MotoGP news

Stoner happy despite crash

As promised by local weather forecasts, the effects of Hurricane Ike were felt as far away as Indiana today, making for a dreary debut for MotoGP at the legendary Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The opening free practice session, extended by half an hour to give the riders time to learn the track, took place under grey skies and was hampered by constant drizzle that intensified during the afternoon.

Stoner set the third fastest time of the morning session before crashing on his final lap, escaping without injury on one of the recently laid sections of asphalt, where grip levels appear to be lower than other areas of the circuit - a problem exacerbated by the rain. Marco Melandri began making improvements towards the end of the session before finishing with the fourteenth fastest time. Neither rider managed to improve as the conditions worsened in the second session. 

"The track conditions vary drastically between the old surface and the new," said Stoner. "Grip is good on the old stuff but there isn't even minimum grip on the recently laid asphalt and the rain makes it much worse because it isn't draining off. If it continues to rain like it did this afternoon then I'm not sure the conditions will be safe enough to race in. As far as the layout is concerned there are only a couple of critical areas - in particular turn five, where the run-off is very short. There's not much we can do about that right now though - the best thing would be to stick an air-fence in. This morning I crashed on the section where the grip is poorest and that's obviously not good for the wrist but thankfully it didn't create any major problems."

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