Stoner ends Czech test fastest

From motogp.com

Attempting to rebuild his confidence onboard his Desmosedici GP8 following his costly crash at Brno on Sunday, Casey Stoner again demonstrated the competitiveness of his current Ducati Marlboro package with a 1:55.855 lap of the Czech circuit on Tuesday.

The time was by far the quickest of any undertaken by the 11 riders in attendance testing their 800cc prototypes and kept Stoner ahead of Czech Republic race-winner, and second fastest Tuesday participant, Valentino Rossi, by a margin of 0.758.

Stoner achieved a remarkable time of 1:55.904 on race tires - faster than Rossi´s two-year-old pole record – on just his 17th lap of the day, before shaving that time down on qualifying tires just before 4pm as he wrapped things up early.

Stoner had been tire testing in an effort to reduce the angle of lean that he carries in corners and keep the bike more upright, allowing better entry and exit speeds – and Ducati believes it has found a way of doing this. The high lean angle is what Stoner blames for his Sunday crash so he will be happy to have made progress on the issue.

Rossi, meanwhile, also continued with a programme of Bridgestone tire testing, as well as working on electronics and general set-up. He tried some qualifying tires but his best time of the day, a lap of 1:56.613, was set on a race tire.

Rizla Suzuki was satisfied by the durability of the new Bridgestone front tires on offer as its riders Loris Capirossi and Chris Vermeulen concluded the day third and fourth, respectively.

Shinya Nakano was fifth as he tested tires, new front disk brake compounds for Nissin and the generic set-up of his recently received factory-spec RC212V.

Kawasaki is positive about its evolving Ninja ZX-RR but the test workload was left to Anthony West and Olivier Jacque after John Hopkins was forced to sit out proceedings due to torn rib cartilage sustained in one of his comeback weekend crashes.

Tuesday test lap times
1. C STONER, Ducati Marlboro Team - 1:55.855
2. V ROSSI, Fiat Yamaha Team - 1:56.613
3. L CAPIROSSI, Rizla Suzuki MotoGP - 1:57.132
4. C VERMEULEN, Rizla Suzuki MotoGP - 1:57.483
5. S NAKANO, San Carlo Honda Gresini - 1:57.559
6. J LORENZO, Fiat Yamaha Team - 1:57.600
7. N CANEPA, Ducati Test Team - 1:57.639
8. J TOSELAND, Tech 3 Yamaha - 1:58.007
9. O JACQUE, Kawasaki Racing Team - 1:58.483
10. M MELANDRI, Ducati Marlboro Team - 1:58.927
11. A WEST, Kawasaki Racing Team - 1:59.010