Stoner sets early pace at Valencia

From motogp.com

Casey Stoner was the pacesetter in practice at Valencia as he set the best lap time in the opening MotoGP session of the weekend.

In fine sunshine at the Ricardo Tormo circuit on Friday, Ducati rider Stoner started his weekend in the manner in which he hopes will secure a third straight race win as he recorded the best lap time in Free Practice 1.

After overcoming some early dissatisfaction with the response of his Desmosedici GP9, Stoner set a best time of 1:32.813 to leave Jorge Lorenzo next fastest.

Stoner overcame some early problems with the setting on his Desmosedici GP9 to top the timesheet. Ever the perfectionist, the 2007 World Champion – who won at the Ricardo Tormo circuit last year – targeted improvements before Saturday’s second session and qualifying, but was pleased with the start he had made to the weekend.

“It’s been a very nice run for us; two victories and a second in the last three races has been good. We still have one more race to go, and this is a good way to start the weekend,” said Stoner.

“We were struggling a little bit at the start of the session, we didn’t think about it right before we went out on the track and we had the wrong balance in the bike – it was too high in the front and too low in the rear. But as the session went on we gradually made the bike better and better, and in the last run we put on a harder rear tire, which helped the bike a lot for us and made it a lot more stable.

“We were able to do some pretty good lap times and I’d have liked to have gone a bit quicker, but we had a problem with the front tyre and it was basically warping off the side of the rim. Hopefully we can fix this for tomorrow, and we’re pretty happy to have started off like this.”

Fiat Yamaha rider Lorenzo aims to secure second spot in the World Championship standings this weekend, ahead of Stoner, and followed the Australian by a margin of 0.382 secs.

“I’m quite happy with the practice because Valencia is not one of my favourite tracks, and every year I struggle to get a good feeling and a good result,” said the 22 year-old. “But now I’m in one of the best shapes of my career so I am pushing and riding aggressively. I am fast, we have some improvements to make, but the feeling in general is positive.

“This is one of the few places I haven't won in my career so I really want to try. Today was very good, I did many laps with a strong rhythm and with a consistent and fast pace. We are feeling strong and we hope we can continue to be competitive. Tonight we will look at the data from today and consider how we can make more improvements for tomorrow so that I can try to be on the front row once again.”

In the wake of his confidence-boosting first wet podium in Malaysia, Dani Pedrosa was third on the timesheet as he kept a close tab on Lorenzo, timing his fastest lap at just 0.046 secs. slower.

”For a first practice session, this was OK today and we completed some valuable laps to familiarize ourselves with this circuit again,” said the man from Barcelona. “It was really windy out there and this affected the machine more in some corners than others - like in the third sector where it was quite difficult to control the bike. Still, we have time to solve this tomorrow. Also, it’s good that we got used to the windy conditions because it looks like we’ll have them for the whole weekend.

“The track surface was not totally clean. But actually the grip was good and the Bridgestone tires were working well. There’s a gap to the riders in front and we need to make some improvements for tomorrow so that we’ve got the best chance of qualifying well. I really want to win this race - it’s more important to me than finishing third in the championship - so we need to work really hard to give us a good chance on Sunday.”

World Champion Valentino Rossi completed the top four fastest times after experiencing a run-off midway through the session. He came in almost half a second ahead of Randy de Puniet, who recovered from his high-side crash at Sepang to ride a good session and record the fifth-fastest lap.

Alex de Angelis (San Carlo Honda Gresini), Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3), Andrea Dovizioso (Repsol Honda), Loris Capirossi (Rizla Suzuki) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati Marlboro) all recorded top-10 times in the session as well, with wildcard Ben Spies 15th on his factory Yamaha.

Héctor Barberá’s fastest lap saw the Pepe World Team rider top the timesheet in the opening 250cc practice session at Valencia on Friday. A fastest lap of 1:36.185 from Barberá made him the quickest rider in Free Practice 1 at the Ricardo Tormo circuit, with Hiroshi Aoyama (Scot Racing) and Marco Simoncelli (Metis Gilera) both recording top-six times.

Barberá, who beat Simoncelli to second place in Malaysia via a photo finish, was 0.317 secs. faster than Alex Debon (Aeropuerto-Castello-Blusens), with Álvaro Bautista (Mapfre Aspar Team) registering the third-fastest lap of the session.

Aoyama, who needs just an 11th-placed finish in Sunday’s race to secure the 2009 World title ahead of Simoncelli – regardless of where the Italian finishes – was fourth quickest around, as his best lap was just over 0.7 secs. off Barberá’s pace.

Julían Simón started the Gran Premio Generali de la Comunitat Valenciana as the leading rider in the first 125cc free practice on Friday, setting a fastest lap of 1:42.536 in the Valencian sunshine.

MotoGP Practice Times
1. Casey STONER (AUS) Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati 1:32.813
2. Jorge LORENZO (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha +0.382
3. Dani PEDROSA (SPA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +0.428
4. Valentino ROSSI (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team Yamaha +0.686
5. Randy DE PUNIET (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP Honda +1.097
6. Alex DE ANGELIS (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +1.293
7. Colin EDWARDS (USA) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +1.310
8. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (ITA) Repsol Honda Team Honda +1.569
9. Loris CAPIROSSI (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +1.614
10. Nicky HAYDEN (USA) Ducati Marlboro Team Ducati +1.649
11. Mika KALLIO (FIN) Pramac Racing Ducati +1.883
12. Marco MELANDRI (ITA) Hayate Racing Team Kawasaki +2.046
13. James TOSELAND (GBR) Monster Yamaha Tech 3 Yamaha +2.052
14. Toni ELIAS (SPA) San Carlo Honda Gresini Honda +2.060
15. Ben SPIES (USA) Sterilgarda Yamaha Team Yamaha +2.239
16. Chris VERMEULEN (AUS) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP Suzuki +2.318
17. Gabor TALMACSI (HUN) Scot Racing Team MotoGP Honda +2.445
18. Aleix ESPARGARO (SPA) Pramac Racing Ducati +2.645