Stoner Lights Up Night To Blitz Qatar MotoGP Test

INDIANAPOLIS, Wednesday, March 4, 2009: Day or night, Casey Stoner appears to be the rider to beat in MotoGP in 2009.

2007 MotoGP World Champion Stoner dominated the time sheets during a three-day test March 1-3 under the lights at the Losail Circuit in Qatar, leading with a lap of 1 minute, 55.744 seconds on his Ducati. He was nearly a second quicker than the next-closest rider, Jorge Lorenzo of Fiat Yamaha, whose best lap was 1:56.733.

Stoner also led the daytime test Feb. 5-7 at the Sepang Circuit in Malaysia.

“I’m obviously very happy with the lap time and the rhythm we put together today, although I would have liked to have been able to get a few more laps in and test some more stuff,” Stoner said. “We still managed to try a few things with the electronics – some of them good and some not so good – and we confirmed the good feeling I had yesterday with the new swingarm, although we still need more time to work on it, and that’s what we’ll be doing at Jerez.”

Six-time and reigning MotoGP World Champion Valentino Rossi, who won the inaugural Red Bull Indianapolis GP last September, was third at 1:56.972 on his Fiat Yamaha. Chris Vermeulen was fourth at 1:57.224 on his Suzuki, while 2006 World Champion Nicky Hayden rounded out the top five at 1:57.225 on his Ducati.

It was a dramatic improvement for American standout Hayden, who was 11th overall at the Sepang test.

“That was definitely a good day, and we’ve made plenty of progress so I’m really pleased,” Hayden said. “I was thinking this morning that this would be the right time to take a step forward because we’ve only got two more days of testing before the season starts, so it’s obviously very satisfying to have done that. There is still plenty to do, but my team has worked well and now we have a lot of information to work on. I got a good feel for the new swingarm straight away, but we still have work to do and we need to make more comparisons with the previous version before drawing definite conclusions.”

The other American on the MotoGP grid, Colin Edwards, ended up ninth overall at 1:57.515 on a Tech 3 Yamaha. Edwards was fourth overall at Sepang.

“I am really happy with this test,” Edwards said. “It didn’t start well with the rain on the first night and the wind blew a lot of sand and dust onto the track on the second night, so the lap times were still way off normal pace. But I was still one of the quickest, and I’ve got to say the Yamaha and Bridgestone combination is very impressive.

“I’ve just been concentrating on trying to find a good setting for the race, even though we expect the temperature to be a little warmer when we return, but I’m really confident. I couldn’t believe my race simulation. The grip from Bridgestone is really incredible, and I’m seriously impressed. The grip just gets better the more distance you run on it, and I did my best lap in the race simulation on the last lap.”

This was a vital test because it took place on the circuit where the season-opening race – also a night event – will be contested Sunday, April 12. The second annual Red Bull Indianapolis GP is Sunday, Aug. 30 at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.

Stoner was unhurt in a crash late on the final night of testing. He also reported progress on his wrist. Stoner ran limited laps early during the Sepang test due to intense pain in his wrist, which required surgery during the offseason to repair a lingering fracture that didn’t heal.

“The crash was on the way into Turn 2, and it was very similar to the one here last year – practically from an upright position,” Stoner said. “I got straight back on the other bike, but with such an unpredictable track, we decided to finish an hour early because the conditions were only getting worse.

“The wrist has responded quite well. It’s not as painful as it was at Sepang even though the mobility still hasn’t improved much. We’ll have to see how at feels it circuits with harder braking and more left-hand corners, which is where I struggle the most.”

Dani Pedrosa wasn’t as lucky as Stoner at Qatar. Repsol Honda team leader Pedrosa will require surgery for a broken left arm suffered in a crash March 2, the second night of the test.

Pedrosa’s status for the next test, March 28-29 at Jerez, Spain, is uncertain.