Stoner and Ducati are back on the roll that gave them 10 wins and the championship last year. With nine races remaining and only 29 points between him and points leader
Dani Pedrosa, it’s now a three-way fight for the title.
Friday pm - Toseland Finds Composure After a Big Get-off
You could accuse
James Toseland of carelessness in chucking his Tech 3 Yamaha away on only the third lap of practice on a new-to-him track here at the Sachsenring this morning.
But you could also say that it was a pretty composed performance to get sharply back to the pits and log up 25 laps in what remained of the one-hour session. This was only eight less than the peak of 33 circuits performed by Gresini Honda’s
Alex de Angelis, while Toseland finished only 2.168 seconds off the quickest time set by
Casey Stoner.
"He braked on the white line and lost the front," manager Roger Burnett admitted outside JT’s motorhome shortly after the spectacular crash. "The disappointing thing for James is that it was a rider error."
But like all top sports performers – and really anyone in any situation – it’s best to build on the realistic positives that you can find. In JT’s case, here they are:
• The Tech 3 guys started with a way-too-soft front end, but found their way to a harder and better setup by the end of the hour;
• Now they’ll focus on sorting the back end in this afternoon’s one-hour practice window;
• Sachsenring has a short 2.281-mile/3.671km lap, so JT will get plenty of opportunities to refine his approach to its 10 left-hand and four right-hand corners;
• And finally, to repeat: only 2.168 seconds off the world champion, who has logged hundreds of laps around this tricky circuit, would be acceptable even if a high-speed crash hadn’t happened.
Go for it, JT - people know what you’re trying to achieve.
Friday am - Kallio and Bautista Linked to Ducati
Andrea Dovizioso, currently sixth in the world standings on the JiR Scot Honda, is the favoured son likely to take Nicky Hayden’s Repsol Honda factory bike.
"Yes, it’s true that Honda want me," the 22-year-old Italian has said here at the Sachsenring.
This could involve Hayden swapping places with Dovizioso, although if this happened Gianluca Montiron’s Scot team might receive official backing from Honda. There could also be a tempting money offer from Kawasaki dangling before Hayden.
