Stoner on-track for positive Assen race

Fully recovered from his Barcelona illness, Casey Stoner was back on near-best form in Thursday’s practice session for the Alice TT Assen. The Ducati Marlboro rider placed third fastest in the tight timesheet, and insists that there is more to come from him at the Dutch track.

“The first day’s been quite positive for us. We still need to improve the bike a lot but the lap times that we were capable of were a lot better than what we arrived to do. For tomorrow it’s put us in a good position,” said the Australian, before explaining some of the small difficulties that the team will aim to rectify to give him a more comfortable Friday feeling.

“I still haven’t found the limit of the braking points and we still have some small improvements to make on the front end. Also the engine braking wasn’t working so well today. The bike should feel much better.

“We did race distance and the tyre felt very good, so we have to look forward to the next two days. Maybe we’re one step behind after not being fully fit for the Barcelona test, but we’ll try and do what we have to do.”

Stoner is level on points with Valentino Rossi and Jorge Lorenzo in the World Championship standings, following the trio’s podium domination at the last round.