Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista led the way during this afternoon’s second free practice session at Valencia as he took first place on the timesheets at the wet Spanish circuit.

Heavy rain started to fall over the 4,005m Valencian circuit at mid-day and by the time Bautista and the rest of the MotoGP riders took to the track it was fully wet. Suzuki’s Spanish star acclimatised to the conditions well and produced consistent quick laps that consolidated his position at the top of the standings. His time of 1’47.975 was over 0.3 seconds quicker than his nearest rival and he looks to have a good set-up and a confident riding style for Sunday - if this afternoon’s weather replicates itself for the race.

This morning’s practice session started in damp conditions, with Bautista again looking impressive, but as the track started to dry out he found grip difficult to find and finished in 11th place. World Champion Casey Stoner took the honours on the drier track by recoding the fastest time of the day.

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.”

Paul Denning – Team Manager:
“Winter feels like it has arrived in Valencia and it didn’t look like the most pleasant day to be on a Grand Prix bike out there. That said, cold and low grip conditions were always the situation that caused us the most problems and as we saw at Phillip Island a few weeks back - and again today - the steps that Suzuki has taken with the GSV-R have again proven to be very effective. However, improvements to the motorcycle aren’t enough because you also need a confident and capable rider and Álvaro looked very assured and smooth in the full wet conditions this afternoon – it was nice to see his name at the top of the sheets. I think Álvaro – and everyone else – would prefer some dry, sunny running over the next couple of days, but whatever the weather brings our intention is to push to the maximum and achieve the best result we can.”

Crutchlow and Hayes get to work in the wet

Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team riders Cal Crutchlow and Josh Hayes quickly got to grips with challenging conditions at the Ricardo Tormo Circuit in Valencia today (Friday) to finish a rain-hit opening day of practice displaying impressive speed and consistency.

British rider Crutchlow was 10th quickest in this morning's opening practice session on a damp track after heavy early morning rain had soaked the 2.489 miles circuit. He posted a best time of 1’46.581 to finish just over a second away from the fastest pace.

The second session took place on a full wet track after torrential rain battered the Valencia circuit in the build-up to the start of the 45-minute practice. Crutchlow once again adapted himself superbly to the tricky conditions and he briefly topped the timesheets as he worked on improving the wet setting of his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Team machine to find better traction.

With the track surface much wetter than in the morning session, lap times were slower as a result but Crutchlow's best time of 1’49.350 secured the 26 year-old fifth place.

Today's performance from double American Superbike Champion Hayes, who is replacing injured compatriot Colin Edwards, was truly outstanding. Hayes has no knowledge of the tight and twisty Valencia track and he had never ridden Yamaha's prototype YZR-M1 machine before today.

The wet conditions did not make his task any less complicated but Hayes acquitted himself magnificently and this morning he was only 1.5s away from the top 10.

Quickly adapting himself to the Bridgestone rain tyres and t he sophisticated electronics on the YZR-M1 machine, Hayes opted to gain as much experience as possible this afternoon by staying on track throughout the session. He completed 24 successive laps and managed to clock a best time of 1’50.509 to finish in 10th position. His time was good enough to comfortably outpace regulars Loris Capirossi, Hector Barberá. Hiroshi Aoyama and Toni Elías.

Crutchlow and Hayes rode with Sic58 stickers on the front of their Monster Yamaha Tech 3 bikes today in honour of Italian Marco Simoncelli, who lost his life in a tragic accident during the Malaysian Grand Prix in Sepang on October 23rd.

Cal Crutchlow:
“Today was a positive start to the weekend and I think I could have gone a fair bit quicker at the end of this afternoon's session and been challenging for the top three but I made a couple of small mistakes on my last lap. But I was still fifth fastest though and I felt pretty comfortable in the full wet conditions. I am happy enough even though the track hasn't got much grip at all. It was very slippery and you've got to be careful because it is easy to make a mistake. But the bike definitely felt better in the full wet rather than when it was a bit sketchy this morning. I just hope we get a dry session tomorrow to get some time on the bike in the dry. Nobody wants to be starting the race with no dry track time, so we'll have to see what happens with the weather. If it is wet tomorrow I'm sure we can make some improvements and go a bit faster.”

Josh Hayes:
“My first day in MotoGP has been very difficult and quite scary at times to be honest. Before I went out this morning I don't think I have ever been so nervous in my life. I was happy with my lap times this morning in tricky conditions but then in the full wet this afternoon it meant it was quite a scary introduction to MotoGP. Although I've not experienced the full potential of a MotoGP bike because of the wet conditions, it is obvious that the Tech 3 Yamaha is a very good motorcycle and the Team has done an excellent job to try and make me comfortable. All I had to do was ride the machine and try to improve. Right now it is not so much about the set-up of the bike, it is just me learning the bike and I will continue that process tomorrow. I just hope that at some point I will get to have a dry practice so I can get to grips with the carbon brakes. I don't want to be going into the race on Sunday having to learn to ride in the dry and also adjust to the carbon brakes after two wet days. That would be the worse scenario for me but I enjoyed today a lot. It was a great experience and once again I want to thank everybody at Yamaha, Tech 3 and Monster that made this possible.”

Capirossi pays tribute to Simoncelli and sets top-five time