Gresini Honda's Marco Simoncelli set the fastest time in this morning wet and windy MotoGP first free practice session which saw five crashes from four riders and Valentino Rossi visit the medical centre for an injured arm.
Repsol Honda's Casey Stoner was the first to crash at turn 11 and he was followed by Toni Elias, Rossi, Elias again and then Pedrosa all at the same right-hander at the top of the hill. The Doctor had an arm injury patched up in the medical centre while Pedrosa was lucky to escape hurting his shoulder again. Four crashes were at the top of the Waterfall and were front-ends, even though Stoner turned his into a highside. Elias's second was into turn one.
Simoncelli, meanwhile, had nothing to do with the crashes and went on his merry way, setting fastest lap after fastest lap to finish two tenths faster than Stoner who recovered to bag second place with his last lap of the session but was the only rider to break the 1'23 barrier with his 1'22.823.
Reigning world champion Jorge Lorenzo's last lap put him second on a 1'23.004 until Stoner went out while Nicky Hayden put on a great show to take four and is only four-tenths off the pace. Andrea Dovizioso is fifth while rookie Karel Abraham is sixth and only six-tenths in arrears.
Hector Barbera is seventh with Randy De Puniet eighth while the American pair of Ben Spies and and Colin Edwards round out the top ten. Pedrosa put his Repsol Honda in 11th while Cal Crutchlow, who has never seen the track before, is 13th and one place ahead of Rossi.
