Stoner delighted with Valencia test
Added on Thursday, November 11th, 2010 by Carole Nash Editor
Stoner delighted with Valencia test
Casey Stoner could not hide his delight after this week’s end of season test in Valencia has he joined up with the Honda factory team for the first time.
The Australian topped the time charts on day two with a time of 1:32.066 on only his second outing on the Honda since he left the LCR team to move to Ducati in 2007 and later declared that the two day session could not have gone better for him and his crew.
“There’s not much I’m not happy with!” he told MotoGP.com. “Of course there is still a long way to go for us with the bike but we’ve come away with a reasonable base setting. We still have to get the general feeling of the bike a bit better in the middle of the corner turning, but that’s just a case of getting more time on the bike and a better balance for me as I have a different style to most riders. At this moment, with the set-up we currently have, we have been very happy with the feedback the bike’s been giving us and the way everyone’s been working.”
Stoner also claimed that the transition from Ducati to Honda was not as tough as first thought, despite finding the RC212V somewhat alien at first.
“It wasn’t the most comfortable move for sure! It’s like going from any bike to another, it does feel very strange,” he added. “But this morning it immediately felt more comfortable having had the first day, so we were able to work in a better way than yesterday. Today we were able to move forward and hopefully in the right direction.
“We still have to move some parameters with the electronics that seem to be restricting me a bit, and we have to improve engine braking a bit as we’re struggling slightly with that, but over these two days we were able to improve that a lot so I’m sure over time and with a bit more understanding of the bike we can fix these things,” he concluded.
| Pos | Rider | Nat | Team | Time |
| 1 | Casey Stoner | AUS | Honda Racing | 1:32.066 |
| 2 | Jorge Lorenzo | SPA | Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:32.179 |
| 3 | Ben Spies | USA | Yamaha Factory Racing | 1:32.322 |
| 4 | Marco Simoncelli | ITA | San Carlo Gresini Honda | 1:32.450 |
| 5 | Dani Pedrosa | SPA | Repsol Honda | 1:32.497 |
| 6 | Nicky Hayden | USA | Ducati | 1:32.583 |
| 7 | Alvaro Bautista | SPA | Rizla Suzuki | 1:32.738 |
| 8 | Randy De Puniet | FRA | Pramac Ducati | 1:32.836 |
| 9 | Andrea Dovizioso | ITA | Repsol Honda | 1:32.942 |
| 10 | Hiroshi Aoyama | JAP | San Carlo Gresini Honda | 1:33.105 |
| 11 | Hector Barbera | SPA | Paginas Amarillas Aspar Ducati | 1:33.168 |
| 12 | Colin Edwards | USA | Monster Tech 3 Yamaha | 1:33.325 |
| 13 | Cal Crutchlow | GBR | Monster Tech 3 Yamaha | 1:33.483 |
| 14 | Loris Capirossi | ITA | Pramac Ducati | 1:33.740 |
| 15 | Valentino Rossi | ITA | Ducati | 1:33.761 |
| 16 | Karel Abraham | CZH | Cardion AB Ducati | 1:33.793 |
| 17 | Toni Elias | SPA | LCR Honda | 1:34.800 |
