VIDEO: Casey Stoner fastest in MotoGP testing

  • Breaking
  • 01/02/2012

The current MotoGP champion Casey Stoner was fastest on the second day of pre-season testing at Malaysia's Sepang track.

The MotoGP bikes for the 2012 season are 1000cc machines.

Stoner set a two minute 0.895 second time ahead of Yamaha's Ben Spies and Jorge Lorenzo, the 2010 world champion. Dani Pedrosa was fourth and Cal Crutchlow fifth. Multiple world champion Valentino Rossi, aboard the Ducati, was seventh and his team mate Nicky Hayden, recovering from a testing accident at the end of last year, was tenth. Hayden gave his bike to team test rider Franco Bataini for a while because of his injured shoulder.

Stoner was recovering from a minor injury which forced him to miss testing on Tuesday.

"You know I can't fill as many laps as I would want to," Stoner said. "I think it's better we just try and really focus on what we need to but so far so good. And just the fact that I am out on a bike today was really good."

Over in Spain the Claiming Rule Team (CRT) test, for MotoGP privateer teams, ended with Randy de Puniet setting the fastest time. His Aspar team mate Aleix Espargaro was second with Mattia Pasini, joining MotoGP for the first time, third.

The CRT bikes enjoy special concessions to bring the costs down for small teams competing with the big factory teams. They can use 12 engines per year instead of just six, and their fuel tanks can be bigger.

Also testing at Valencia were Moto3 bikes, the replacement for last year's 125cc class. The engines of this class are 250cc single-cylinder, four-stroke units. Sandro Cortese was fastest with Luis Salom second.

Leading times on second day of MotoGP testing at Sepang:

1 Casey Stoner 2:00.895

2 Ben Spies 2:01.052

3 Jorge Lorenzo 2:01.068

4 Dani Pedrosa 2:01.508

5 Cal Crutchlow 2:01.565

6 Hector Barbera 2:01.788

7 Valentino Rossi 2:01.886

8 Alvaro Bautista 2:01.933

9 Andrea Dovizioso 2:02.160

10 Nicky Hayden 2:02.354

11 Stefan Bradl 2:02.414

12 Karel Abraham 2:02.598

13 Katsuyuki Nakasuga 2:02.941

14 Franco Battaini 2:04.311

15 Colin Edwards 2:05.603

Times from Valencia - CRT bikes and Moto3s - times provided by teams

1.- Randy De Puniet 1'34.9

2.- Aleix Espargaró 1'35.6

3.- Mattia Pasini 1'36.7

Moto3

1.- Sandro Cortese 1'43.2

2.- Luis Salom 1'43.5

3.- Héctor Faubel 1'43.8

4.- Niklas Ajo 1'44.0

5.- Zulfahmi Khairuddin 1'44.1

6.- Alberto Moncayo 1'44.2

7.- Danny Kent 1'44.2

8.- Brad Binder 1'45.7

9.- Arthur Sissis 1'46.2

Reuters

source: newshub archive