Speedy Stoner makes swingarm confirmation

Speedy Stoner makes swingarm confirmation



Wednesday, 04 March 2009
The quickest lap time of Qatar night test, improved performance from his tender wrist and confirmation of swingarm improvements leave Australian positive.


He might only be doing it on short runs, but Casey Stoner is proving that his recovering wrist is no obstacle to putting in blisteringly fast laps. As he did at Sepang last month, the Ducati Marlboro man ended the Qatar test as the quickest rider courtesy of a blistering last session lap; in contrast, Stoner was pleased with the response of his scaphoid.
“I’m obviously very happy with the lap time and the rhythm we put together today, although I would have liked to have been able to get a few more laps in and test some more stuff,” said the former MotoGP World Champion, nearly a second ahead of any other rider on track after clocking a 1’55.744 lap.
Stoner fell at turn two of the Losail International Circuit shortly after recording his mercurial time, but was able to continue with his workload onboard a second Desmosedici GP9 before bowing to poor track conditions and cutting the test short. His Tuesday night track time had been enough to pick up some important information and work further with the new carbon fibre swingarm brought to the test.
“We still managed to try a few things with the electronics – some of them good and some not so good and we confirmed the good feeling I had yesterday with the new swingarm, although we still need more time to work on it and that’s what we’ll be doing at Jerez,” confirmed the Australian, who can expect to be in even better condition for that next test in the south of Spain.