Dutch TT - Free Practice
SUPERB STONER FASTEST, CAPIROSSI 11TH AT ASSEN
Ducati Marlboro Team riders Casey Stoner and Loris Capirossi
completed the first day of practice for Saturday's Dutch TT
in first and 11th positions.
World Championship leader Stoner, fresh from his genius win
in last Sunday's damp British Grand Prix, was once again in
superb form, topping both morning and afternoon sessions aboard
his Desmosedici GP7 to end the day more than two tenths ahead
of his closest rival. Capirossi meanwhile experimented with
different Bridgestone rear slicks - the company's traditional
16.5-inch rear and its newer 16-inch rear - the Italian ending
the day setting his best time with the 16.5.
CASEY STONER, fastest, 1m 37.828s
"I don't know why but we got a little bit confused with
the settings and went backwards this morning, so I wasn't
overly confident. The time we had on the track this afternoon
was very positive, we managed to get everything sorted and
towards the end of the session I was feeling quite confident
with a different tyre we had chosen. It looks like we've found
our race tyre already, it's the hardest compound we've got,
we did the fastest lap on that tyre, so we know it's going
to last the race, which is good. We're looking very good if
the weather plays up again tomorrow. The settings we use here
are pretty similar to what we used at Donington, not straight
out of the box, but you don't need a totally different set-up
here like you did with the old track. There's no big g-force
areas anymore, they've pretty much destroyed an awesome racetrack.
It's so disappointing, you keep thinking ‘where's the
old one gone', it's not the most fun to ride anymore. But
we've still got a job to do here. Donington and here seem
to have pretty similar surfaces now, there's not much grip
here either, it seems dusty in places, so we're having to
work in similar areas to what we were working on at Donington."
LORIS CAPIROSSI, 11th fastest, 1m 38.600s
"We tested some tyres today but have yet to find what
we really want. I tried the 16 but I was lacking rear grip
into the corners, especially through the last part of the
track. At the end of the afternoon session I tried the 16.5
again, it felt better and I did my best lap at the end, even
though the bike settings weren't ideal for the tyre. Seven
tenths isn't a small gap but we have a good margin for improvement
with the set-up. In general, I feel okay and if tomorrow's
weather is similar to today's, we should be make a few changes
and go faster."
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