Pedrosa tops wet practice at Indy
Dani Pedrosa set the quickest time of a wet first MotoGP practice session at Indianapolis today
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
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