Reigning double champion
Casey Stoner topped the Friday test timesheets at Jerez, as
MotoGP began its third and final official pre-season test.
The Repsol Honda rider only moved to the head of the timesheets on his 54th and final lap, but felt the day had gone largely to plan.
“Today has been quite good, we did race distance with a soft set of tyres this morning and we were getting quicker and quicker as we progressed but I think also the circuit was getting better,” he explained.
“Then we put the hard tyre on and did a tyre comparison and we had very similar feelings to what we had in Sepang.
“We tried a few things with the chassis as the bike was proving slow to turn in the corner but in general it is working well especially at the end of the tyre life. On the last exit we did our fastest lap on a new soft rear tyre. It's been a good first day".
Stoner finished the day 0.273sec ahead of Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo.
In contrast to Stoner's steady schedule, team-mate
Dani Pedrosa had a 'tough' time on his way to third place.
“It's been a pretty tough day, the mechanics had a lot of work to do in the garage and I've been stationary a long time, so it was not easy to get into the rhythm quickly,” he said. “But I'm happy because we have a clear idea about the changes we need to do on the bike to improve tomorrow, especially on braking and the exits of the corners.
“We also tested the new front Bridgestone tyre, but just for a few laps, so I will keep testing it tomorrow to know if it's better. Unfortunately, in the afternoon I had a problem on one bike and I couldn't use it any more, so I spent quite a long time in the box between runs and thinking about the changes we want to do.
“We didn't have too much chattering today, but I think it's because of the circuit characteristics".
Testing concludes on Sunday evening.