Ducati’s Casey Stoner topped both of today’s free practice sessions at the Sachsenring circuit in Germany, breaking the existing pole position record on Bridgestone race tyres this afternoon. Stoner, winner of the last two grands prix at Donington Park and Assen, was consistently the quickest man on track today and ended the day 0.4s clear of the rest of the field. The closest rider to Stoner’s standard was San Carlo Honda Gresini’s Alex De Angelis who was the only other rider to dip under the 1m22s mark today.
De Angelis was second in both practice sessions and has an enviable record at Sachsenring, having finished on the podium each year since 2002 in both 125cc and 250cc classes. Backing up Honda Gresini’s strong form today, De Angelis’s team-mate Shinya Nakano ended the day in seventh position on the combined standings. Fiat Yamaha’s Valentino Rossi ensured three Bridgestone-shod riders were in the top four with fourth place overall in the combined classification. Rossi’s fastest time of the day was set in the morning practice hour in which he finished third.
Several other Bridgestone-shod riders were among the tightly-packed midfield which sees just over half-a-second separating sixth and fifteenth positions.
Tyre Talk with Tohru Ubukata - Bridgestone Motorsport – Manager, Motorcycle Race Tyre Development How were today’s two sessions from Bridgestone’s perspective? “It has been a productive day and we were able to enjoy two dry sessions in order to evaluate the tyres we have here this weekend. We looked at both medium and hard compounds for both front and rear and were able to see quite a good performance level from both. Casey is again proving to be untouchable, and his performance today was really incredible. Both Gresini riders were on strong form today, especially Alex who was the top Honda rider of the day, and it is really encouraging to see the team and riders performing so well on our tyres.”
How sure can you be about the durability of the tyres for this weekend? “It is difficult to say much about durability today because we were looking at initial performance of the different compounds, and we did not carry out any long runs. This is something that we plan to look at during tomorrow’s two sessions, but we have to hope the weather remains dry for us to verify this important aspect of our race preparations. This track is very tough on the left hand side of the tyre, and puts a lot of focus on front tyre performance, so these are things we need to look at more closely ahead of the race. For day one, though, I am quite satisfied.”
Bridgestone-shod Riders’ Combined Practice Session Results: Pos. - Rider - Team - Session 1 (pos) - Session 2 (pos) - Gap P1. Casey Stoner - Ducati Corse 1m22.318s (P1) 1m21.582s (P1) Fastest
P2. Alex de Angelis - San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m22.582s (P2) 1m21.993s (P2) +0.411s
P4. Valentino Rossi - Fiat Yamaha Team 1m22.617s (P3) 1m22.796s (P4) +1.035s
P7. Shinya Nakano - San Carlo Honda Gresini 1m23.038s (P6) 1m22.922s (P7) +1.340s
P11. Sylvain Guintoli - Alice Team 1m23.728s (P13) 1m23.209s (P11) +1.627s
P12. Loris Capirossi - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m24.646s (P17) 1m23.274s (P12) +1.692s
P13. Toni Elias - Alice Team 1m24.086s (P14) 1m23.366s (P13) +1.784s
P14. Chris Vermeulen - Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1m23.462s (P11) 1m23.411s (P14) +1.829s
P15. Anthony West - Kawasaki Racing Team 1m23.627s (P12) 1m23.452s (P15) +1.870s
P16. Marco Melandri - Ducati Corse 1m24.117s (P15) 1m23.698s (P16) +2.116s
Weather: Session 1: Dry – Air 24°C, Track 31°C (Bridgestone measurement)
Session 2: Dry – Air 29°C, Track 44°C (Bridgestone measurement)
