Dani Pedrosa sets the best lap time in the MotoGP FP2 in Japan

The Honda factory riders have dominated the first day's practice sessions. This time, Dani Pedrosa was the fastest, ahead of Casey Stoner, Andrea Dovizioso and Marco Simoncelli.

By Gloria30 September 2011 · 2 min read

Dani Pedrosa was the fastest in the second MotoGP free practice session at the Motegi circuit. The Catalan showed a strong pace in this FP2 with a 1:46.790.

Pedrosa wants to celebrate his birthday in style, and he wants to give himself a good result, and he will fight at his best in the following practice sessions, the qualifying sessions and the race. Although the 26 was not alone: right behind him was his teammate Casey Stoner, who finished just 0.054s off the pace.

The Australian saw his teammate Pedrosa take the spotlight in this MotoGP session, although the 27 was not far behind, just like the rest of the Honda riders, who dominated without problems on this first day at Motegi.

Andrea Dovizioso closed out the top positions, locking out the front row of the grid alongside his teammates, the Repsol boys. The Honda dominated these first practice sessions in Japan, followed by Marco Simoncelli in fourth place, so the four factory riders were at the top.

The first non-Honda rider was the MotoGP world champion, Jorge Lorenzo, the only one able to put up some fight against the factory Honda, finishing a little over half a second behind Pedrosa and a little more than a tenth ahead of Sic.

Without a doubt a complicated track for the Yamaha riders, since it is a 100% Honda circuit, but the Mallorcan will surely try to stop the golden-wing onslaught.

Closing the top 10 were Nicky Hayden in 6th, Hiroshi Aoyama 7th, Valentino Rossi 8th, Héctor Barberá 9th and Colin Edwards 10th.

Good times for Barberá, very close to Rossi’s lap times with the factory bike, so the Mapfre Aspar Team rider has good feelings despite the stomach problems the 8 is suffering.

Further back, Álvaro Bautista was 11th, Randy De Puniet 12th, Cal Crutchlow 13th, Ben Spies 14th, Toni Elías 15th, Karel Abraham 16th, Akiyoshi 17th, Itoh 18th and Cudlin 19th.

The bad luck fell on Ben Spies. It seems the American was feeling unwell since leaving the United States, and he now has serious stomach problems, having to be seen at the medical clinic.

Now, FP3.