Super Sic or Marco Simoncelli had a lack lustre debut season last year but this year with the Honda going fast from straight out of the box, he has shown promise and glimpses of good form. In the last race at Jerez, Super Sic crashed out while leading a wet race. His team manager Fausto Gresini who runs a factory spec Honda for Simoncelli has said that his pace at Jerez was genuine and not induced by a wet track. In the fast free practice at Estoril in Portugal Super Sic went super fast to bump Casey Stoner off the top perch, something that only Dani Pedrosa has been able to do thus far this season. Honda has confirmed its position as the bike to beat by making sure that the fastest three riders were all on Hondas. Super Sic was followed by Casey Stoner in second and Daniel Pedrosa in third. Jorge Lorenzo was only fourth fastest in today’s practice session. Valentino Rossi had a reasonable first session by finishing fifth but he was more than half a second behind the leaders. Andrea Dovizioso was in sixth followed by Colin Edwards in seventh. Ben Spies on the second works Yamaha could only manage eighth today. Nicky Hayden was down in fourteenth position. It should be remembered that this is only the first practice session which is sometimes utilized by riders and teams to test out some new settings and therefore one should not read too much into this.