Stoner wastes little time in claiming top spot

Added on Friday, February 6th, 2009 by Carole Nash Editor

Casey Stoner was the fastest on track in the second day of testing at Sepang on Friday.

The Aussie posted a time of 2:01.483 on his best run although he still appeared to be struggling with his hand injury, completing just 29 laps in largely short stints.

But the 2007 champion still managed to topple Dani Pedrosa’s 2008 pole-winning time by 0.065 secs and yesterday’s pace setter Loris Capirossi.

World Champion Valentino Rossi recovered from his fall yesterday to finish third fastest, losing out to Capirossi late in the session, ahead of Honda’s Dani Pedrosa in fourth.

After taking fifth place yesterday, Toni Elias backed-up yesterday’s impressive performance on his return to Gresini Honda and completed the top six.

Colin Edwards, Andrea Dovizioso, Nicky Hayden and Jorge Lorenzo filled the rest of the top ten places although James Toseland had another disappointing session, finishing 19^th.

Pos	Rider	Bike	Time	Diff	Laps
1	Casey Stoner	Ducati	2:01.483		29
2	Loris Capirossi	Suzuki	2:01.555	+0.072	45
3	Valentino Rossi	Yamaha	2:01.626	+0.143	40
4	Dani Pedrosa	Honda	2:01.860	+0.337	51
5	Chris Vermeulen	Suzuki	2:02.086	+0.603	52
6	Toni Elias	Honda	2:02.232	+0.749	51
7	Colin Edwards	Yamaha	2:02.241	+0.758	37
8	Andrea Dovizioso	Honda	2:02.434	+0.951	44
9	Nicky Hayden	Ducati	2:03.034	+1.155	58
10	Jorge Lorenzo	Yamaha	2:03.056	+1.573	51
11	Sete Gibernau	Ducati	2:03.308	+1.825	40
12	Alex De Angelis	Honda	2:03.518	+2.035	40
13	Mika Kallio	Ducati	2:03.774	+2.291	55
14	Niccolo Canepa	Ducati	2:04.021	+2.538	45
15	Norihiko Fujiwara	Yamaha	2:04.312	+2.829	36
16	Yuki Takahashi	Honda	2:04.332	+2.849	65
17	Randy De Puniet	Honda	2:04.507	+3.024	48
18	Wataru Yoshikawa	Yamaha	2:04.536	+3.053	50
19	James Toseland	Yamaha	2:04.597	+3.114	36