jorge LORENZO SPA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 336.4 1'41.566 0.673 / 0.065
4 19 Alvaro BAUTISTA SPA GO&FUN Honda Gresini Honda 339.5 1'41.714 0.821 / 0.148
5 69 Nicky HAYDEN USA Ducati Team Ducati 341.5 1'41.800 0.907 / 0.086
6 93 Marc MARQUEZ SPA Repsol Honda Team Honda 342.4 1'41.842 0.949 / 0.042
7 46 Valentino ROSSI ITA Yamaha Factory Racing Yamaha 336.1 1'41.959 1.066 / 0.117
8 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 338.7 1'41.963 1.070 / 0.004
9 4 Andrea DOVIZIOSO ITA Ducati Team Ducati 337.6 1'42.053 1.160 / 0.090
10 6 Stefan BRADL GER LCR Honda MotoGP Honda 339.9 1'42.090 1.197 / 0.037
11 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 330.2 1'42.548 1.655 / 0.458
12 41 Aleix ESPARGARO SPA Power Electronics Aspar ART 324.4 1'42.878 1.985 / 0.330
Weather Conditions:
| Track Condition: Dry| Air: 30º| Humidity: 27%| Ground: 52º

Q1

1 38 Bradley SMITH GBR Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha 330.3 1'42.607
2 29 Andrea IANNONE ITA Energy T.I. Pramac Racing Ducati 338.1 1'42.660 0.053 / 0.053
3 14 Randy DE PUNIET FRA Power Electronics Aspar ART 319.2 1'43.186 0.579 / 0.526
4 51 Michele PIRRO ITA Ignite Pramac Racing Ducati 331.8 1'43.330 0.723 / 0.144
5 8 Hector BARBERA SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 318.5 1'43.659 1.052 / 0.329
6 5 Colin EDWARDS USA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 318.9 1'43.983 1.376 / 0.324
7 17 Karel ABRAHAM CZE Cardion AB Motoracing ART 320.9 1'44.362 1.755 / 0.379
8 9 Danilo PETRUCCI ITA Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 317.3 1'44.369 1.762 / 0.007
9 71 Claudio CORTI ITA NGM Mobile Forward Racing FTR Kawasaki 319.3 1'44.603 1.996 / 0.234
10 70 Michael LAVERTY GBR Paul Bird Motorsport PBM 322.0 1'44.630 2.023 / 0.027
11 68 Yonny HERNANDEZ COL Paul Bird Motorsport ART 318.9 1'44.913 2.306 / 0.283
12 67 Bryan STARING AUS GO&FUN Honda Gresini FTR Honda 317.2 1'45.441 2.834 / 0.528
13 52 Lukas PESEK CZE Came IodaRacing Project Ioda-Suter 313.2 1'46.302 3.695 / 0.861
14 77 Javier DEL AMOR SPA Avintia Blusens FTR 309.4 1'48.952 6.345 / 2.650
Weather Conditions:
| Track Condition: Dry| Air: 30º| Humidity: 26%| Ground: 52º

Did anyone think Hayden was going to keep the 2nd spot he got in FP3 ? Looks like all the practices, the warm up and even qualifying were all about tyre choice. Everyone was fast on the soft, but the gamble is will it last, so were desperately working on getting the harder tyre to work. Race day we will see what they have chosen.

No one sane.

Hayden says he's going with medium compound (softer option) rear as he can't get the hard to work and it drops off big time after a couple of laps.

Even with DP having that crazy lap and, I'd love to see him walk away from the field, any race that threatens tire problems gives JLo a strong chance of winning IMO. The guy is just too ridiculous during the race.