DUCATI MOTOGP TEAM
The Ducati MotoGP Team has completed a two-day test at the Brno circuit in the Czech Republic in impressive style today, with Casey Stoner setting a sensational pace and declaring himself happy with development of the GP8 and the Bridgestone tyres. On another hot and sunny day, with track and ambient temperatures reaching 29 and 54 degrees respectively, Stoner lapped until 16:00h and completed 40 laps in the low 1'56s - eventually clocking a 1'55.9 on a new race tyre. The Australian also tested a new qualifying tyre, posting the best time of the day with a 1'55.855, more than a second inside his own pole position record. Marco Melandri lapped until lunchtime and was also satisfied with the set-up work completed, especially with the solutions found by his crew on the first day.
The next appointment for the Ducati MotoGP Team is the San Marino Grand Prix on 31st August.
Casey Stoner (Ducati MotoGP Team): 1'55.904 (race tyres) 1'55.855 (qualifying tyre)
"I'm really happy with how these two days have gone. The changes we made to the setting yesterday have proven to be very positive today too. They allowed me to repeat my time from yesterday on a new experimental tyre and on the same tyre I used on Sunday, and then take another couple of tenths off on a new tyre again. Bridgestone are doing a great job but more than anything I'm pleased with this new set-up, which has improved all areas of bike performance and will be useful for the next race. I tried two new qualifiers as well but to be 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 and try to do the best possible job from now to the end of the championship. "
Marco Melandri (Ducati MotoGP Team) 1'58.927 (race tyre)
"Today we started out well on the first run, then we made a few changes that didn't really improve the setting that we had for the race, so we decided to end the test early. We did a good job yesterday and found the right path to follow, which should allow us to use a softer tyre in future and seems to be more suited to my riding style. I did well at Misano last year and I can't wait to race there again."
Circuit Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati - 2008) 1'57.199
Pole position: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha - 2006), 1'56.191
Unofficial lap times: Tuesday 19th August
1. Casey STONER (Ducati) 1:55.855
2. Valentino ROSSI(Yamaha) 1:56.613
3. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 1:57.132
4. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki) 1:57.483
5. Shinya NAKANO(Honda) 1:57.559
6. Jorge LORENZO(Yamaha) 1:57.600
7. Niccolo CANEPA (Ducati) 1:57.639
8. James TOSELAND (Yamaha) 1:58.007
9. Olivier JACQUE (Kawasaki) 1:58.483
10. Marco MELANDRI (Ducati) 1:58.927
11. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki) 1:59.010
