Friday Feb 29 2008
Qatar Testing session - Day 2

Ducati Marlboro Team pair Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri declared themselves happy with the work done after two nights of testing in Qatar, where they have spent time finalising their preparations for the historic night race that will get the 2008 season underway in just over a week's time.

Both riders have been impressed with the lighting system that illuminates the circuit and can't wait to get back on track for the first race of the championship. Stoner's race pace was hot once again this evening and a small crash on the way into turn two did nothing to dent his satisfaction with the job done. Melandri is also confident after making progress with the setting of his GP8.

Stoner and Melandri will be back in Doha for first free practice at the Grand Prix of Qatar on Friday 7th March at 1900h local time.




CASEY STONER, Ducati Marlboro Team

"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."

MARCO MELANDRI, Ducati Marlboro Team

"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."

Circuit Record: Casey Stoner (Ducati - 2007), 1'56.528, 166.208 km/h
Best Pole: Valentino Rossi (Yamaha - 2007), 1'55.002

Lap times, Friday 29th February

1. Jorge LORENZO (Yamaha)1:54.552
2. James TOSELAND (Yamaha) 1:54.592
3. Randy DE PUNIET (Honda)1:54.973
4. Colin EDWARDS (Yamaha)1:55.464
5. Casey STONER (Ducati Marlboro Team) 1:55.485
6. Andrea DOVIZIOSO (Honda) 1:55.550
7. Nicky HAYDEN (Honda)1:55.674
8. Chris VERMEULEN (Suzuki) 1:56.119
9. Alex DE ANGELIS (Honda) 1:56.249
10. Valentino ROSSI (Yamaha) 1:56.256
11. Loris CAPIROSSI (Suzuki) 1:56.450
12. John HOPKINS (Kawasaki) 1:56.612
13. Dani PEDROSA (Honda) 1:56.704
14. Shinya NAKANO (Honda) 1:56.792
15. Marco MELANDRI(Ducati Marlboro Team) 1:56.902
16. Toni ELIAS: (Ducati) 1:56.986
17. Sylvain GUINTOLI (Ducati) 1:57.055
18. Anthony WEST (Kawasaki) 1:57.459