Australian Casey Stoner topped the time sheets today at Valencia, in MotoGP’s second and last test at the Spanish track for week. Although clearly adapting to the Honda RC212V quickly, Stoner was still unable to touch Jorge Lorenzo’s top testing time from yesterday, with the World Champion being five hundredths of a second faster than the Aussie. While Stoner and Lorenzo were busy dazzling the at the front of the time sheet, the majority everyone’s attention was trained on Valentino Rossi, who tested over a second and half behind Stoner, putting him nearly at the bottom of the scrap heap for the day.
While many Rossi fans were expecting the Italian to light up the Spanish track on his new Ducati, Rossi battled a front-end issue (different from the one Stoner experienced) that prevented him pushing the GP11 hard in the testing sessions. Testing only the Big Bang motor, and not the Screamer, it looks like Ducati will stick in that direction for the 2011 season, as Nicky Hayden tested both motors and preferred the Big Bang configuration. Valentino Rossi and Crew Chief Jeremy Burgess will likely be talking to Ducati the rest of the week about where the team should focus its resources in developing the GP11 further. Testing results after the jump.
Day 2 MotoGP Test Times from Valencia (as of 5pm local time):
Pos | Rider | Team | Fastest lap | Prev. Gap | Lead. Gap | Laps |
1 | Casey Stoner | HRC | 1:32.066 | – | – | 63 |
2 | Jorge Lorenzo | Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:32.179 | +0.113 | +0.113 | 30 |
3 | Ben Spies | Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:32.322 | +0.143 | +0.256 | 49 |
4 | Marco Simoncelli | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1:32.450 | +0.128 | +0.384 | 63 |
5 | Dani Pedrosa | Repsol Honda Team | 1:32.497 | +0.047 | +0.431 | 48 |
6 | Nicky Hayden | Ducati Team | 1:32.583 | +0.086 | +0.517 | 91 |
7 | Alvaro Bautista | Rizla Suzuki MotoGP | 1:32.738 | +0.155 | +0.672 | 86 |
8 | Randy De Puniet | Pramac Racing Team | 1:32.836 | +0.098 | +0.770 | 73 |
9 | Andrea Dovizioso | Repsol Honda Team | 1:32.942 | +0.106 | +0.876 | 68 |
10 | Hiroshi Aoyama | San Carlo Honda Gresini | 1:33.105 | +0.163 | +1.039 | 83 |
11 | Hector Barbera | Paginas Amarillas Aspar | 1:33.168 | +0.063 | +1.102 | 100 |
12 | Colin Edwards | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:33.325 | +0.157 | +1.259 | 34 |
13 | Cal Crutchlow | Monster Yamaha Tech 3 | 1:33.483 | +0.158 | +1.417 | 74 |
14 | Loris Capirossi | Pramac Racing Team | 1:33.740 | +0.257 | +1.674 | 88 |
15 | Valentino Rossi | Ducati Team | 1:33.761 | +0.021 | +1.695 | 70 |
16 | Karel Abraham | Cardion AB Motoracing | 1:33.793 | +0.032 | +1.727 | 68 |
17 | Toni Elias | LCR Honda MotoGP | 1:34.800 | +1.007 | +2.734 | 86 |
Source: MotoGP
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