Valentino Rossi sends out warning

American Nicky Hayden and five-times champion Valentino Rossi renewed their battle for MotoGP supremacy in the opening free practice sessions at the Czech Grand Prix yesterday.

Hayden is looking to pad his lead in the overall standings on the 5.4km Masaryk Ring and showed no signs of rust from the three-week break, posting a time of 1:59.387, the fastest in the first practice session.

Rossi, who trails by 51 points with six races to go, was right on his back tyre, however, just 0.047 seconds behind. The Italian followed up with the fastest time in the second practice session at 1:57.871.

“I'm happy because this year has been difficult so far, especially during practice we are struggling and starting races from the third or the fourth row,” he said.

“We have some new settings for the suspension to help the tyres work properly, and I'm happy, because it's already quite good.”

Spain's Dani Pedrosa, second in the standings 34 points behind Hayden, kept the leader in sight with the fifth fastest time in the first session, but lost ground in the afternoon with a time that left him in eighth place.

Rossi won the German GP in mid-July, but failed to finish the next race, the US Grand Prix, which Hayden won. – Reuters