Stoner relishing the opening race
Casey Stoner is gearing up for the first race of the year after topping both practice sessions in Qatar today, and is glad to see the back of pre-season testing
"Finally, the first race is here," said the Australian. "I've been looking forward to today for a while because I've got a bit sick of testing. It feels good to get out there and see what everybody is really capable of."
Stoner narrowly edged out Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo in both sessions and was pleased with the result in difficult track conditions.
"The bike itself felt good, but for some reason the overall feeling wasn't as good as in testing and I'd put that down to slightly different conditions. There wasn't as much grip and a lot of riders were crashing today so it seems everyone is struggling with the same problem.
"The first session helped us to decide which way to go with the setting, so we could spend the second session making progress with the tyres and addressing the grip issue."
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