Repsol Honda rider Andrea Dovizioso was third fastest as Casey Stoner set the pace during Friday practice for the MotoGP Red Bull U.S Grand Prix at Lagua Seca.
The Italian’s time of 1’22.225 was around half a second off Stoner’s pace – the Australian setting a time just 0.021s slower than Jorge Lorenzo’s 2009 pole time. Lorenzo was the only rider apart from Stoner to go under 1’22” yesterday.
“We got into a good rhythm quickly and we’re faster than we were last year here so I’m happy with the start,” said Dovizioso. “This year’s RC212V is much more controllable and so it’s quite a lot easier to get into a rhythm and set quick and consistent lap times.”
Dani Pedrosa was fourth quickest, three tenths behind team-mate Dovizioso as he bids to win back-to-back grands prix and eat into Lorenzo’s 47-point lead at the top of the standings. And he is confident his bike is showing good potential.
“I know we can improve quite a lot from today so I’m reasonably confident about the rest of the weekend,” Pedrosa said. “After the first run this afternoon we made some settings adjustments to the bike which didn’t improve the pace as we’d anticipated and there are a few areas we need to work on in order to move forward.”
Behind the Spaniard, home rider Ben Spies and Valentino Rossi made up the top six. Meanwhile, Pramac’s Mika Kallio was 11th with a time of 1’23.825.
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