MotoGP – Estoril FP1 – Stoner precedes Rossi and Nakano

It's not raining anymore. Weather conditions are improving slightly, but not enough to be able to verify the competitiveness of the MotoGP bikes at the Circuito do Estoril. The first free practice session thus offers an easily understandable prospect, with the brawl in the "wet" between Casey Stoner and Valentino Rossi, always at the top, authors of the best performances this morning. Swapping the lead in the time table several times, in the end the reigning Australian world champion prevailed, setting the best time in 1'47"900, almost 7 tenths (!) ahead of his home rival Fiat Yamaha. Therefore, the fight is among the expected protagonists of this weekend followed by a large group of outsiders, from Shinya Nakano (3rd) to Anthony West, usually very fast in precarious conditions with his Kawasaki.

Behind the Australian discussed in his garage we find team-mate John Hopkins, followed by Nicky Hayden, the Suzukis of Capirossi and Vermeulen and Sylvain Guintoli, another protagonist of "wet" races (how can we forget the GP of Le last year's Mans). In any case, gaps of more than 2″, as for Andrea Dovizioso, 11th ahead of Jorge Lorenzo and Marco Melandri, the latter 2″8 behind teammate Stoner.

A feverish Alex De Angelis and Daniel Pedrosa were further behind, only 16th and incredibly ahead of the two Yamaha M1s of the Tech 3 team driven, in order, by Colin Edwards and James Toseland. Both making their debut with the pneumatic valve engine, they expected anything but less than optimal weather conditions to discover this important and long-awaited innovation brought by the house of the Tre Diapason...