Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner leads official MotoGP test at Mugello – MotoGP news
Repsol Honda rider Casey Stoner once again proved his fast and unmatchable pace at Mugello while conducting the official MotoGP test at the same venue for the recently held Gran Premio d’Italia.
Though the Aussie rider could not win Sunday’s race even after leading the race for maximum laps, but he showed his blazing fast pace on the track. This time he recorded his best lap time of 1:47.326 seconds. This marvellous attempt was 0.708 seconds faster
than his best lap time which placed him on pole position for the Italian GP.
The venue was filled with premier class riders but not everyone participated in the test and most of them were present to test their machines. The official test was held under warm and dry conditions.
The test site was missing both Yamaha Factory and Monster Yamaha Tech3 teams. The Ducati factory team was also absent from the test venue, despite the testing event being their home venue.
Stoner was able to post fast times with the help of new swing arm. The Australian rider installed a redesigned swing arm to his Honda RC212V. In the initial test lap, he faced a crash at first corner, where Nicky Hayden also got trapped in Sunday’s race.
Despite that, he made 47 laps on his RCV.
The second fastest rider was Marco Simoncelli from the San Carlo Honda Gresini team. His best lap time for the official MotoGP test was 1:47.422 seconds. After completing whole 87 laps at Mugello, he stood 0.096 seconds slower than the Australian rider.
Stoner’s teammate, Andrea Dovizioso was ranked at third position in the final time sheet for official test times. His best shot for the test day was 1:48.061 seconds. He made a total run of 66 laps in the test session.
Repsol Honda’s third teammate Dani Pedrosa was sixth in the final time standings. Pedrosa has recently made his comeback at the Mugello event after missing three rounds and going through a break of more than a month.
All factory Honda riders tested different settings and electronics with their respective RCVs. The Spaniard ran for 26 laps before calling it a day.
Hector Barbera and Karel Abraham were fourth and fifth in the session. Alvaro Bautista, Randy de Puniet and Hiroshi Aoyama were seventh, eighth and ninth respectively in the final time sheet.
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