MotoGP: Stoner fires warning shots at Jerez

Stoner bagged a new BMW M6 for his fastest lap

REIGNING MOTOGP World Champion, Casey Stoner, annihilated the opposition at Sunday's televised official MotoGP test session at Jerez, Spain - and in doing so won a BMW M6 convertible.

The Australian, who took ten race wins in 2007, dominated the event, posted his fastest time of 1:49.263 in damp, cold and blustery conditions. A lunchtime downpour hampered practice but ceased shortly before the afternoon’s 40-minute timed 'qualifying'. session. Even so, the track remained damp and slippery for the rest of the day with the session ending early due to increasingly high winds.

Teammate Marco Melandri had a spill in the tricky conditions but thankfully escaped injury. He rejoined the session a short time later, ending the day in tenth position.

Casey Stoner

“This is fantastic. Last year we did an amazing job in all the qualifying sessions during the season and I was able to take a car at the end of it so to start out 2008 in the same way is great. We found quite a good wet setting this morning so we decided to run a tyre that was a little harder than some of the other guys because there was not so much water on the track. Obviously with a harder tyre the grip is not the same but durability is better and with the track drying this really helped. We were able to use the same tyre for the whole session although I actually think I could have gone even faster if we’d have put a new one on at the end. I’m really happy with the way the bike was working in the dry at the end of yesterday and in the wet today. Being more competitive in testing means we can be even more competitive at the races but nothing is ever perfect and there is always room for improvement. We’re just trying to improve the bike’s performance at circuits where we had problems last season and from that perspective things are going very well.”

Jerez Circuit stats:

Circuit Record: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha – 2005) 1’40.596

Best pole: Loris Capirossi (Ducati – 2006) 1’39.064

Lap times 17 February 2008

1. Stoner (Ducati) 1.49.263
2. Rossi (Yamaha) 1.50.580
3. Hayden (Honda) 1.50.785
4. West (Kawasaki) 1.50.799
5. Dovizioso (Honda) 1.51.312
6. Nakano (Honda) 1.51.594
7. Capirossi (Suzuki) 1.51.894
8. De Puniet (Honda) 1.51.979
9. Guintoli (Ducati) 1.52.058
10. Melandri (Ducati) 1.52.238
11. De Angelis (Honda) 1.52.463
12. Toseland (Yamaha) 1.52.755
13. Vermeulen (Suzuki) 1.52.779
14. Edwards (Yamaha) 1.52.826
15. Jacque (KawasakI) 1.53.283
16. Lorenzo (Yamaha) 1.53.292
17. Guareschi (Ducati) 1.54.694
18. Canepa (Ducati) 1.57.453
19. Elias (Ducati) 1.57.698