Yep, you read that right – Bautista tops the first day of practice at Valencia. The afternoon session was affected by heavy rain which gave the final results an unusual twist, with Randy De Puniet in third place and Karel Abraham in 4th. Full practice times below:

1. Alvaro Bautista Suzuki 1m47.975s
2. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m48.316s + 0.341s
3. Randy de Puniet Pramac Ducati 1m48.684s + 0.709s
4. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 1m49.021s + 1.046s
5. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 1m49.350s + 1.375s
6. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m49.422s + 1.447s
7. Valentino Rossi Ducati 1m49.613s + 1.638s
8. Casey Stoner Honda 1m49.674s + 1.699s
9. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m49.820s + 1.845s
10. Josh Hayes Tech 3 Yamaha 1m50.509s + 2.534s
11. Katsuyuki Nakasuga Yamaha 1m51.277s + 3.302s
12. Loris Capirossi Pramac Ducati 1m51.838s + 3.863s
13. Hector Barbera Aspar Ducati 1m51.932s + 3.957s
14. Ben Spies Yamaha 1m52.072s + 4.097s
15. Hiroshi Aoyama Gresini Honda 1m53.286s + 5.311s
16. Toni Elias LCR Honda 1m54.342s + 6.367s

Álvaro Bautista:
“Today has been a good day for us because we have had a full wet session to get some practice in those conditions. In this morning’s session I had a good feeling at the start, but as the track became drier it wasn’t as good and I couldn’t ride at the limit. The bike moved a lot and was spinning-up all over the track, so it was very difficult. In the second session, after the heavy rain, the track was much wetter and the conditions were a lot worse than this morning for all the riders, so it was essential that you rode smoothly and carefully. We changed some settings in the bike to help me get a confident feeling in the GSV-R and at the end of the session I was able to find a good rhythm. We finished first today and although it’s only the second free practice, you cannot improve as much in the wet as you can in the dry, so this is very good for us. I hope that tomorrow we can make some improvements in drying conditions like we had earlier today, but if it is totally dry we still have plenty of work to do to get ready. I am happy with the first day and looking forward to the rest of the weekend.”

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