Stoner fastest in Monday warm-up
Casey Stoner set the fastest time of today's warm-up session ahead of the MotoGP season opener this evening in Qatar
The Australian claimed a dominant pole position on Saturday before reigning world champion Valentino Rossi reduced his advantage to less than a tenth of a second in the pre-race warm-up on Sunday.
The race was washed-out yesterday evening due to a torrential downpour and rescheduled for tonight.
Stoner took advantage of the extra warm-up session to lower his best time to a 1m56.025s, with Rossi only just able to get within half a second of the Ducati rider's pace in second place.
Andrea Dovizioso continued to be the weekend's fastest Honda in third, with Jorge Lorenzo and Loris Capirossi the only other riders within a second of Stoner's benchmark in fourth and fifth places.
Colin Edwards was best of the rest in sixth, with Dani Pedrosa seventh - making the most of the extra 24 hours to recover from his wrist and knee injuries sustained during pre-season testing.
As in yesterday's warm-up session, Nicky Hayden was off the pace following a heavy landing on his back in a qualifying accident on Saturday. The American was 15th fastest in today's session, 2.5 seconds slower than team-mate Stoner.
Pos Rider Bike Time Gap 1. Casey Stoner Ducati 1m56.025s 2. Valentino Rossi Yamaha 1m56.498s +0.473 3. Andrea Dovizioso Honda 1m56.698s +0.673 4. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 1m56.744s +0.719 5. Loris Capirossi Suzuki 1m56.827s +0.802 6. Colin Edwards Yamaha 1m57.485s +1.460 7. Dani Pedrosa Honda 1m57.735s +1.710 8. Chris Vermeulen Suzuki 1m57.741s +1.716 9. Randy de Puniet Honda 1m57.834s +1.809 10. Toni Elias Honda 1m57.985s +1.960 11. Mika Kallio Ducati 1m58.007s +1.982 12. Marco Melandri Kawasaki 1m58.119s +2.094 13. Alex de Angelis Honda 1m58.252s +2.227 14. Sete Gibernau Ducati 1m58.278s +2.253 15. Nicky Hayden Ducati 1m58.559s +2.534 16. Yuki Takahashi Honda 1m58.597s +2.572 17. James Toseland Yamaha 1m58.905s +2.880 18. Niccolo Canepa Ducati 1m59.705s +3.680
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments