Day one: 2013 Australian MotoGP

Jorge Lorenzo clearly hasn’t heard the English saying that you shouldn’t kick a man when he’s down.

The Yamaha ace saw Honda rivals Marc Marquez and Dani Pedrosa both come to grief during the second 45-minute free practice session for Sunday’s Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix and promptly fired in his fastest laps of the day to top the times for the second session running.

Lorenzo’s best time was a 1:28.961, just a quarter of a second slower than Casey Stoner’s outright lap record of 1:28.665 when the Australian took pole position in 2008 for Ducati.

Marquez, 43 points shy of the world title, came off the RC213V just six minutes into the session when the back wheel stepped out on the crest at Lukey Heights.

Unhurt, Marquez returned to the pits and was able to get out on track and finish the session in sixth place overall but over a second off Lorenzo’s pace.

Pedrosa, meanwhile, had a bizarre moment after half an hour when he pulled the Honda off-track on the inside of Turn 2 with what looked like a bolt or linkage trailing out of the bike’s left-hand side.

Pedrosa was third-quickest behind Alvaro Bautista, who had a crash of his own at Turn 2 on the Gresini Honda but put in another impressive session with a best lap of 1:28.961 and the top speed of 343.9 km/h to boot.

Twice Valentino Rossi was on flying laps that looked likely to depose his Yamaha teammate from the top spot but the Italian lost out both times in the final sector where Lorenzo is so strong through his ‘magic’ Turn 12. Rossi ended up fourth ahead of Cal Crutchlow’s Tech 3 Yamaha.

Bryan Staring said earlier he had done ”a million more laps round here than any other track” but the West Australian still ended up 21st overall on the other Gresini bike, the CRT FTR Honda, 3.3 seconds off the top time.

Damian Cudlin was two places worse off on the PBM, six seconds down, while Stefan Bradl did not appear on the LCR Honda and has not yet decided whether to withdraw from the weekend.

“It’s up to him,” said team boss Lucio Cecchinello. “What he already did is not normal and the support we have had is fantastic. We are already happy that he tried.”

Moto2
Tito Rabat picked up where he left off this morning when he parked his Tuenti HP40 Kalex on top of the time sheets after the second Moto2 free practice session at Phillip Island.

The 24-year-old Spaniard couldn’t quite match his morning time but was just 0.097 seconds slower at 1:33.254 in a session where the top 10 riders were covered by almost exactly one second.

Second was World Championship leader Scott Redding on 1:33.273, just 19 thousandths behind, with Pol Espargaro third a further two-tenths away as the Kalex trio leading the title chase also led the session.

Redding will be satisfied with his day’s work as he goes in pursuit of a first podium finish since his home victory at Silverstone four races ago.
Once again Jordi Torres, buoyed by the news that he has been retained by the Aspar team for 2014, finished fourth-fastest, while behind him was Swiss rider Dominique Aegerter on a Suter.

Aegerter, 23, is on the brink of equalling the second-longest streak of points-scoring finishes: if he is in the top 15 on Sunday it will be the 31st straight time, level with Andrea Dovizioso and just three behind Luca Cadalora.

Another rider catching the eye was reigning Moto3 World Champion Sandro Cortese. The 23-year-old German was sixth-quickest on his Kalex, with Island specialist Alex de Angelis, Moto2 winner here in 2010 and 2011, eighth on the Forward Racing Speed Up.

Belgian rider Xavier Simeon, a podium finisher in France earlier this year, fought back well after the big Turn 1 accident that sidelined him for the whole of the first free practice session, finishing ninth.

The news was not so good for the morning’s other big crasher, who coincidentally rides for the same team, Marcel Schrotter: the 20-year-old was off his Maptaq SAG Zelos Kalex again early in the session and although unhurt finished 17th.

Australia’s Ant West took a backward step when the QMMF Speed Up, 14th in the opening session, was 21st and just over two seconds off the pace in the second.

Moto3
Maverick Vinales has produced a cracking pace to come out on top in the second free practice session for the Moto3 class at the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

The Spaniard uncorked a best lap of 1:38.198 on his KTM, which broke compatriot Luis Salom’s previous track record of 1:38.332 that was only set in this morning’s opening practice session.

Meanwhile, German Jonas Folger (1:38.220), Malaysian Zulfahmi Khairuddin (KTM, 1:38.224), World Championship leader Salom (KTM, 1:38.235) and Italian Niccolo Antonelli (Honda, 1:38.383) weren’t far behind Vinales in free practice two, as the build-up intensifies ahead of qualifying tomorrow afternoon.

Australia’s two world championship regulars, Jack Miller (Honda, 1:39.129) and Arthur Sissis (KTM, 1:39.181), were 12th and 14th respectively. Sissis, a former junior speedway star, climbed a massive 10 spots up from his result in FP1. Miller was actually slower in FP2, but the Townsville native has been concentrating on developing a consistent pace ahead of Sunday’s 23-lap race.

It’s already been announced that Miller will be joining Sissis’ current team, Red Bull KTM Ajo, in 2014, while Sissis’ future remains up in the air.

After a frustrating start to FP2 with a brake problem, 22-year-old Aussie wildcard Lachlan Kavney (Bullet) bounced back to set a best lap of 1:44.834, while compatriot Callum Barker (Honda) failed to set a time within a 107 per cent of Vinales’ best – a situation he will have to address in qualifying if he is to gain automatic entry into Sunday’s race.

Allerton (BMW) defeated Maxwell (Suzuki) by just 0.044 seconds in the eight-lapper, as the pair pulled clear in the second half of the race to make the battle for top spot their own.

And as the battle intensified so did the pace, with Allerton setting the fastest lap of the race (1:33.165) at the finish.

Allerton only took the lead for the first time at turn four on the final lap, and then his pace through the back of the high-speed Grand Prix circuit firmly put the shutters up on Maxwell – although the Suzuki rider never gave up, as the final margin shows.

The battle for the final podium spot was just as energetic, with Suzuki’s Robbie Bugden outlasting Jamie Stauffer (Honda) after the latter was baulked by lapped traffic on the final lap. Stauffer was the early leader before Maxwell passed him on lap three.
Meanwhile, young gun Josh Hook (Honda) was a lonely fifth after he eventually saw off the challenge of Linden Magee (BMW).

Supersport
Polesitter Aiden Wagner has produced a superb runaway victory in the opening Supersport race at the 2013 Tissot Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix.

Wagner, still a C-grader, showed all the poise and race craft of an A-grader as he saw off the early challenge of great mate and fellow Yamaha rider Callum Spriggs, eventually cruising to a 2.831-second triumph after eight laps of the picturesque seaside circuit.

He also set the fastest lap of the race with a rapid-fire 1:37.270.
“I got a bit of a dodgy start but then I managed to reel in Callum and make it a good fight,” said Wagner. “After I got into the lead I kept on pushing hard the whole way and it’s such a great feeling to take the race win. Hopefully I’ll be up here a few more times before the weekend is out.”

With Spriggs firmly entrenched in second place, third place wasn’t such a formality, with the battle eventually boiling down to a three-rider scrum between Mike Jones, Ryan Taylor and Aussie No. 3 Michael Blair – all Yamaha riders as well.

Taylor eventually won that battle, ahead of Jones – whose team performed a miracle to be even on the grid after a huge bike-destroying crash in qualifying – and Blair, with Michael Lockhart (Kawasaki) a fast-finishing sixth after starting from the last row of grid.

“I jumped on my spare bike this afternoon, and during the first few laps I just felt my way around before I started pushing,” said Jones. “I will now do some more fine-tuning for the final two races.”