Bayliss frightens Rossi in Donington practice.
Donington ace Valentino Rossi found himself under pressure from former WSBK champ Troy Bayliss in this morning's free practice - the Australian closing to within 0.03secs of the Italian ahead of this afternoon's first qualifying session despite a small fall.
While Rossi dominated most of the session, his best time 0.1secs under the 2002 lap record, former Superbike rivals Colin Edwards and Bayliss regularly swapped second behind him - before Bayliss, Jacque and Checa slipped ahead of the Texan in the final minute.
Donington ace Valentino Rossi found himself under pressure from former WSBK champ Troy Bayliss in this morning's free practice - the Australian closing to within 0.03secs of the Italian ahead of this afternoon's first qualifying session despite a small fall.
While Rossi dominated most of the session, his best time 0.1secs under the 2002 lap record, former Superbike rivals Colin Edwards and Bayliss regularly swapped second behind him - before Bayliss, Jacque and Checa slipped ahead of the Texan in the final minute.
The top two held a 0.3secs gap over Jacque, and Bayliss' performance will give him a vital boost after a disappointing run of results. Importantly for Troy he was seven places, and 0.8secs, quicker than team-mate Loris Capirossi.
MotoGP rookies Hayden and Melandri made a promising start to the weekend in seventh and eighth, while Gibernau will be disappointed with 11th - although he now has a few hours to work with his Telefonica MoviStar team before the first qualifier.
Anglo-American John Hopkins was a credible 12th - and within 1sec of Rossi - while temporary team-mate Yukio Kagayama was a second slower than the 20-year-old in 16th.
Home hero Jeremy McWilliams led the Proton Team KR charge in 18th - just 2.4secs from Rossi, as the Ulsterman outpaced his team-mate Aoki, Kiyonari's Honda, the Kawasakis and returning WCM team.
But there was a shock at the tail end of the field as Chris Burns, on the 1993 ROC Yamaha two-stroke being run by WCM this weekend, outpaced Garry McCoy's factory Kawasaki by 0.2secs! The Brit was 4.3secs behind the #46 Repsol Honda, which means he has every chance of qualifying for Sunday's race.
Team-mate David de Gea was less happy, completing juts 8 laps on what is officially entered as a WCM Sabre V4 - his best lap being 14.7secs off the pace.
Friday free practice
1. Rossi
2. Bayliss
3. Jacque
4. Edwards
5. Biaggi
6. Hayden
7. Melandri
8. Capirossi
9. Barros
10. Gibernau
11. Hopkins
12. Haga
13. Ukawa
14. Nakano
15. Kagayama
16. Tamada
17. McWilliams
18. Kiyonari
19. Aoki
20. Pitt
21. Burns
22. McCoy
23. de Gea
Peter has been in the paddock for 20 years and has seen Valentino Rossi come and go. He is at the forefront of the Suzuki exit story and Marc Marquez’s injury issues.
