Stoner top as Dovizioso slams Michelin
Added on Tuesday, August 19th, 2008 by Carole Nash Editor
Stoner top as Dovizioso slams Michelin
Casey Stoner came out on top during the post-race test in Brno yesterday but Michelin yet again came under fire.
The Ducati rider, who threw away a likely victory in Sunday’s race after crashing out on lap six, was more than a second faster than Sunday’s race winner Valentino Rossi on Monday.
Honda’s Dani Pedrosa capped a miserable weekend after failing to find any improvement on the new testing tyres brought by Michelin, prompting him to abandoned a planned appearance on Honda’s pneumatic-valve RC212V.
Michelin riders demonstrated a slight improvement on the weekend’s performances with both Colin Edwards and Jorge Lorenzo finishing in the top ten although that result will do little to silence the doubters, with many speculating that MotoGP organisers may consider reverting to a single-tyre championship following the massive disparity between Michelin and Bridgestone.
Honda satellite rider Andrea Dovizioso joined the seemingly growing group of critics with a frank assessment of the tyre’s performance.
“We have noted some progress but this is still not enough. We expect Michelin to work intensively to achieve the results we expect for the next race,” warned the Italian.
Dovi also failed to be impressed by the improvement shown by Tech 3 Yamaha’s Colin Edwards, suggesting that such a result should not be allowed to paper over some glaring cracks.
“Colin Edwards has got a good lap time, but only for three laps, which is not significant enough for us to draw any conclusions,” he added. “We stayed out even longer to assess the durability of the tyres, in addition to grip. We were able also to do tests on electronics.
Brno Test Results.
1. Casey Stoner, Ducati (B); 1:56.261
2. Valentino Rossi, Yamaha (B); 1:57.332
3. Toni Elias, Ducati (B); 1:57.457
4. Shinya Nakano, Honda (B); 1:57.652
5. Chris Vermeulen, Suzuki (B); 1:57.742
6. Colin Edwards, Yamaha (M); 1:57.756
7. Alex de Angelis, Honda (B); 1:57.826
8. Sylvain Guintoli, Ducati (B); 1:57.859
9. Jorge Lorenzo, Yamaha (M); 1:57.979
10. Loris Capirossi, Suzuki (B); 1:58.177
11. Niccolo Canepa, Ducati (B); 1:58.204
12. Marco Melandri, Ducati (B); 1:58.325
13. Randy De Puniet, Honda (M); 1:58.568
14. Dani Pedrosa, Honda (M); 1:59.067
15. Olivier Jacque, Kawasaki (B); 1:59.130
16. Andrea Dovizioso, Honda (M); 1:59.130
17. James Toseland, Yamaha (M); 1:59.228
18. John Hopkins, Kawasaki (B); 2:00.414
19. Tadyuki Okada, Honda (M); 2:00.735
