Honda’s Dani Pedrosa was fastest out of the blocks Friday in free practice for Sunday’s Aragon Grand Prix, timing a best of 1:50.281 at the Motorland circuit to edge out Yamaha’s world champion Jorge Lorenzo by 0.449sec. Australian Casey Stoner was third-fastest on his Honda at 0.525 with stablemates Marco Simoncelli and Andrea Dovizioso bringing up the rear. Stoner won here last year and set a fast early pace in warm sunshine before Pedrosa pulled out his final gambit. Valentino Rossi, holder of a record seven premier class world championships, stood eighth at 1.395 on his Ducati as he gave a maiden run out to a new aluminium chassis, twice running off the track before he then found his pace.
The afternoon practice session for the MotoGP class was delayed before being eventually postponed owing to a circuit power shortage. Spaniard Marc Marquez of Suter was fastest in the Moto2 category ahead of Aleix Espargaro and Andrea Iannone while in the 125cc class Aprilia’s Nicolas Terol led the way ahead of Maverick Vinales and Sandro Cortese.