Edwards tops damp first practice at Brno

Colin Edwards has taken his Alice Aprilia to the top of the time sheets in a damp first practice session for round 10 of the MotoGP world championship at Brno in the Czech Republic.

The skies cleared before the start of the session but left the track too wet for slick tyres and too dry for wet tyres. Most riders chose not to put in many laps.

Edwards beat Ducati’s Troy Bayliss to the top spot by 0.228 seconds but the damp conditions meant his time of 2:06.690 is still well outside the circuit’s record lap of 2:00.605, set by the late Daijiro Kato last year.

Shinya Nakano took third spot on his d’Antin Yamaha followed by Max Biaggi with the fourth fastest time.

Valentino Rossi and Loris Capirossi spent the least time on the track only putting in nine laps each with Rossi staying in his garage until 20 minutes before the end of the session. He eventually set the ninth fastest time behind Nicky Hayden, Alex Barros, Capirossi and Marco Melandri.

Jeremy McWilliams was 10th fastest after deciding to run the new Proton KR5 four-stroke machine. The team took both the two-stroke and four-stroke bikes to the circuit but the decision on which bike will race on Sunday is yet to be made.

The tight track at Brno is suited to the fast corner speed of the two-stroke but the KR5 has been in development since the last round in Germany. The team has fixed many of the reliability issues and unleashed some of the horsepower potential of the new V5 engine.

Check back regularly throughout the weekend for full coverage of all the action from the Czech GP.

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