San Marino GP | Ducati leads the way on the first day
Dovizioso closed the Friday fastest ahead of teammate Lorenzo. Home hero Valentino Rossi after struggling for most of the session finally managed to get into overall top ten times.
Cloud covered the track as the session started. Everyone was on hurry during their first runs – fearing the rain sweeping their opportunity of direct Q2 shoot out.
It wasn’t until four minutes left in the session when Lorenzo put in the hammer down and went fastest of all with a time of 1:32.358 , his time was next minute beaten by teammate Dovizioso by 0.160
Behind the the Ducatis was Honda of Cal Crutchlow who was a 0.027 behind Lorenzo and ahead of the best of the rest of Yamaha of Vinales, who have seem to find something special during the private testing.
After leading most of the session Marc Marquez could manage no better than 5th, 0.126 behind Vinales and a further 0.185 ahead of Danilo Petrucci.
Alex Rins was the best of Suzuki Ecstar as Andrea Iannone suffered a massive crash in his runs.
Valentino Rossi the home hero after working hard for most the session finally managed a time for overall top 10, just 0.011 ahead of fellow Italian Franco Morbidelli who slotted at 9th ahead of Satellite Yamaha’s Johan Zarco.
Dani Pedrosa in the second works Honda managed 11th fastest position 0.014 adrift of Zarco.
Marc Marquez who led most of the session with earlier benchmark of 1:32.537 a tenth faster than the time set by Dovizioso during FP1. Behind Marc for most of the session was Ducati wild card Michele Pirro.
It wasn’t until four minutes remaining in the session that Rossi put in the lap sufficient enough for Q2. But immediately he was knocked out by Lorenzo’s fastest time. Rossi who for most of the session was at 3rd but his time wasn’t sufficient enough to give him a direct shot at Q2. Rossi was the only rider to try Hard Rear on second runs.
Crasher: Hafizh Syahrin crashed at Turn 8 in first part of the session and Scott Redding and Taakaki Nakagami both lost the front at Turn 15 within few minutes of each other. Jack Miller also lost the bike at Turn 16. Andrea Iannone who also become the victim of Turn 15 in last couple of minutes.
Note: FP2 might be the deciding for Q2 as forecast for FP3 shows rain.
Free Practice Nr.2 Times: