Stoner stays on top in Qatar

From motogp.com

Casey Stoner (Repsol Honda) achieved the fastest time in the final practice session for the Commericalbank Grand Prix of Qatar.

At the Losail International Circuit, the Australian again dominated practice Friday evening. He recorded the best time of the weekend with a 1:55:035.

"We spent most of the second session tonight on used tires to get a better understanding of where we are with them," Stoner said. "We did a quick lap on race distance with these tires, so we're really happy with this. In addition we completed around 30 laps on the front tire, which also worked well. We played around with the tire pressure a little, but in general they seem to be very consistent from start to end.

"Today we had a few more things to try, in the first session we didn't make many improvements from yesterday and then in the second session we made a big step forward. I'm really happy at the pace we're running, the way I'm riding and the bike set-up."

It was a Repsol Honda one-two-three, with Dani Pedrosa second and Italian Andrea Dovizioso third. The Spaniard was only 0.158 off Stoner’s quickest lap, while Dovizioso was a further 0.705 behind.

"We did a good job today, especially in FP3," Pedrosa explained. "We concentrated on doing a good lap at the beginning and then we were focused on the pace. I'm happy about how is everything going - even if there are still some places where we know we can do better and improve some tenths. We need to keep our concentration to do that tomorrow."

There was a marked improvement for the current World Champion, Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha Factory Racing) as he got the edge over his team-mate Ben Spies (Yamaha Factory Racing) for the first time this weekend. He claimed the fourth quickest time and was very close to the lap time set by third placed Honda,

The top Ducati rider was Héctor Barberá (Mapfre Aspar Team) who again produced a very strong performance in practice, finishing sixth. Ducati Team rider Valentino Rossi was eighth quickest while his team-mate Nicky Hayden was down in 14th.

Colin Edwards (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) again was comfortably within the top 10, recording the seventh quickest time. Randy de Puniet (Pramac Racing) was ninth quickest. Loris Capirossi (Pramac Racing) produced a late surge to push his way into 10th place.

Rizla Suzuki’s Álvaro Bautista suffered a broken left femur from a fast crash in the closing stages of Friday's third practice session. The accident immediately ended his participation in this weekend’s season opener.

Cal Crutchlow (Monster Yamaha Tech 3) was just outside the top 10, in 11th place. The top 14 riders were all covered by 1.551 seconds.

Stefan Bradl (Viessmann Kiefer Racing) set the fastest time in the final Moto2 practice for the Commercialbank Grand Prix of Qatar.

In the third practice session, some riders improved on their times from Thursday, the quickest one being German rider Bradl, who recorded the fastest time in FP1 and again in FP3. He improved on the best time set on Thursday with his lap time of 2:00.882.

Marc Márquez (Team CatalunyaCaixa Repsol) made big improvements from his second practice to jump from sixth to second, He was 0.872 off Bradl’s time. Italian Andrea Iannone (Speed Master) was third fastest.

Nicolas Terol (Bankia Aspar) made it three in a row, taking the top spot in FP3 at the Losail International Circuit for the final practice session before qualifying on Saturday.

In the 40-minute session, the riders were battling against strong headwinds but the Spaniard was in a class of his own. Terol was the only rider able to set a lap time in the 2:06s, his fastest time being 2:06.957. His lap in FP3 was quicker than his fastest in both practice sessions on Thursday.

Efrén Vázquez (Ajo Motorsport) was 0.931 seconds off the pace setter in second place, four places higher than his FP2 performance. Sandro Cortese (Intact Racing Team Germany) was consistent in third after leading FP3 for a large time.