Jorge Lorenzo dominates opening practice at Brno

It was warm and sunny this morning at the fast and flowing Brno circuit for the first MotoGP free practice just a week after the Indianapolis GP - and the second race of the triple header.

Jorge Lorenzo was fast right off the bat - and his lack of training didn’t seem to hinder him any as he lead the entire first session. The Yamaha factory rider posted a best lap in 1.56.698 after several laps done easily in the 1.56s.

Dani Pedrosa strangely enough was also fast taking the second on the timesheets - he usually is a little slower on Friday morning but this time he was +0.343 from Lorenzo. Cal Crutchlow was third and the adventure with thieves who tried to break into his and Colin Edwards motorhomes didn’t affect him one iota, as he was just 0.017s from the Repsol Honda rider.

Indy winner Marc Marquez was fourth fastest, followed by Valentino Rossi who was already more than half a second adrift from his team mate. The Yamaha riders still do not have the seamless transmission, but they do have a two-day test at the track done earlier this month.

Alvao Bautista was sixth with Stefan Bradl in seventh. The LCR Honda rider has to recover some confidence after his three crashes at Indianpolis. Andrea Dovizioso was the fastest Ducati rider in 8th but he was more than 1.2 seconds from Lorenzo, but he was doing a comparative test with two different frames.

Bradley Smith was 9th followed by a trio of Ducatisti, Nicky Hayden, Andrea Iannone and Michele Pirro who is replacing Ben Spies - who underwent a double shoulder surgery yesterday.

Lukas Pesek who was not supposed to be racing this weekend, because of sponsorship problems is instead present, after reaching an agreement with Iodaracing - even if the money still has to arrive - and he concluded his session in 25th.

Bryan Staring crashed his Gresini machine with just a minute left in the practice, but he luckily wasn’t hurt and was left in 24th.

IDM Superbike champion Martin Bauer made his debut in MotoGP as a wildcard with Suter/BMW fielded by Austrian Remus Racing team, and he 22nd.

2013 MotoGP Brno FP1 Results:

01- Jorge Lorenzo – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – 1’56.698
02- Dani Pedrosa – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.343
03- Cal Crutchlow – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.360
04- Marc Marquez – Repsol Honda Team – Honda RC213V – + 0.422
05- Valentino Rossi – Yamaha Factory Racing – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 0.545
06- Alvaro Bautista – GO&FUN Honda Gresini – Honda RC213V – + 0.912
07- Stefan Bradl – LCR Honda MotoGP – Honda RC213V – + 0.996
08- Andrea Dovizioso – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.232
09- Bradley Smith – Monster Yamaha Tech 3 – Yamaha YZR M1 – + 1.249
10- Nicky Hayden – Ducati Team – Ducati Desmosedici GP13 – + 1.332