Bridgestone has enjoyed a solid start to the Malaysian Grand Prix weekend with several of its riders setting competitive lap times after the opening two free practice sessions at the Sepang International Circuit today. A total of six Bridgestone-shod riders frequented the top ten of the combined standings with 2008 World Champion Valentino Rossi second fastest, setting his personal best in the one-hour morning session. That time was quickest of the session and it was not until the dying moments of the afternoon practice that his benchmark was beaten, albeit by a mere 0.026s, by Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards, who was the fastest man of the day. Ducati’s Casey Stoner, winner of the Malaysian race last year and victor in Phillip Island two weeks’ ago, finished in third place three-tenths-of-a-second off Edwards’ pace, ahead of San Carlo Honda Gresini man Shinya Nakano. Nakano has been in competitive form throughout the day and set the standard for most of the afternoon session.
The third and final day of testing, before the well deserved summer break, for Vittoriano Guareschi and Niccolo Canepa concluded today at Mugello. Vittoriano continued working on the scheduled development of the GP9. Niccola completed two long runs despites of the hot conditions and recorded a best time of 1.51.2.