163_qatar.jpg)
HRC riders Casey Stoner and Dani Pedrosa have continued their dominance of pre-season MotoGP testing in Qatar.
The Repsol Honda riders were separated by less than a seven-tenths of a second, in a class of their own more than half a second clear of Yamaha rider Ben Spies.
Marco Simoncelli popped out fourth with the third factory Honda rider Andrea Dovisioso improving to fifth fastest. Fox Sports
“I’m really happy, I didn’t think we would get any laps in tonight judging from the weather earlier in the day, it was a little tough but the wind seemed to settle and the track conditions improved a lot and we got some good test time in tonight,” Stoner said in a team release. “By the look of the lap times everyone seems to have taken a big step forward, but we’re happy with what we’ve achieved again here and we can enter the race weekend with confidence, but at the same time everyone else will be improving their set-up so we can’t relax. We found a good rider position, which I’m really happy with, having moved my position more towards the rear in Sepang - to try and find more grip. Here we can run a more neutral set-up and everything seems to be working well. We did some more work on electronics tonight and also on the tires, but generally worked in preparation for the weekend.”
The top Ducati today was the privateer Pramac bike ridden by Frenchman Randy De Puniet in sixth, just ahead of defending World Champion Jorge Lorenzo. Texan Colin Edwards was behind the Spaniard in eighth.
Marlboro Ducati’s Nicky Hayden ended up ninth with his teammate Valentino Rossi well down in 13th. Both Ducati riders crashed during the day. Cycle News
Loris Capirossi on the Pramac Desmosedici suffered a similar fate and was eventually just under 1.7s off Stoner, with rookie Cal Crutchlow sustaining a finger injury on his left hand when his Monster Yamaha Tech 3 machine went down at Turn 10. The Brit was only able to complete 28 laps, finishing up 2.049s off top spot.
Karel Abraham (Cardion AB Motoracing) and Toni Elías (LCR Honda) completed the timesheet. The pair both had crashes inside the final hour of the session. Motogp.com
| 
|