MotoGP news

Stoner on top and wins BMW

Casey Stoner has completed the final day of pre-season testing on a high by clinching, not only the fastest time in the morning session, but also top spot in the yearly BMW M Award, winning a sports car in the process.

Stoner's Ducati finished comfortably fastest on the results board with a lap time of 1.38.646, which was a staggering seven tenths of a second faster than Valentino Rossi. The man in third place, Loris Capirossi, was already over a second down on the leader's lightning pace.

Stoner knew that the prize was his before the end of the session, however, as a jubilant wave to the team from the bike confirmed that rain was beginning to fall in Jerez. The Australian, having also grabbed the top spot in the televised session last year, took away a BMW 135i to complete his pair of automotive winnings; he will be enjoying the limited 'BMW Sauber F1 Team Edition' of the car, something of which only another 134 people in the world can do. Despite going for the prize himself, Valentino Rossi jokingly stated that it was never allowed to happen: "Really I was aiming for second place, because I don't think our sponsor Fiat wanted me to win the prize of a different car!"

With Dani Pedrosa already out of the session as he recovers from injury, the red flags came out with just fifteen minutes to go as James Toseland came off his Tech 3 Yamaha, highsiding. Followed trackside examination by doctors, the Englishman was stretchered to the circuit's medical centre having suffered from heavy bruising.

As the recoveries of Pedrosa, and now Toseland, continue the field has just two weeks remaining until the start of the 2009 championship in Qatar on 12 April.

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• 08 Nov.
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