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Stoner Leads In Malaysia As Testing Resumes

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Casey Stoner - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com

Casey Stoner - Photo Credit: MotoGP.com

 

Casey Stoner showed that fatherhood has not slowed him down as he set the pace on the opening day of the second pre-season test at Sepang. Stoner's wife Adriana gave birth to daughter Alessandra on February 16th and the world champion's first taste of action since then resulted in the fastest time of the day.

Conditions were far from ideal with a slippery track greeting the riders in the morning and a heavy rain shower around lunchtime virtually wiped out the afternoon's running. Despite only completing 16 laps, Stoner was still quick enough to outpace teammate Dani Pedrosa by a quarter of a second with Jorge Lorenzo leading the Yamaha challenge in third, six tenths back.

The Spaniard ran different engine settings to the previous test here three weeks ago and stressed that it was impossible to draw any conclusions from such restricted running. Teammate Ben Spies followed him up in fourth while Alvaro Bautista was an encouraging fifth as he experimented with different set-up solutions.

Although he is still short of full fitness, Nicky Hayden took his GP12 Ducati to sixth place ahead of Cal Crutchlow and Valentino Rossi with the Italian blaming the dirty track first thing this morning for only finishing eighth fastest. Hector Barbera was ninth on his Pramac Ducati while Stefan Bradl did well to finish tenth, ahead of Andrea Dovizioso on the Tech 3 Yamaha.

There were concerns surrounding the Claiming Rules Teams after the first Sepang test when Colin Edwards, the quickest CRT runner, was a full five seconds off the pace. Forward Racing will have been relieved to see the gap close today with Edwards getting to within 3.749s of the ultimate pace. Fellow newcomers Avintia Racing were also closer to the leaders but given their lack of speed three weeks ago, they still have plenty of work to do. Ivan Silva and Yonny Hernandez were over six seconds adrift on their FTR-Kawasakis.

Franco Battaini was 13th for Cardion AB Motoracing as he substituted for the injured Karel Abraham. The Czech rider hurt his back and shoulder at Jerez last week and his status for the remainder of the test is uncertain.

 

Official MotoGP Test – Sepang (28/02/2012)

MotoGP Testing – Malaysia (Day Two Result)

Pos Rider Nat Bike Team Lap Time
1 Casey Stoner AUS Honda Repsol Honda Team 2:01.761
2 Dani Pedrosa SPA Honda Repsol Honda Team 2:02.005
3 Jorge Lorenzo SPA Yamaha Yamaha Factory Racing 2:02.436
4 Ben Spies USA Yamaha Yamaha Factory Racing 2:02.819
5 Alvaro Bautista SPA Honda San Carlo Honda Gresini 2:02.959
6 Nicky Hayden USA Ducati Ducati Team 2:03.132
7 Cal Crutchlow GBR Yamaha Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:03.213
8 Valentino Rossi ITA Ducati Ducati Team 2:03.245
9 Hector Barbera SPA Ducati Pramac Racing Team 2:03.612
10 Stefan Bradl GER Honda LCR Honda 2:03.820
11 Andrea Dovizioso ITA Yamaha Monster Yamaha Tech 3 2:03.830
12 Colin Edwards (CRT) USA Suter-BMW NGM Mobile Forward Racing 2:05.510
13 Franco Battaini ITA Ducati Cardion AB Motoracing 2:05.563
14 Ivan Silva (CRT) SPA FTR-Kawasaki Avintia Racing 2:08.109
15 Yonny Hernandez (CRT) COL FTR-Kawasaki Avintia Racing 2:08.767

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