2008 Phillip Island FP2 Results Day 1 - Hayden Fastest In Wet After Dovi Dominates

The first day of practice at Phillip Island was a very mixed affair. The morning session was held in the dry, and Casey Stoner did exactly what was expected of him. After slightly longer than usual, Stoner set the fastest time, then continued to put the hammer down, ending the day nearly 7/10ths faster than the next man, Valentino Rossi.

The afternoon was completely different. The Southern Ocean raised its up its voice and dumped its contents on to the Island, leaving the MotoGP field to wade around on a soaking track. But where you might ordinarily expect Ant West and Chris Vermeulen to dominate, it was instead Andrea Dovizioso who was consistently well ahead of the rest. 

Dovi's provisional pole was only bested briefly mid-session, with first Guintoli and then Stoner going quicker, but Dovizioso was soon back on top of the timesheets. The Italian looked like ending the day as fastest, but in the last 10 minutes of the session, Nicky Hayden started picking up the pace. The American picked away at Dovi's lap times for several laps, then in the dying minutes, set the fastest lap once, then improved again next lap, to end the practice three quarters of a second ahead. This left Andrea Dovizioso in 2nd place, with local boy Chris Vermeulen in 3rd.

The rain saw few fallers, other than the usual pairing of Randy de Puniet and Alex de Angelis, both of whom came away relatively unscathed. No such luck in the 250s, though where Fabrizio Lai had a horrifying crash at the final left, the wet gravel barely slowing the Italian down before he hit the tire wall, a place where air fence would be a welcome addition, and Alex Debon had a nasty tumble in the gravel that saw him knocked momentarily unconscious.

Mika Kallio nearly joined his 250 classmates after a near highside at the very fast Hayshed, but in one of the most spectacular saves of the season, rode through the gravel at very high speed to miss the tire wall by inches.

Practice continues on Saturday. 

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