MotoGP Catalunya: Lorenzo edges Pedrosa in first practice
Jorge Lorenzo edged out Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow in an extremely close first practice session for MotoGP's Catalunya Grand Prix at Barcelona
Pedrosa looked like he would be the man to beat as he very quickly got to within a few tenths of lap record pace on his Honda, setting an early 1m42.6s benchmark.
But Lorenzo was able to respond, producing a 1m42.422s for Yamaha to claim the top spot.
Although Pedrosa improved, he had to settle for second, just 0.023 seconds adrift.
Tech 3 Yamaha rider Crutchlow then put himself into a contention with a lap only 0.070s slower than Lorenzo.
Valentino Rossi and Andrea Dovizioso completed the top five.
Alvaro Bautista hung on to sixth despite crashing at Turn 1 late on.
Marc Marquez had a low-key first session and was only ninth, behind Stefan Bradl and Nicky Hayden.
CRT pacesetter Aleix Espargaro jumped into the top 10 with his final lap, demoting Andrea Iannone.
Michele Pirro was back in 13th on the Ducati lab bike, entered in place of the injured Ben Spies at Pramac this weekend.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap Laps 1. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m42.422s 17 2. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m42.445s + 0.023s 18 3. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m42.492s + 0.070s 17 4. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m42.861s + 0.439s 20 5. Andrea Dovizioso Ducati 1m43.111s + 0.689s 17 6. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 1m43.112s + 0.690s 14 7. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 1m43.196s + 0.774s 19 8. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m43.488s + 1.066s 19 9. Marc Marquez Honda 1m43.641s + 1.219s 19 10. Aleix Espargaro Aspar Aprilia 1m43.814s + 1.392s 16 11. Andrea Iannone Pramac Ducati 1m44.069s + 1.647s 20 12. Bradley Smith Tech 3 Yamaha 1m44.392s + 1.970s 19 13. Michele Pirro Ducati 1m44.519s + 2.097s 13 14. Randy de Puniet Aspar Aprilia 1m44.558s + 2.136s 16 15. Colin Edwards Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m45.167s + 2.745s 18 16. Karel Abraham Cardion Aprilia 1m45.251s + 2.829s 18 17. Danilo Petrucci Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m45.371s + 2.949s 20 18. Hector Barbera Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m45.457s + 3.035s 14 19. Yonny Hernandez PBM Aprilia 1m45.824s + 3.402s 15 20. Hiroshi Aoyama Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 1m45.925s + 3.503s 17 21. Claudio Corti Forward FTR-Kawasaki 1m46.263s + 3.841s 18 22. Michael Laverty PBM-Aprilia 1m46.750s + 4.328s 18 23. Bryan Staring Gresini FTR-Honda 1m47.070s + 4.648s 20 24. Lukas Pesek Ioda-Suter-BMW 1m47.483s + 5.061s 14
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