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2008-03-07 Casey Stoner sets pace on opening practice in Qatar
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 Casey Stoner was pace setter in opening free practice session in Qatar, as he set string of laps under 1:56. Jorge Lorenzo has again shown pace in Qatar, setting second fastest time, in front of another rookie, Andrea Dovizioso, who set 3rd fastest time. Valentino Rossi was 4th fastest, in front of recovering Dani Pedrosa in 5th.
Two riders suffered crash today in Qatar, luckily without any injuries. First one was usual suspect, Randy de Puniet, and second and more scarry was James Toseland. Interesting situation was regarding tyres, as only 3 of top 10 riders were running on Bridgestones.
Casey Stoner - 1st - 1:55.870
Finally the first race is here and it feels good to get out there and see what everybody is really capable of. I've been looking forward to today for a while because to be honest I've got a bit sick of testing. Anyway, it was good to get going - the bike itself felt good from the start but for some reason the overall feeling wasn't as good as it was at the test and I'd put that down to the slightly different track conditions. There wasn't as much grip and lot of riders were crashing today, much more than at the same time during the test, so it seems everybody is struggling with the same problem. The first session has basically just helped us to decide which way to go with the setting so we'll tune both bikes in to the same set-up for the second session and from there we'll be able to really make some progress with the tyres and address the grip issue.
FP1 times - Qatar:
1. Casey Stoner 1.55.870
2. Jorge Lorenzo 1.55.924
3. Andrea Dovizioso 1.56.221
4. Valentino Rossi 1.56.269
5. Dani Pedrosa 1.56.478
6. Randy De Puniet 1.56.525
7. Colin Edwards 1.56.574
8. James Toseland 1.56.950
9. Hayden Nicky 1.57.069
10. John Hopkins 1.57.085
11. Marco Melandri 1.57.137
12. Loris Capirossi 1.57.287
13. Alex De Angelis 1.57.561
14. Shinya Nakano 1.57.588
15. Chris Vermeulen 1.57.639
16. Toni Elias 1.58.130
17. Anthony West 1.58.912
18. Sylvain Guintoli 1.59.006
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