Hot, cold, wet, dry or just plain patchy you can throw any type of weather and any track condition at Casey Stoner and he just rides away on his Honda RC212V as if it was the easiest thing in the world, as he did today dominating both free practices at Silverstone and simply untouchable for the rest of field, who will have to step up their game if they even want to stay near him.
Rider quotes and combined lap times:Casey Stoner – 1st“I’m pretty happy with how the day has gone after mixed conditions, we’ve seen a dry track, a wet track and then a 50/50 track so it’s been interesting to have these variants throughout the day, but in general the bike has worked well.
We used both bikes today and in the wet one set up seems to work pretty well, but with wet weather forecast for the rest of the weekend we still have some things we want to improve to make the bike work better giving us some more edge grip and traction.
The track seems pretty good but some of the older sections are retaining a lot more water which is causing difficulties as in some areas you could be out on slicks but other parts are drenched.
Looking at the way the wet tyres are working at the moment we shouldn’t have too much of a problem though, the track seems to be kind on the Bridgestone tyres and not destroying them and even after this afternoon’s session we didn’t have a too big a problem with them”.
Marco Simoncelli – 2nd“I am happy but at the moment Stoner is faster than us in wet and dry so we have to work to close the gap.
In both cases I am losing the most time in the final sector so we need to work out why that is before making changes to the set-up.
It is good to be on the pace again and I hope it continues because the most important day is Sunday, when we need to be fast in the race.
I am also really happy with the support I have had from the British fans, who have been cheering for me in both sessions, and for the welcome I got yesterday.
It’s really nice.
”Nicky Hayden – 3rd “This was our best Friday of the season so far.
The conditions were difficult, especially this afternoon, with different surfaces and different amounts of water, but the bike worked quite well.
We know it’s great in the wet, but we were also competitive in the dry this morning.
We had to be careful not to destroy the rain tyres this afternoon, because we only have four sets for the whole weekend.
You really need to save two for qualifying and one for the race, so this might be the only set we have for practice.
I hope today sets us up for a good weekend.
The team expects better than what we’ve been doing, and so do I.
There’s a long way to go until Sunday, but we’re off to a good start.
I’m very happy with the bike and the team today.
” Cal Crutchlow – 4th “I wasn’t too happy with this morning even though I was in the top six.
I had some stability issues with the bike and without that I felt I could have been in the top four this morning as well.
We had a few issues to solve and it would have been good to have a dry session this afternoon to work on improving the bike.
At least we got an opportunity to do some laps in the wet, so we’ll have some experience of the track in those conditions if we get rain on Sunday.
I’d li ke it to be a dry race so I can show what I can do, but I feel we’re competitive in the wet as well.
The conditions this afternoon were unbelievable.
It was soaking wet in parts but in other parts, how quickly it dried out was incredible.
One corner would be wet and then the next dry, so it was a case of understanding when and where you could push to gain time.
The Bridgestone rain tyres held up brilliantly on the drier parts but going from dry to wet conditions is not easy because there is so much heat being generated in the tyres, it is easy to make a mistake.
The support from the British crowd has been fantastic so far and I’ve been making solid progress, so I want to aim for the front row tomorrow.
”Jorge Lorenzo – 5th“I’m not so satisfied with the day.
In the morning I tried to ride the same pace as last year but I was one second slower.
In the afternoon I wanted to ride in dry conditions but it started to rain so we had to ride on that.
I made so many laps with the rain tyre that it was destroyed whereas some of the other riders switched to a fresh tyre so were faster than us.
I think we have a good set up for wet conditions now.
We must focus on improving both myself and the bike, I will try to be on the front row tomorrow.
”Andrea Dovizioso – 6th“This afternoon the track conditions were difficult especially because there are different types of tarmac which drain differently.
For example, T1 and T4 were draining very well, whilst it was wet in T2 and T3.
It took me a while to find the feeling and we struggled with the traction control set up.
We worked on the different settings and I think that we can improve tomorrow.
It will be important to practice again in dry conditions tomorrow as we did this morning in FP1, but all in all FP2 was also important because we may find similar conditions in the race”.
Ben Spies – 7th“It was a good first day, very productive.
We were quick in both sessions.
I’ve never had a really good feeling with the bike in the rain before but here we didn’t have to push too hard and were up close to the front guys.
There is a couple of things we wanted to test in the dry which we didn’t get a chance to do but we still ended up with good consistent fast times.
We need to be a bit quicker but we’ll get there.
We need to be on the first two rows tomorrow to be able to fight for the race.
”Karel Abraham – 8th“Today we tried a lot of things on the set-up of the motorcycle and of course I am delighted by this fact (finishing in front of Rossi, but it doesn’t mean anything.
In tomorrow’s free practice we have to try to improve the set-up of the motorcycle.
”Valentino Rossi – 9th“Today was a bit difficult.
The weather was bad for the most part, and that didn’t help us.
We knew we were beginning with a handicap, because compared to the others I lack the experience of last year.
We’re a little bit behind.
We’re currently trying to find a good balance for the bike, but considering that we still take time on the tracks that we know well, of course it’s even more challenging in these conditions.
We even had trouble in the wet, where normally we’re immediately quite strong, so there’s obviously still much work to be done.
We know that the bike can go well because today Nicky was fast in both conditions, and that’s positive.
I like Silverstone a lot.
It’s a great track a little old-school, beautiful and fast.
We hope we can have more fun riding here tomorrow.
” Toni Elias – 10th“We have done important changes on the bike moving more weight on the rear adjusting the triple clump and the front fork including the suspensions regulations.
All these radical changes gave me a better feeling though the surface conditions were not very clear.
I mean… it was not totally wet and I hope to test this package in the dry.
Anyway I feel more confident now because in the same conditions of full rain in Jerez I was in bigger troubles: apparently we have found a good direction in the wet”.
Alvaro Bautista – 11th“Today has been a good day to test in the wet and the dry.
I felt very good right from the beginning of this morning’s session and tried a different setting in one of the bikes, but it didn’t quite work so we went back to the other bike to try and get less movement in the bumps.
We decided that this afternoon we would start with the standard setting, but it started to rain so we began the session with what we had in the wet warm-up in Barcelona, because there I had good grip and feeling.
This was the first time I have ridden here in the wet and step-by-step I was getting more confident as the time progressed.
Each lap my time was improving by about half-of-a-second or more, but at the end – as the track started to get quicker – I had to stop because I didn’t have enough fuel, so I lost a few positions.
This doesn’t matter though because I am happy and during the practice I was always in fifth or sixth position and I know we have a good wet set-up.
We will have to see what the weather will do for the rest of the weekend and I think we are well prepared for any type of conditions.
”Loris Capirossi – 12th “This morning’s session was pretty terrible! We had started well, but then I had a fall like the one in Barcelona, although today’s was hard enough to cause significant damage to the bike.
The boys gave it 110% to get the bike ready for the afternoon.
In the second session, the track conditions were terrible—wet in some spots, dry in others, and that’s not even mentioning the cold.
We weren’t able to carry out the developments that we had intended to.
We started with a similar setup to Barcelona, but the results we got are making us think we should once again change our way of working.
”Hector Barbera – 13th“This morning I went much better than in Montmeló, we made lots of successful modifications.
There were improvements in several areas and so I felt much more comfortable than on other occasions.
In the afternoon it all changed a bit due to the rain.
We tried to use the set-up improvements from the dry, but it didn’t work in the wet.
The bike became quite aggressive and I could really feel the bumps.
In any case, my main worry was my feeling in the dry, so I think today we have found the right way to go with this.
We’ve finally seen the light.
Although we weren’t that quick on the wet track I think we have a lot more things to try out and I am sure we will improve tomorrow.
At the end of the second session it looked as if the track might dry, but that wasn’t the case.
”Randy De Puniet – 14th“Today’s weather conditions weren’t good at all.
The track was half-dry and half-wet, so it was difficult to push the bike to the limit.
At the end of the afternoon session, I tried lowering my time because the track conditions were improving and I was getting a better feeling with the bike.
Tomorrow we must work to improve the bike’s setup in the wet, as the situation is already much better in the dry.
I hope tomorrow’s weather will help us to get a good qualifying time.
”Hiroshi Aoyama – 15th“Today was hard and we struggled to get confident with the bike in both sessions.
I don’t have any feeling and tomorrow we need to work to make up time.
I will do my best.
”Colin Edwards – 16th “Today was all about getting back on the bike and building up some confidence after last week’s crash.
I wasn’t going to do any thing too crazy but the shoulder definitely hurts a bit.
I’m in a bit of pain in the braking zone for right-handers and unfortunately this a right-handed track.
Honestly speaking though the shoulder feels better than I thought it would.
In the dry and the wet I was just riding really timid, particularly this afternoon on the wet track.
The conditions were just about the worst imaginable because one corner would be dry and the next wet.
Some parts were drying really quick while others it was still soaking wet.
I had nothing to prove but at least with that wet session we’ve got a feel for the track if it rains on Sunday.
Right now, I certainly won’t be upset if the race is wet on Sunday.
I’ll take a wet race right now because the stress on the shoulder is a lot less than in the dry, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the weather.
Friday Combined Times1.
Casey Stoner (Honda) 2:03.
748/2:15.
6662.
Marco Simoncelli (Honda) 2:04.
407/2:16.
4633.
Jorge Lorenzo (Yamaha) 2:04.
756/2:18.
6834.
Nicky Hayden (Ducati) 2:04.
778/2:17.
0705.
Andrea Dovizioso (Honda) 2:004.
910/2:18.
7836.
Cal Crutchlow (Yamaha) 2:05.
007/2:18.
1097.
Ben Spies (Yamaha) 2:05.
130/2:18.
8208.
Hector Barbera (Ducati) 2:06.
158/2:20.
3379.
Alvaro Bautista (Suzuki) 2:006.
274/2:20.
33710.
Randy de Puniet (Ducati) 2:06.
774/2:20.
98211.
Karel Abraham (Ducati) 2:06.
774/2:19.
00912.
Valentino Rossi (Ducati) 2:07.
075/2:19.
43513.
Hiroshi Aoyama (Honda) 2:07.
459/2:21.
02614.
Toni Elias (Honda) 2:07.
616/2:19.
61215.
Loris Capirossi (Ducati) 2:08.
225/2:20.
60716.
Colin Edwards (Yamaha) 2:09.
310/2:24.
724