Casey Stoner was fastest in practice for the Catalunya Grand Prix on Friday, while Texan Colin Edwards crashed and broke his right collarbone.
Australian Honda rider Stoner, second in the MotoGP standings behind Yamaha’s world champion Jorge Lorenzo after four races, clocked a time of 1 minute, 42.940 seconds in the second session at the rain-soaked circuit outside Barcelona ahead of today’s race.
Edwards, sixth-fastest in the morning session, landed heavily after crashing at turn five in the afternoon and tests confirmed the broken collarbone.
Photos: Reuters
“It looks like he paid a heavy price for a very small mistake,” Herve Poncharal, manager of Edwards’s Monster Yamaha Tech 3 team, said on the team Web site.
“He landed heavily on his shoulder and it was clear from the TV pictures that he was in a lot of pain,” he added. “He will have an operation tonight, so we should have a clearer idea of how long the recovery process will be later this weekend.”
Italy’s Marco Simoncelli was second-fastest on his Honda with a lap of 1 minute, 43.468 seconds followed by Stoner’s teammate Andrea Dovizioso, who snatched third from Lorenzo in the final seconds at 1 minute, 43.603 seconds, 0.870 seconds quicker than the Spaniard.
“We’re quite happy with the day, unfortunately we didn’t get a lot of good wet or dry track time so a lot of time was wasted in changeable conditions and not achieving much,” said Stoner, who has been suffering from sinusitis.
“However, in general we got a pretty good feeling with the bike and everything seems to be working well,” he said. “Physically I feel better than I have done in the past weeks. I’ve got blocked sinuses which doesn’t help when I’m trying to concentrate and my ears are popping but I’m trying to put this to one side and concentrate on the job at hand.”
Stoner, who won at Le Mans last month, sought a fourth pole of the season in qualifying yesterday.
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