Simoncelli tops tight Estoril practice

Italian wild-man Marco Simoncelli has topped Friday practice for the Portuguese Grand Prix, despite crashing during the afternoon’s second session.

The Gresini Honda rider missed just a few minutes of the session due to the fall, and went on to back up his fastest time from Practice 1 by edging Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) by 0.06s.

Dani Pedrosa, still recovering from a collarbone injury, was the fastest of the factory Repsol Honda riders in third – just 0.003s shy of Lorenzo.

Valentino Rossi (Ducati) and Australian Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) rounded out the top five.

Alvaro Bautista returned to action today for Suzuki, having broken his leg just 41 days ago during practice for the season opener in Qatar. The Spaniard finished the day at the foot of the time sheets.

See below for the full practice result

1	Marco Simoncelli	Honda	1m37.663s
2	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	1m37.724s	0.061
3	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	1m37.727s	0.064
4	Valentino Rossi	Ducati	1m38.102s	0.439
5	Casey Stoner	Honda	1m38.102s	0.439
6	Colin Edwards	Yamaha	1m38.203s	0.540
7	Karel Abraham	Ducati	1m38.473s	0.810
8	Ben Spies	Yamaha	1m38.563s	0.900
9	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	1m38.596s	0.933
10	Héctor Barberá	Ducati	1m38.611s	0.948
11	Hiroshi Aoyama	Honda	1m38.645s	0.982
12	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	1m38.658s	0.995
13	Cal Crutchlow	Yamaha	1m38.760s	1.097
14	Toni Elías	Honda	1m38.912s	1.249
15	Loris Capirossi	Ducati	1m39.021s	1.358
16	Randy de Puniet	Ducati	1m39.137s	1.474
17	Alvaro Bautista	Suzuki	1m40.173s	2.510