Stoner quickest again in Brno test

The Ducati rider lapped the Czech Grand Prix circuit consistently in the 1:56s before setting times in the 1:55s on both qualifying a race tyres in the afternoon.

He declared himself happy with the work and believes he is in a strong position for the rest of the season even though he trails Valentino Rossi by 50 points in the championship.

"I'm really happy with how these two days have gone," said Stoner. "The changes we made have proven to be very positive and allowed me to take a couple of tenths of my time from yesterday on a new, experimental tyre.

"Bridgestone are doing a great job, but more than anything I'm pleased with the new set-up, which has improved all areas of performance and will be useful for the next race.

"I tried two new qualifiers as well, but to honest I wasn't pushing them that hard because at the moment I'm not concerned by our qualifying performances. I just want to concentrate on how to improve in the races."

Valentino Rossi was second quickest again, reducing the gap to Stoner from more than a second yesterday to eight tenths today. He says he and his Yamaha team improved the performance of their electronics during the test.

"It's been a long day but we've found some important improvements so it's been worthwhile," he said. "I'm leaving here very happy because we've worked on the electronics and it seems we've found some improvements under acceleration."

Rossi's teammate, Jorge Lorenzo, continued testing different varieties of Michelin tyres as the manufacturer attempts to recover from an awful weekend where they were well beaten by their Bridgestone rivals.

Lorenzo improved his best time from Sunday's race by more than a second and is hoping to carry the improvement into the next race at Misano in ten days time.

"We've improved our performance a lot in comparison to the race," he said. "But we cannot forget that we are far from where we want to be, so we cannot give up.

"We've been able to find some time, now we have to work with San Marino in mind because we really need to change our situation there and finally have a good race."

Pos Rider               Bike        Tyre         Gap
 1. Casey Stoner        Ducati      (B)     1:55.855
 2. Valentino Rossi     Yamaha      (B)     1:56.613
 3. Loris Capirossi     Suzuki      (B)     1:57.132
 4. Chris Vermeulen     Suzuki      (B)     1:57.483
 5. Shinya Nakano       Honda       (B)     1:57.559
 6. Jorge Lorenzo       Yamaha      (M)     1:57.600
 7. Niccolo Canepa      Ducati      (B)     1:57.639
 8. James Toseland      Yamaha      (M)     1:58.007
 9. Olivier Jacque      Kawasaki    (B)     1:58.483
10. Marco Melandri      Ducati      (B)     1:58.927
11. Anthony West        Kawasaki    (B)     1:59.010