This morning's session started on a damp track, then everyone pulled in when rain fell after 10 minutes. With 18 minutes remaining the sun briefly appeared, and
Casey Stoner wheeled the Marlboro Ducati into second place behind Pedrosa, with
Loris Capirossi looking hot for a podium position in front of his home fans on the Rizla Suzuki. But it's impossible to draw too many conclusions from these practice runs on a wet-dry, because raceday is forecast to be warm and dry.
Colin Edwards proved that the Tech 3 Yamaha has podium potential by finishing fifth fastest, so
James Toseland will not be happy with his 16th place, a distant 2.02 seconds behind Pedrosa. More soon on this and the plight of the pneumatic Honda.
Saturday am - West Owes Father One Million Dollars
Will all you bar-room and chatroom punters out there who write off the careers of under-performing riders like they're victims in a video game please read what follows.
Anthony West is probably in your sights at the moment, the 27-year-old Australian struggling with the Kawasaki and sitting last in the
MotoGP championship table. But nobody tries to ride a MotoGP bike slowly.
"It seemed easy when I jumped on the bike last year and got good results [two seventh places after being drafted in at mid-season]," Westy told me. "When you do good everyone becomes your friend and you get a lot of support. But as soon as you're doing bad they're all experts and they're telling you what's wrong with the bike and what's wrong with you."
So what prevents him from repeating his promising debut with the ZX-RR?
"First I thought it was the bike, then I thought it was me," he said. "My biggest problem is confidence: the engine is too aggressive for me. It spins up all the time and it's a real drama. I'm feeling pretty down at the moment, and in this game I know that if I don't improve someone else could easily take my ride."
