Just a day after Stoner clinched his eighth victory of the season, the 21-year-old returned to test
Bridgestone tyres and a modified chassis set-up. The Australian went on to dip over half a second under his best race lap as he again led the field, although this time by just 0.15secs from Repsol Honda's
Nicky Hayden.
"We are very happy with today," declare Stoner, who can wrap up his first world championship next time out at Estoril. "We had a few tyres to test, very similar to those we had tested after the race at Brno. We have once again found some very positive points which could give us a step forward at future races. Also, we tried another step with the chassis, again similar to what we did at Brno, just to confirm things, and once again we did consistently very fast times. It has been a very positive test for us, though also a quite a long and hot day."
Things, once again, weren't so positive on the other side of the factory Ducati pits with team-mate
Loris Capirossi a massive 1.68secs slower than Stoner to sit just 14th out of the 15 riders.
"Today we made some tyre tests and we tried some changes to the set-up, aiming to sort out the problems we had during the weekend. Concerning the Bridgestone tyres, I had got a good feeling today and I think we're starting a good job for the future, but concerning the set-up tests, we weren't able to make the steps forward we were hoping for," admitted the Italian, who finished fifth in Sunday's San Marino Grand Prix.
