MotoGP news

Birthday boy Stoner not happy with practice

Casey Stoner had hoped for a better day of practice at Phillip Island while celebrating his 24th birthday. The Australian led the time sheets in the early stages of the session and stayed firm in second place after being dislodged by Valentino Rossi, closing to within 0.135 seconds of the Italian with an exciting final lap.

Local support for Stoner

Speaking about his free practice session Stoner said: "I'm not that happy with today's session to be honest. The track conditions weren't good at all and we struggled for traction, which is usually a strong point of our bike.

"We tried a few different settings, one of which gave us better rear grip but compensated in turning, which was otherwise really good. The front end was quite consistent throughout so it's just a case of working on the rear tomorrow and hoping that the track conditions improve so that we can find where the limits are.

"The weather is always a worry here and there was a point in the session this afternoon where it began to spot with rain just as I was heading into turn one and I came back in. I probably had my best setting at that point so the lap time could have been better but I think it has been a difficult day for everybody so we're not too concerned."

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