TWITGP PRACTICE - REPORT

DOOHAN DEFIES BELIEF AS TWITGP GETS UNDERWAY AT TWITEGI

The first ever TwitGP practice in Twitegi today saw wildcard Mick Doohan come out on top, an incredible eleven years since he last rode a Grand Prix motorcycle in anger. The five-time World Champion looked as if he’d never been away as he easily adapted to the modern-day demands of a TwitGP bike and pipped experienced Tweeter Jorge Lorenzo into second place.

Under rainy skies over 5000 followers gathered to watch the historical session, introduced by @suziperry, and it was Barbera who appeared first, taking advantage of being the only man on track to get some coverage for the Yellow Pages. Meanwhile Biaggi, always stirring controversy, caused a rumpus in Twitlane when he flicked the birdie (the international sign of Twitter) at Rossi but then sensationally flipped his bike! Ooops.

By now most riders were gingerly tweeting round Twitegi as the rain had eased up, and a spine-tingling hush fell over the tweet stand as Doohan took to his bike and gave it full gas sideways out of Twitlane, (earning himself a fine in the process from Twitdirection).

Meanwhile the most experienced tweeter on the grid Lorenzo was on top of the time sheets, just ahead of Stoner and Rossi who were showing their lack of practice in the field of virtual racing. Suddenly word came in from reporter @gemmett that Melandri was down in Doohan Dip, his keyboard locked up on him as his crew desperately tried to Ctrl+Z to get him started again. Biaggi at this point was still in Twitlane, orchestrating his mechanics to airbrush his bald tyres.

Suddenly the ‘Thunder from Down-under’ Doohan charged round the track and went top by just one tenth of a second, leaving Lorenzo in 2nd , Stoner in 3rd, Hayden 4th and Rossi 5th. @Mattnroberts was on hand to witness the carnage out on track as Pedrosa wobbled off track at Lawson’s and crashed, a shaky start for the tiny tweeter.

The end of the session saw a flurry of personal bests from the main protagonists as Rossi went top momentarily before Doohan stole it back. A desperate last flurry of keyboard action from Stoner wasn’t enough either and then Lorenzo stormed down the straight, pinned to his PC but to no avail and Doohan celebrated his sensational return with a twheelie into Twitlane.

Qualifying will take place at 1800 UK time on Saturday - tune in to @TwitGP throughout the day for all the build-up.