Qatar GP - Free Practice 1
 STONER
QUICKEST IN QATAR OPENING SESSION, MELANDRI MAKING PROGRESS
Casey Stoner laid down an early marker in the opening free
practice session for the Grand Prix of Qatar, dominating the
time sheets throughout. His team-mate Marco Melandri picked
up where he left off in the test here, using the first hour
to immediately get onto the same pace that he'd set just over
a week ago.
Slightly warmer temperatures compared to that test and the
sand that has blown onto the circuit since then made for a
slippery surface, which made life difficult for the Ducati
Marlboro pair, who are both confident of making major improvements.
CASEY STONER - fastest in FP1: 1'55.870
"Finally the first race is here and it feels good to
get out there and see what everybody is really capable of.
I've been looking forward to today for a while because to
be honest I've got a bit sick of testing. Anyway, it was good
to get going - the bike itself felt good from the start but
for some reason the overall feeling wasn't as good as it was
at the test and I'd put that down to the slightly different
track conditions. There wasn't as much grip and lot of riders
were crashing today, much more than at the same time during
the test, so it seems everybody is struggling with the same
problem. The first session has basically just helped us to
decide which way to go with the setting so we'll tune both
bikes in to the same set-up for the second session and from
there we'll be able to really make some progress with the
tyres and address the grip issue."
MARCO MELANDRI - 11th fastest in FP1: 1'57.137
"I'm satisfied with how things have gone in this first
session because I've been able to get on my best pace from
the test, but with using old tyres. We've started out with
the best setting we found over two days here last week, with
just a few small adjustments, and the bike felt good straight
away. I think we're working on the right lines with this bike
and we still have a lot of room for more improvement. The
track was really slippery for the first few laps, much more
than when we were here for the test, but then it started to
improve. The temperature isn't as harsh as a week ago so we're
hoping we can stay at this level."
Qatar GP - Free Practice UPDATING
STONER FASTEST ON FIRST DAY IN QATAR, MELANDRI WORKING
ON IMPROVEMENTS
Casey Stoner clocked the fastest time over two sessions of
free practice at the GP of Qatar, whilst Marco Melandri made
a promising start but was unable to improve as he had hoped.
Not only was Stoner fastest in both sessions, he managed
to improve his pace on the second outing by four tenths of
a second, despite a notable drop in track temperatures. Melandri
also improved but it wasn't enough to hang on to eleventh
place on the time sheets after his performance in the opening
practice.
Final free practice times
CASEY STONER, fastest: 1'55.442
MARCO MELANDRI, 15th fastest: 1.57.091
|
