Subscribe

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe

Casey Stoner tops wet final Brno practice, despite crashing early on

Casey Stoner bounced back from an early crash to set the pace in a wet final practice session for the Czech Grand Prix at Brno

The Australian had not even completed a flying lap when he dropped the front end of his Honda under braking for Turn 3 only five minutes into the session.

While the bike went end-over-end at high speed into the gravel trap, the Australian was unhurt, and despite only completing limited laps during the opening half hour, his best lap of 2m07.321s with eight minutes left was enough to put him top of the timesheets.

The man he knocked off the top - by 0.3s - was his world championship rival Jorge Lorenzo. The Yamaha rider did improve his time towards the end though and wound up only 0.005s shy of Stoner.

Valentino Rossi and Nicky Hayden were third and fifth for Ducati, the pair split by Friday pace-setter Dani Pedrosa's Honda.

Hiroshi Aoyama and Cal Crutchlow were impressive in sixth and seventh places for the Gresini Honda and Tech-3 Yamaha squads respectively, while Andrea Dovizioso (Honda), Marco Simoncelli (Gresini) and Ben Spies (Yamaha) completed the top 10.

Like Stoner, John Hopkins crashed at Turn 3, but the Suzuki rider returned to his garage complaining of pains in his hand. He was taken to the Clinica Mobile with a suspected broken finger that could put him out of action for the rest of the weekend.

Pos  Rider              Team               Time             Laps
 1.  Casey Stoner       Honda              2m07.321s          13
 2.  Jorge Lorenzo      Yamaha             2m07.326s + 0.005  16
 3.  Valentino Rossi    Ducati             2m07.443s + 0.122  16
 4.  Dani Pedrosa       Honda              2m07.652s + 0.331  18
 5.  Nicky Hayden       Ducati             2m07.695s + 0.374  17
 6.  Hiroshi Aoyama     Gresini Honda      2m07.743s + 0.422  18
 7.  Cal Crutchlow      Tech 3 Yamaha      2m07.806s + 0.485  15
 8.  Andrea Dovizioso   Honda              2m07.877s + 0.556  17
 9.  Marco Simoncelli   Gresini Honda      2m07.944s + 0.623  16
10.  Ben Spies          Yamaha             2m08.089s + 0.768  17
11.  Karel Abraham      Cardion AB Ducati  2m08.460s + 1.139  18
12.  Colin Edwards      Tech 3 Yamaha      2m08.516s + 1.195  17
13.  Alvaro Bautista    Suzuki             2m08.644s + 1.323  17
14.  Loris Capirossi    Pramac Ducati      2m08.881s + 1.560  17
15.  Toni Elias         LCR Honda          2m08.936s + 1.615  17
16.  Randy de Puniet    Pramac Ducati      2m08.985s + 1.664  18
17.  Hector Barbera     Aspar Ducati       2m10.046s + 2.725  16
18.  John Hopkins       Suzuki             2m13.479s + 6.158  5

Be part of the Autosport community

Join the conversation
Previous article Dani Pedrosa upbeat about physical form after topping practice at Brno
Next article Casey Stoner admits he is struggling with set-up issues in Brno

Top Comments

There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?

Sign up for free

  • Get quick access to your favorite articles

  • Manage alerts on breaking news and favorite drivers

  • Make your voice heard with article commenting.

Autosport Plus

Discover premium content
Subscribe