First day of testing positive experience for Stoner

The fastest rider of the post-race Monday in Brno, Casey Stoner had the kind of positive test welcomed by the Ducati Marlboro team. The Australian was immediately fast onboard the Desmosedici GP8 with very little warmup, and concluded the first of two sessions in the Czech Republic with the quickest time of the day, a 1´56.261.

`It has been a really positive day. We didn't have too much to test - a couple of new tyres and that's about it - but we managed to find a new setting to improve on what was already a very good situation,´ said the 2007 MotoGP World Champion, whose weekend was only blighted by a lack of points to show for his fast times in practice. He believed that his pace could have been even faster in the run-up to the race, had it not have been for the sickness experienced on arrival in Brno.

`I managed to drop my lap times by almost a second on yesterday and that´s really positive. Unfortunately my physical condition on Friday and the rain on Saturday meant that we didn´t head into the race in the best possible shape. In any case I´m happy because the things we´ve improved today will be useful for the upcoming races. Hopefully the weather´s good to us again tomorrow so we can finish the job off with Bridgestone.´

Stoner and his bike will need to be in the best shape possible over the next six races, as he looks to make up a 50-point deficit between himself and MotoGP World Championship leader Valentino Rossi.