Stoner leaves rivals thunderstruck on Friday in Phillip Island

2008-10-03 00:52
Casey Stoner left his rivals thunderstruck on Friday in Phillip Island, making the most of the morning dry practice session for the Australian Grand Prix to record the fastest time of the day. The Ducati rider started strongly at his home track, with a 1'30.094 quickest lap nearly seven-tenths of a second quicker than MotoGP world title successor Valentino Rossi in the opening run.

Stoner came close to breaching the circuit record, set by teammate Marco Melandri in 2005, despite riding without protective strapping on his injured scaphoid in order to increase mobility. The home rider and 2007 racewinner picked up from where he left off on Friday, showing that he is not going to ease off the throttle despite his concession of the World Championship to Rossi at the last round.

Rain in the second session allowed the riders to work on their wet setup, with mixed forecasts for the weekend suggesting that both settings will be required over the course of the weekend. Repsol Honda's Nicky Hayden was fastest in that outing, with Stoner and Rossi down in fifth and sixth, respectively.

A further second back in the dry, Alex de Angelis came off his San Carlo Honda Gresini RC212V in the second session in a light off, and was a little way off the pace in the rain. Somewhat more consistent, whatever the weather, was JiR Team Scot's Andrea Dovizioso, fourth fastest in the dry and second quickest in the wet afternoon session.

Randy de Puniet also suffered an afternoon fall after clocking the fifth fastest time of the morning, ahead of Dani Pedrosa, Shinya Nakano, Jorge Lorenzo, Loris Capirossi and James Toseland.

Twice poleman at Phillip Island, Hayden was surprisingly on much better form in the wet, only able to place eleventh in the morning's dry run.

Having taken time out from his schedule to release penguins into the wild earlier in the week, Rizla Suzuki's Chris Vermeulen another close encounter of the ornithic kind in afternoon session, having to duck behind his visor to narrowly avoid a low-flying bird. The home rider placed fourteenth overall.


250cc

Alvaro Bautista put one hand on a sixth 250cc pole position of the season with a 1'43.839 lap of a wet Phillip Island circuit, taking him to the provisional top spot for the Australian Grand Prix. The Spaniard was the dominant force in the soaking first qualifying session, session, the only rider to go round in under 1'44.

Four-tenths of a second slower than his fellow countryman, Julian Simon continued his upturn in practice fortune with the second quickest lap of the run, with Lukas Pesek and series leader Marco Simoncelli completing the provisional front row.

Campetella Racing's Fabrizio Lai had been sitting pretty at the top of the timing screen for a large portion of the session, but then suffered a huge hit into the protective barrier after keeping his bike up for the run-off on a left hander. Saving himself from a similar fate was fifth placing Mika Kallio, who took evasive action on first a highside, then a collision with the tyre wall, followed by another attempt by his KTM machine to spit him off. All this happened in one incident, provoking some nervous moments in the Red Bull KTM garage.

Soon-to-be MotoGP rider Yuki Takahashi joins Lai and Kallio on the temporary second row, with Alex Debon completing the line. Lotus Aprilia rider Debon highsided and took an awkward landing during the session, a fate shared by Kallio's teammate Hiroshi Aoyama.


125cc

One week on from the first pole of his World Championship career, Mike di Meglio took the provisional top spot for the Australian Grand Prix on a wet Phillip Island track. The Frenchman, renowned for his wet weather abilities, clocked a fastest time of 1'48.319 on his final lap of the day, reducing an already provisional pole-worthy marker by three-tenths of a second.

Di Meglio's time was seven-tenths of a second quicker than anything that his rivals could muster up, with DeGraaf Grand Prix's Danny Webb his nearest rival. The provisional front row is separated by nearly two seconds, and features I.C. Team's Michael Ranseder and Motegi racewinner Stefan Bradl.

A late crash stopped Esteve Rabat improving upon his fifth-place-earning marker, with the Repsol KTM rider taking a nasty fall. Also bailing out was ISPA KTM Aran's Lorenzo Zanetti, sixth in the session. The tentative front row also includes Stevie Bonsey and Nico Terol.

Title challengers Simone Corsi and Gabor Talmacsi placed thirteenth and seventeenth, respectively, whilst there were further falls for Marc Marquez, Sergio Gadea, Scott Redding, Bradley Smith, Pol Espargaro and home wildcards Jake Horne & Blake Leigh-Smith.

Source: Dorna

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