Unpredictable weather tests riders in lead up to Australian MotoGP

Quickly changing weather has given teams two starkly opposed practice sessions to prepare for Sunday’s Australian MotoGP race. After a completely dry and warm morning session, the first rains started to appear at lunchtime - and conditions were atrocious by the time free practice session #2 started at 2pm.

Stoner was nearly a second ahead of the field in the dry with an early 1:30.9 followed by a blistering 1:30.094 that stood as the best time of the session. Rossi, off to a slower start, could only muster a 1:30.7 - but this put him in second place as the only other rider to make it into the 1:30s.

Behind these two came a parade of Hondas - demonstrating that the once-untouchable Japanese company could be ready to return to form in 2009 after a difficult 2008. You could have thrown a blanket over De Angelis, Dovizioso, De Puniet, Pedrosa and Nakano, separated by 16 hundredths of a second. Lorenzo, Capirossi and Toseland rounded out the top 10, just 1.2 seconds off Stoner’s pace.

Then came the rain... read the full story and see loads more pics of our coverage over at TheBikerGene.