Stoner fastest in Misano test

The Australian, whose victory in the San Marino Grand Prix has left him 85 points clear at the head of the title table, was fastest as he evaluated steps that he believes will make his Ducati Marlboro even faster in the remaining races.

"We are very happy with today," he said after the test. "We had a few tyres to test, very similar to those we had tested after the race at Brno.

"We have once again found some very positive points which could give us a step forward at future races.

"Also, we tried another step with the chassis, again similar to what we did at Brno, just to confirm things, and once again we did consistently very fast times. It has been a very positive test for us, though also a quite a long and hot day."

Reigning MotoGP champion Nicky Hayden ended the day just more than one tenth of a second behind Stoner, but had reason to feel satisfied after completing 134 laps of the Italian track.

Repsol Honda teammate Dani Pedrosa showed no ill effects from his opening lap crash in Sunday's race to set the third best time, while Valentino Rossi was left encouraged by new Michelin developments as he ended up fourth.

"This afternoon we tried some new tyres and we found some very interesting and positive things," said the Italian. "It seems that Michelin have done a good job in their recent work and it was definitely a much more positive test than in Brno, so we're quite happy with our day's work."

Fiat Yamaha teammate Colin Edwards was equally upbeat after trying out the new tyres in the afternoon.

"This morning we were working on the right side of the tyre following the problems we had yesterday and to be honest we didn't really make much progress," said the American.

"However after lunch Michelin brought out some new stuff which I tried and immediately liked and so we just kept working in that direction throughout the afternoon. I was doing mid 1m34s very comfortably and it really felt better and better as we went on, so I was really pleased.

"We tried some new electronic stuff and a new shock for Ohlins but it was mostly about tyres and it was great to be making some progress.

"I think I can honestly say that this was the most constructive test we've done in the last six months; it was a good way to round off an otherwise bad weekend and it's put us all in a positive frame of mind for the next race."

Pos  Rider             Team                    Time    
 1.  Casey Stoner      Ducati Marlboro         1:34.10
 2.  Nicky Hayden      Repsol Honda            1:34.24
 3.  Dani Pedrosa      Repsol Honda            1:34.29
 4.  Valentino Rossi   Fiat Yamaha             1:34.34
 5.  Marco Melandri    Honda Gresini           1:34.37
 6.  Colin Edwards     Fiat Yamaha             1:34.44
 7.  Randy de Puniet   Kawasaki                1:34.54
 8.  John Hopkins      Rizla Suzuki MotoGP     1:34.58
 9.  Carlos Checa      Honda LCR               1:34.66
10.  Sylvain Guintoli  Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3    1:35.28
11.  Chris Vermeulen   Rizla Suzuki MotoGP     1:35.37
12.  Toni Elias        Honda Gresini           1:35.44
13.  Anthony West      Kawasaki                1:35.61
14.  Loris Capirossi   Ducati Marlboro         1:35.80
15.  Makoto Tamada     Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3    1:37.07

All Timing Unofficial