Gran Prix of Australia.
Free Practices
 GOOD
START FOR THE PRAMAC-DANTIN TEAM AT THE GRAND PRIX OF AUSTRALIA.
The first day of Free Practices in Phillip Island saw the
weather once again playing a major role in the day's proceedings,
with bright sunshine alternating with cold rain during both
morning and afternoon sessions, and forcing the riders to
constantly enter the boxes.
The fastest rider of the day was recently crowned World Champion,
Casey Stoner, aboard his Ducati GP7, while for the Pramac-Dantin
Ducati Team, things also started in a good way, with Alex
Barros finishing in sixth position, and Chaz Davies in thirteenth.
Tomorrow at 1:50PM (local time), the Qualifying Session will
take place to determine the grid positions for the race on
Sunday.
Alex Barros (15 laps. 1´32,16). “Today
was a difficult one. Because of the meteorological conditions,
I wasn't able to ride many laps in the dry during the morning
session, and also in the afternoon I wasn't able to get in
many dry laps, because we ran into a few problems and the
track conditions were changing so rapidly. During the last
six minutes of the Free Practice, we were very productive,
and I took sixth position and had a good race pace going.
On my last lap, I was going really well, but I went straight
in a braking area otherwise I think I could have improved
my time even more, if not for that mistake. For tomorrow,
I hope to improve, and I especially hope that the wind dies
down, because it made things so difficult today”.
Chaz Davies (12 laps. 1´33,91). “The
first session I started off by taking it easy because the
track conditions were tricky and I wanted to take things step
by step. As the day went on we introduced different modifications
to the bike, and in the afternoon I was able to get a better
feeling with the Ducati. At the end of the afternoon session
I had a harmless crash that I think was caused by some oil
on the track, or something similar, because 10 seconds later
Stoner crashed in the same place, in the same way, and he
made the same comments. Tomorrow, I hope to improve my laptimes
and get a good spot on the grid to start from.”
Official Times.
1º Casey Stoner 1´31,28
2º Marco Melandri 1´31´55
3º Dani Pedrosa 1´31´80
4º Valentino Rossi 1´31´93
5º Randy de Puniet 1´31´99
6º Alex Barros 1´32´16
13º Chaz Davies 1´33´91
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