Pedrosa tops wet practice at Indy

The dryest parts of the session book-ended heavy rain in the middle, and the Honda rider's best time of the day, set early on, sat unchallenged throughout most of practice.

Only in the dying minutes of the hour was the racing line dry enough to encourage any attempts to match Pedrosa's lap, which until then was 0.7s faster than anything else.

But Ducati's Nicky Hayden and the Yamahas of Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo all improved on their very last laps and leapt into second, third and fourth places.

Alex de Angelis remained fifth and the top customer bike with his early effort on his Gresini Honda, with James Toseland in sixth on his Tech 3 Yamaha.

Fresh from signing a contract extension with Suzuki, Loris Capirossi was another pressing on at the end, and he and Colin Edwards pushed Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Melandri down to ninth and 10th. Although Capirossi's session ended prematurely when he had a high-side accident a couple of minutes before the end, but he escaped unscathed.

Mika Kallio finished the first day of his second weekend as a works Ducati rider in 11th place, with Chris Vermeulen 12th on his first outing since Suzuki confirmed it will be letting him go at the end of the year.

Aleix Espargaro propped up the timesheet for much of the running while the circuit was at its wettest, but the Spaniard improved at the end to finish 15th, ahead of Scot Honda's Gabor Talmacsi and his Pramac Ducati team-mate Niccolo Canepa.

Pos Rider                Team              Time          Gap
 1. Dani Pedrosa         Honda             1m51.507s
 2. Nicky Hayden         Ducati            1m51.662s  +0.155
 3. Valentino Rossi      Yamaha            1m51.814s  +0.307
 4. Jorge Lorenzo        Yamaha            1m51.894s  +0.387
 5. Alex de Angelis      Gresini Honda     1m52.264s  +0.757
 6. James Toseland       Tech 3 Yamaha     1m52.888s  +1.381
 7. Loris Capirossi      Suzuki            1m52.928s  +1.421
 8. Colin Edwards        Tech 3 Yamaha     1m53.128s  +1.621
 9. Andrea Dovizioso     Honda             1m53.151s  +1.644
10. Marco Melandri       Hayate Kawasaki   1m53.590s  +2.083
11. Mika Kallio          Ducati            1m53.967s  +2.460
12. Chris Vermeulen      Suzuki            1m54.554s  +3.047
13. Randy de Puniet      LCR Honda         1m55.674s  +4.167
14. Toni Elias           Gresini Honda     1m55.788s  +4.281
15. Aleix Espargaro      Pramac Ducati     1m56.204s  +4.697
16. Gabor Talmacsi       Scot Honda        1m56.594s  +5.087
17. Niccolo Canepa       Pramac Ducati     1m58.244s  +6.737