MotoGP news

Stoner happy with early pace

Casey Stoner set the pace in the opening free practice sessions for the USGP, which started out under uncharacteristically grey Californian skies and amidst fresh temperatures of 14°C, before the sunshine finally broke through to warm things up for the afternoon. The Australian was quickly into the groove around the Laguna Seca circuit, located just north of Monterey, and in the final couple of minutes of the morning session he was already lapping inside his pole position time from last season. In the afternoon he improved still further to leave the field trailing by 0.8 seconds.

"This morning the track surface was a little cool but grip wasn't bad and after a few laps it was back to a normal level," said Stoner. "It took a few laps to get used to the new bumps that have emerged since last season though. In general the track is in good shape and I enjoyed riding because it's a fun layout and we found a good set-up pretty quickly, using the base from last year. In the afternoon when the track temperatures rose further we put a harder tyre on and managed to improve a little bit more, so I'm really satisfied with the first day's work." 

Marco Melandri also did an excellent job in the morning as he started out with the same setting he found at Sachsenring, continuing to make constant progress before ending with the fifth fastest time. In the afternoon he dropped to twelfth overall.

"Finally we've had a 'proper' free practice - I'm pleased," said Melandri. "This morning the circuit was tricky but that was probably because of the fact it was cool, because suddenly the grip came in. I had a good feeling from the start with the bike, I was getting decent feedback from the tyres and that is something I've been missing a lot this year. I was able to ride well and stay on the good line. From then on we made constant progress, refining the base set-up that we used at Sachsenring. Now we need to try and continue like this over the next two days because I want a good race here."

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