German GP - Free Practice
SUPERB STONER DOMINATES DAY ONE AT THE 'RING, CAPIROSSI
WORKS ON SET-UP
Ducati Marlboro Team rider Casey Stoner dominated the opening
two practice sessions at the Sachsenring today, setting a
blistering pace aboard his Desmosedici GP7. Team-mate Loris
Capirossi spent the day acquainting himself with a different
engine regulation and is confident of moving up from 12th
quickest.
World Championship leader Stoner ended the day 0.346 seconds
ahead of his closest rival and was an impressive six tenths
of a second inside the lap record. Capirossi meanwhile announced
himself happy with his different engine spec - a mix of the
standard GP7 spec and a milder spec he first tried last month.
This afternoon's session was run in warm conditions following
some light rain showers this morning. Latest weather forecasts
suggest a much hotter weekend with temperatures predicted
to reach 35 degrees on Sunday.
CASEY STONER, fastest, 1m 22.737
"We seem to be pretty quick straight out of the box,
we've not had to change too much with the bike. The team is
doing a great job because we seem to be doing it pretty easy
so far. Yet again, there's no big straights in this track
but the Ducati is showing how good it is on these tight and
twisty circuits. We knew it'd be okay here because the bike
has been fine at other tight tracks, like Donington and Le
Mans. It's really performing well at every circuit, so long
as we do our job right, the bike seems to perform. The Bridgestones
seem good here, we've used a softer rear and a harder rear,
and we're doing pretty similar lap times with both tyres.
I've already done a few long runs, now we just need to see
what the weather does for tomorrow and get some more laps
on the tyres. We'll have to wait and see what happens if it
does get hotter, this new surface seems pretty abrasive so
it might improve with the heat or get worse. I don't like
the new surface, it's a little scary on the bumps in some
places, so a few people crashed this morning."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 12th fastest, 1m 23.687s
"I'm happy enough, even though I'm 12th. Another three
tenths and I would be in the top five, so we are not so far
away. Today we worked well enough and the weather is forecast
to improve tomorrow, so we will have the chance to make further
progress. We are using an engine spec which is a compromise
between the standard engine and the different spec we used
for the first time at Mugello, and it's performing well enough.
The tyres are okay, today I used the same 16.5 inch rear for
30 laps, so we shouldn't have any problems with endurance.
Tomorrow we will be looking for more rear traction, maybe
we'll sacrifice a little from the front, as always trying
to find the best compromise."
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