USA GP - Third Free Practice Session
BRILLIANT STONER CONTINUES TO SHINE AT SUNNY LAGUNA,
CAPIROSSI KEEPS IMPROVING
Ducati Team rider Casey Stoner this morning continued his
dominating performance at the ultra-challenging Laguna Seca
MotoGP venue, topping the timesheets in the third practice
session aboard his Desmosedici GP7, almost four tenths ahead
of his nearest challenger. Team-mate Loris Capirossi was 14th
quickest, continuing his session-by-session improvements towards
tomorrow's race, round 11 of the 18-round 2007 MotoGP World
Championship.
World Championship leader Stoner has led each of the three
sessions so far, his best Saturday morning lap time an impressive
0.968 seconds inside the existing Laguna lap record. Capirossi
meanwhile worked at improving his race pace, his quickest
Saturday morning lap more than half a second faster than his
best Friday time and less than a second off ‘pole position'.
This afternoon's all-important United States Grand Prix qualifying
session commences at 13.50 hours local time.
CASEY STONER, fastest, 1m 22.365s
"We have found a very good setting, and we are using
the hardest compound tyres we can possibly use. I didn't feel
quite so comfortable during the first part of the long run
we did this morning, I was pushing the front a little bit
entering the corners, so I came in and we made a change that
really improved the set-up. Even with a lot of laps on the
tyres we could still do some very, very fast times. I think
it would have been possible to go faster again but when I
came to passing de Puniet I had to live him some room. Anyway,
we are looking very good for the race. Everything is working
well, the bike and the team, and we have a good set-up at
this point. I'm happy."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 14th fastest, 1m 23.361s
"Today we've been able to set up the bike a little bit
better than yesterday, so we are all very close on lap times.
I tried a few different things on front set-up and it's looking
better. In the end I did 30 laps with the same front tyre,
using a slightly harder rear than I normally use, and everything
seems to be working well, so I'm satisfied. The first two
sections of the track are still better for me, I'm losing
some time in the third split, I know I'm making a little mistake
through there, and we still have to improve the bike for the
fourth split. If we can sort out these two things, we should
be pretty close."
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