Casey Stoner put a big stop to Valentino Rossi’s domination in the pre-season testing taking the top spot on the final day of testing under the lights at the Losail circuit in Qatar.
The Aussie rider exchanged positions with Rossi during the entire test, but in the end with a best lap of 1.
55.
717 left the Italian rider in second by over five tenths of second.
Andrea Dovizioso made a big jump forward from yesterday and finished in third, he too a little more than five tenths of second from Stoner and just 0.
019s from Rossi.
Nicky Hayden finished in fourth, up four positions from yesterday.
Loris Capirossi who was feeling better tonight, finished his test in fifth and improving almost a full second from the 1st session while Jorge Lorenzo who is still nursing his injured hand took sixth.
Several falls characterized this evening’s test, Yamaha Tech3 duo Colin Edwards, Ben Spies and Ducati’s Nicky Hayden and Casey Stoner all suffered falls at turn 2, while Marco Simoncelli crashed out at turn 6.
Randy De Puniet was in seventh with the exact same time as Lorenzo , Colin Edwards and Mika Kallio were 8th and 9th respectively.
Ben Spies who was third yesterday, slid backwards and finished in 10th.
Dani Pedrosa continued to struggle with his Ohlins, the Spanish rider closed the test in 13th place.
Marco Simoncelli finished dead last again and was more than two seconds off Stoner’s best time.
Qatar Test Day 2 Times:1.
Casey Stoner 1.
55.
3532.
Valentino Rossi 1.
55.
8603.
Andrea Dovizioso 1.
55.
8794.
Nicky Hayden 1.
56.
1155.
Loris Capirossi 1.
56.
1956.
Jorge Lorenzo 1.
56.
5047.
Randy De Puniet 1.
56.
5048.
Colin Edwards 1.
56.
7229.
Mika Kallio 1.
56.
76710.
Ben Spies 1.
56.
77911.
Aleix Espargarò 1.
56.
89712.
Alvaro Bautista 1.
56.
89813.
Dani Pedrosa 1.
56.
93514.
Marco Melandri 1.
57.
22215.
Hector Barberà 1.
57.
22316.
Hiroshi Aoyama 1.
57.
25117.
Marco Simoncelli 1.
57.
379