Qatar Testing session - Day 2
DUCATI MARLBORO TEAM SATISFIED WITH FINAL NIGHT IN
QATAR
Ducati Marlboro Team pair Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri
declared themselves happy with the work done after two nights
of testing in Qatar, where they have spent time finalising
their preparations for the historic night race that will get
the 2008 season underway in just over a week's time.
Both riders have been impressed with the lighting system
that illuminates the circuit and can't wait to get back on
track for the first race of the championship. Stoner's race
pace was hot once again this evening and a small crash on
the way into turn two did nothing to dent his satisfaction
with the job done. Melandri is also confident after making
progress with the setting of his GP8.
Stoner and Melandri will be back in Doha for first free practice
at the Grand Prix of Qatar on Friday 7th March at 1900h local
time.
CASEY STONER, Ducati Marlboro Team
"We only had a few things left to test and I'm happy
because we've used different configurations on the two bikes
and they both worked well. Next week during practice we'll
decide which setting to use in the race. I'm also really happy
with the race tyres - the qualifiers could be a bit better
but I'm not too worried because they're not the most important
tyres of the weekend. I had a crash this evening going into
turn 2, but luckily I wasn't seriously hurt. Having said that
I think that in the Safety Commission we need to talk about
the size of the gravel pieces because here, like at Jerez,
they're too big - they're more like rocks than stones and
they can hurt you even in a small crash. Now we've got a couple
of days to relax after months of testing and then we finally
go racing. We're in good shape and I can't wait to get started."
MARCO MELANDRI, Ducati Marlboro Team
"We've continued working on the set-up of the bike and
we've improved compared to yesterday. We've tried a few different
race tyres but we also tried to get as many laps as we could
on the same tyre in order to set the bike up without that
extra variable. I'm happy that the green light is almost ready
for the first race because I'm convinced that we have more
potential than we're showing right now."
Circuit Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati - 2007), 1'56.528, 166.208
km/h
Best Pole: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha - 2007), 1'55.002
Lap times, Friday 29th February
1. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha)1:54.552
2. James TOSELAND (Yamaha) 1:54.592
3. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda)1:54.973
4. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha)1:55.464
5. Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1:55.485
6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda) 1:55.550
7. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda)1:55.674
8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki) 1:56.119
9. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 1:56.249
10. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha) 1:56.256
11. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 1:56.450
12. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki) 1:56.612
13. Dani PEDROSA (Honda) 1:56.704
14. Shinya NAKANO (Honda) 1:56.792
15. Marco MELANDRI(Ducati Marlboro Team) 1:56.902
16. Toni ELIAS: (Ducati) 1:56.986
17. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati) 1:57.055
18. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki) 1:57.459
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