Casey Stoner 2010 Ducati

Diecast model of the 2010 Ducati Desmosedici GP10 of Casey Stoner. This 1:10 model is a valuable piece of MotoGP history, being the bike Stoner last ridden before his switch to Honda.
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2008-03-01  Jorge Lorenzo sets lap record in final day of Qatar test
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Second and final day of Qatar test came to conclusion with two rookie Yamaha riders topping timesheets. Jorge Lorenzo utilized Michelin qualifying tyres to set fastest time of the test, that was around 0.5 seconds inside circuit record set by his team-mate, Valentino Rossi. James Toseland, second Yamaha rookie, was right behind Lorenozo, showing his quick adaptation from Superbikes to MotoGP. Randy de Puniet was 3rd rider on this test that rode under lap record. Read rider impressions after final day of Losail test. Jorge Lorenzo - 1st - 1:54.552, 73 laps: I am very happy because we have done two days of testing with a very good rhythm throughout. Our performance has been consistent, which is very important after the trouble we had at the last test and this makes me confident for the first race. The race simulation today was really positive, although I think we still need to do some work on the rear of the bike which might allow us to be a bit faster. Despite all these positive signs we must keep our feet on the ground, because I have never raced with the other riders and the first race will be a new experience for me! Next week many things will be different so we must remain focused and hopefully maintain a good rhythm. I am happy because I think people understand now that I am ready for this, and this is very important for me and for my confidence. I do not have experience in MotoGP so I cannot say how this championship will turn out, but let’s say that without experience the winter tests were good and with some experience the championship might be even better! James Toseland - 2nd - 1:54.592, 52 laps: I know this track pretty well so it didn’t take too long to get into the groove of the place even on this bike. But to do the time I did and finish second is pretty amazing. I don’t think I did a 58 on my superbike, so to think I’m four seconds faster than a superpole lap is incredible. And I’m half-a-second under Valentino’s pole and that is really encouraging. It just shows how much my confidence has grown with the Michelin qualifying tyre because you really have to trust how to get the best out of the extra grip. I knew it was a quick lap but it was a little bit faster than I expected. It was just great to see all those great names underneath mine. It would have been nice to finish fastest but I’m still happy. I wanted to come to MotoGP and be competitive and I’m showing I can. Now I can’t wait for the first race. Luckily for me the experience of the Tech 3 team, and Michelin and Yamaha working so hard, it is all coming together very quickly. It is only because of the experience of the people around me that performances like this have come so quickly. My guys have brought me to this level much quicker than I expected, and hopefully we can convert the good testing performances into the season. Randy De Puniet - 3rd - 1:54.973, 91 laps: These two days have been very productive for me and the whole Team. Basically we did not make any important change in the base set-up and we focused on race tyres to get the right pace for the race. Today the feeling with the bike was even better than yesterday and I like to ride in these conditions. We worked specifically on rear and front tyres making many consistent and fast lap times on race tyres. I think we got the right package to make a positive first race next week and I want to thank the LCR squad, HRC and Michelin for their efforts during the winter test period. Colin Edwards - 4th – 1:55.464, 50 laps: Today we mainly tested tyres to try and find a good race tyre and give Michelin some good information. I found a race tyre I really liked. Yesterday in my long run my fastest lap was a 57.3, which isn’t going to be fast enough. With the tyres I found today I did an eight-lap run and on that last lap I did a 56.4. And that was with 22 laps on the rear and 26 laps on the front. I don’t know if a 56.4 on the 22nd lap is good enough to win the race but I’m sure Michelin will bring us something even better for next weekend. I know James liked a new Michelin front and I’d tried it before him and I fell in love with it. We’re not talking five per cent better but it felt 25 per cent better. It works so well in the cold temperatures so Michelin has been working really hard. To come here and find a front tyre that I’m that happy with and James is also happy with shows we are definitely moving in the right direction. This place you generally always have an issue with front tyre grip because it is such a hard track on the front. But now we don’t have any issues and that’s credit to Michelin. I’m excited for the first race. The Tech 3 team, Yamaha and Michelin have been working really hard and as whole team we have done a great job this winter. Casey Stoner - 5th - 1:55.485 We only had a few things left to test and I'm happy because we've used different configurations on the two bikes and they both worked well. Next week during practice we'll decide which setting to use in the race. I'm also really happy with the race tyres - the qualifiers could be a bit better but I'm not too worried because they're not the most important tyres of the weekend. I had a crash this evening going into turn 2, but luckily I wasn't seriously hurt. Having said that I think that in the Safety Commission we need to talk about the size of the gravel pieces because here, like at Jerez, they're too big - they're more like rocks than stones and they can hurt you even in a small crash. Now we've got a couple of days to relax after months of testing and then we finally go racing. We're in good shape and I can't wait to get started. Andrea Dovizioso - 6th - 1:55.550, 68 laps: I was fast for the whole day fast and consistent! Our whole technical package has been finalised for the race and I was looking for the best lap time possible on the qualifying tyres even though we only used them in the last part of our test when we had low temperatures when the damp conditions were increasing. The racetrack temperature was lower compared to yesterday, but we didn’t change our schedule. I’m satisfied with our Technical Partners they’re doing a great job! We’re leaving Qatar and looking forward to the race expecting to be up at the front! Nicky Hayden - 7th - 1:55.674, 94 laps: I’ve enjoyed riding at night but conditions are not easy here at night – there’s the wind and the track temperature changes a lot. We tried race tyres tonight and at the end we tried a couple of qualifiers, we went quicker but we’re not where we need to be. We left Jerez feeling really confident but we’ve been brought back to reality. Nonetheless I’m happy to go racing after so much testing, that’s exciting. Now we’ve got some work to do, we need to try to come up with something to make an improvement. I think we can get the bike to hold the line better and finish the corner better. Now Honda have got a couple of days to think about stuff and I’ve got some time to go over some lines, so hopefully come Friday night we’ll be closer to where we need to be. Chris Vermeulen - 8th - 1:56.119, 73 laps: It was good night of testing here in Qatar. I think we have taken the most steps in a test so far this year with the 2008 GSV-R, so in that respect I am really happy. We took our lap time forward by over a second consistently so that puts us in a better position for the race next week. I would like to thank the crew for all their hard work during what have been quite awkward hours. I now just can’t wait for the race! Alex De Angelis - 9th - 1:56.249, 60laps: I’m happy with the race pace we found in the opening part of this final test session. The problem is that from 10 o’clock onwards it starts to get really cold and humid. The track conditions change a lot and I crashed. Luckily I wasn’t badly hurt – I’ve got some pain in my right forearm but generally I’m okay. I’m optimistic for the race although we’ll have to pay attention over the first few laps because it takes a while for the tyres to get up to the right temperature. Valentino Rossi - 10th - 1:56.256, 83 laps: I cannot say I am happy with this test and speaking honestly I expected to be faster here. Unfortunately we wasted some time working on the set-up of the bike to try to adapt it to some tyres that we then decided to abandon. Once we’d made this decision we worked with different tyres and things improved a bit, but the test was nearly over and we didn’t have enough time to complete all the work we wanted to do. Because of this I did not do a race simulation, but I was able to make two good runs. Unfortunately however it wasn’t enough time to improve as much as we could have and I am still lacking a couple of tenths. Generally speaking however all of the winter tests, barring this one, have been positive for us; I was fast in Sepang and fast in Jerez. It’s a pity that I wasn’t able to be fast here as w ell, but we have some good ideas for the next week and this does not dent my confidence. Loris Capirossi - 11th - 1:56.450, 64 laps: I think I lost a bit too much time today because I tested too many things. I tried three different engines and maybe was a bit confused with all the different options, but it was really important to do it. The good thing is that we now really understand where we need to be, but we will still have to work hard to get there. I also lost time because I had a big crash, but luckily I wasn’t hurt and could carry on. Really this has been quite a good test because we have learnt many things. John Hopkins - 12th - 1:56.612, 55 laps: We mainly worked on the overall bike set-up today, and we had some chassis settings to run through, as well as finalising which chassis we are going to use for the race. The results have been positive as we slashed a second off yesterday's lap time on a race tyre. We also reduced the allocation of tyres we had available to us at the beginning of the test and we know which selection we're going to use for the race. I'm feeling confident and competitive on race tyres, although we didn't try any qualifiers today. The conditions are very cold out on track but it's the same for everybody, I think this may be the biggest factor during the race. The injury I have is a bit sore from doing a lot of laps yesterday but I'm now going to Dubai with Ashleigh for a three-day mini vacation to rest before starting my race preparation. Dani Pedrosa - 13th - 1:56.704, 75 laps: It’s been quite a difficult two days here. So far we haven't found the solution to the problems we are having. We’ve tried many different things but at the moment we aren’t getting the results we were expecting. The main problem is grip. The tyres are fine, you can see that because the guys with the 2007 Hondas and Michelins are fast, so it’s something else. Maybe riding at night has some influence on this, because there’s a lot of humidity, but that’s the same for everybody. My right hand is little bit better, I had some time to rest it after Jerez, so here I’ve been able to ride more laps than I could manage at Jerez. Shinya Nakano - 14th - 1:56.792, 71 laps: I’ve worked a lot on refining my setting for the race. We had a good base setting until the conditions changed and when I tried to push a little harder to improve the lap time I crashed on the humid track. That interrupted the race simulation we were carrying out and actually made for an early end to the session. I didn’t pick up any serious injuries and a few days’ rest will be enough to prepare for the race. Marco Melandri - 15th - 1:56.902 We've continued working on the set-up of the bike and we've improved compared to yesterday. We've tried a few different race tyres but we also tried to get as many laps as we could on the same tyre in order to set the bike up without that extra variable. I'm happy that the green light is almost ready for the first race because I'm convinced that we have more potential than we're showing right now. Toni Elias – 16th - 1:56.986, 69 laps: Today we had a schedule full of different things to try, and so we have done, without thinking too much at the fast lap. Let’s say we were expecting something more, but this will be useful to look for alternative choices for next weekend, when lap times will really count. We have concluded our winter tests, we are a bit behind, but we have still time to improve the setting of the bike and adapt it to my riding style. Sylvain Guintoli – 17th - 1:57.055, 55 laps: We made it to improve race rhythm. I found some difficulties with qualifying setting, and while I was pushing at the maximum, I slipped and hurt my right arm. I thought it would be bad, but after the first medical exams it doesn’t seems such a serious injury. To be sure of it I am flying back to England straight away where I will undergo further medical exams to be sure that everything is ok. I want to be present at the official start of the season. Anthony West - 18th - 1:57.459, 67 laps: Today we have been working mainly on improving the set-up of the chassis we tried yesterday and, although I'm disappointed with our lap times, we have definitely made some improvements. The conditions out on track are cold and there is very little grip, which has been the main difficulty for us. We did a race simulation, trying a selection of tyres with an aim of finding something suitable for next weekend and, in the final hour of testing, found one I'm much happier with. We have some work to do before the first practice next week but I'm confident that, with the data we have from the last two days, we can improve our lap times and be much more competitive. Losail: Lap Record C. Stoner (Ducati) 2007, 1'56.528 Losail: Best Lap V. Rossi (Yamaha) 2007, 1'55.002 Qatar test - lap times - day 2: 1. Jorge Lorenzo (SPA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'54.552 2. James Toseland (GBR) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'54.592 3. Randy De Puniet (FRA) LCR Honda MotoGP 1'54.973 4. Colin Edwards (USA) Tech 3 Yamaha 1'55.464 5. Casey Stoner (AUS) Ducati Marlboro 1'55.485 6. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA) JiR Team Scot MotoGP 1'55.550 7. Nicky Hayden (USA) Repsol Honda 1'55.674 8. Chris Vermeulen (AUS) Rizla Suzuki 1'56.119 9. Alex De Angelis (RSM) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'56.249 10. Valentino Rossi (ITA) Fiat Yamaha Team 1'56.256 11. Loris Capirossi (ITA) Rizla Suzuki MotoGP 1'56.450 12. John Hopkins (USA) Kawasaki Racing 1'56.612 13. Dani Pedrosa (SPA) Repsol Honda 1'56.704 14. Shinya Nakano (JPN) San Carlo Honda Gresini 1'56.792 15. Marco Melandri (ITA) Ducati Marlboro 1'56.902 16. Toni Elias (SPA) Alice Team 1'56.986 17. Sylvain Guintoli (FRA) Alice Team 1'57.055 18. Anthony West (AUS) Kawasaki Racing 1'57.459

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