Stoner shrugs off Tuesday back injury to top second day of MotoGP testing at Sepang
Casey Stoner shrugged off his Tuesday back problem to set the fastest time of the second day of MotoGP winter testing at Sepang
The reigning world champion had been forced to skip day one when he hurt his back while warming up before going out for the first time. Although with a total mileage of 29 laps, he completed rather less running than his rivals today, Stoner still showed his and Honda's pace with a 2m00.895s lap.
That deposed morning pacesetter Ben Spies (Yamaha) by 0.157 seconds - although the American was briefly credited with a time 2.7s faster than anyone else due to a glitch near the end of the day.
Tuesday's fastest rider Jorge Lorenzo completed the top three on the second works Yamaha today, ahead of Stoner's Honda team-mate Dani Pedrosa and Cal Crutchlow - who again showed very strong pace on the Tech 3 Yamaha.
Quickest Ducati was the Pramac example of Hector Barbera in sixth, with works rider Valentino Rossi slightly off his Tuesday pace in seventh position, 0.9s down on Stoner.
Alvaro Bautista (Gresini Honda), Andrea Dovizioso (Tech 3 Yamaha) and Nicky Hayden (Ducati) completed the top 10).
There was some encouragement for the CRT runners as Forward's Colin Edwards used a higher-spec Suter-BMW to get the gap to the front down to 4.7s, although the Avintia-branded, BQR-run, FTR-Kawasakis continued to struggle for speed and reliability at the tail of the field.
Pos Rider Team/Bike Time Gap Laps 1. Casey Stoner Honda 2m00.895s 29 2. Ben Spies Yamaha 2m01.052s + 0.157s 37 3. Jorge Lorenzo Yamaha 2m01.068s + 0.173s 40 4. Dani Pedrosa Honda 2m01.508s + 0.613s 35 5. Cal Crutchlow Tech 3 Yamaha 2m01.565s + 0.670s 42 6. Hector Barbera Pramac Ducati 2m01.788s + 0.893s 50 7. Valentino Rossi Ducati 2m01.886s + 0.991s 44 8. Alvaro Bautista Gresini Honda 2m01.933s + 1.038s 46 9. Andrea Dovizioso Tech 3 Yamaha 2m02.160s + 1.265s 42 10. Nicky Hayden Ducati 2m02.354s + 1.459s 41 11. Stefan Bradl LCR Honda 2m02.414s + 1.519s 41 12. Karel Abraham Cardion Ducati 2m02.598s + 1.703s 66 13. Katsuyuki Nakasuga Yamaha 2m02.941s + 2.046s 40 14. Franco Battaini Ducati 2m04.311s + 3.416s 38 15. Colin Edwards Forward Suter-BMW 2m05.603s + 4.708s 37 16. Ivan Silva Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m10.297s + 9.402s 16 17. Jordi Torres Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m11.893s + 10.998s 2 18. Robertino Pietri Avintia FTR-Kawasaki 2m12.546s + 11.651s 5
Be part of the Autosport community
Join the conversationShare Or Save This Story
Subscribe and access Autosport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
Top Comments