Stoner fastest in warm-up, Rossi rides without problems

Sunday, 5 October 2008

Poleman and home favourite Casey Stoner was more than a second faster than any of his rivals in the Sunday morning MotoGP warm-up at Phillip Island.

Ducati Marlboro´s Aussie hero Casey Stoner warmed-up the home crowd with a dominant display of pace in the Sunday warm-up run, lapping the sun-kissed Phillip Island track 1.122s quicker than nearest rival Alex de Angelis with a 1´29.707 effort in the 10.40am outing.

With similar times to De Angelis, Honda-equipped Michelin-men Randy de Puniet, Andrea Dovizioso and Nicky Hayden were also in the top five.

Lapping sixth quickest Valentino Rossi appeared to be riding without any major restriction, after his painful qualifying crash yesterday afternoon, which saw him end up twelfth on the grid.

The warm-up top ten also included Dani Pedrosa and a Yamaha trio of 100th Grand Prix participant Colin Edwards, birthday boy James Toseland and front row starter Jorge Lorenzo.

The only crasher in the session was Stoner´s team-mate Marco Melandri who walked away unscathed from the incident. Toseland had a run-off after being hit by a bird, but was able to stay upright and immediately returned to the asphalt.