"The weather today was unbelievable and the track went from wet to dry four or five times, which made it very difficult to understand. The conditions definitely weren't the best, especially because it was very, very cold," confirmed the Fiat Yamaha rider, who lapped 0.8secs slower than new world champion and home favourite
Casey Stoner.
"Despite this it was not a bad day; we worked well, tried several different settings and found some good tyre possibilities to keep going with tomorrow. In fact we tried quite a lot of tyres, wet and dry, and our level for the first day in this respect is not so bad, although we will be in better shape if we have a little bit more temperature.
"At the end we are fourth but it's okay, especially considering that we have a few problems still to deal with, including not enough weight on the front which means I'm not yet fast enough in the long corners. We have some ideas about how to improve on things for tomorrow," added the #46, riding today in a special Abarth livery. "I love this track a lot and it's always a great feeling to ride here and with the 800 it is no different. Of course today it wasn't the best conditions to be riding in or to fully enjoy the track, but hopefully tomorrow will be better."
