Stoner the fastest again after the MotoGP FP2 in Qatar

The kangaroo Casey has once again set the best time in the FP2 sessions of the MotoGP category. It seems the Australian rider has his bike very well set up, because with very few laps he manages to dominate the sessions. In fact, this first partial is the only one that has escaped him for being the fastest in all of them; this partial went to Hayden.

Casey’s time was 1:55.960, improving on yesterday’s session time. Behind him is our Lorenzo, with a good race pace since he has always been riding around his best time; his was 1:56.174, really very close to Stoner’s.

Jorge needs to improve in the third sector, which is where he has the most to gain. Once he manages to get the bike in its right place to push in this sector too, he will have Casey very, very close. Number 99 completed ten full laps, just one more than Stoner.

The surprise of the day was Andrea Dovizioso, who slipped in with a satellite bike to finish third, 688 thousandths behind Stoner’s time. It seems the Italian rider is starting to feel the Yamaha as it should be and is adapting to a slightly different riding style from the one he had at Honda and that he had grown used to over the years.

Fourth was Ben Spies, consolidating what we said yesterday: the Yamahas are very strong, with three in the first four positions. The great work the brand has done since the tuning fork brand has been reflected in every session.

Those still failing to convince are the Ducati, very aggressive in their reactions; they “complain” when changing direction and when exiting corners under strong acceleration, such as on the exit onto the home straight, where the anti-wheelie does not seem fully tuned, leaving the front wheel in the air several times with the consequent jolt when it touches the asphalt again. It’s not that the other bikes don’t do it, just that it is being observed more often on the Ducatis.

The best Italian-brand rider in today’s session was our Barberá, who is going head to head with the factory bikes. We’ll see how the weekend goes, but our Héctor is sure to make a lot of headlines.

Of the fantastic ones, two are missing, Pedrosa and Valentino. The first suffered a crash when we were about halfway through the sessions, in an area that a priori does not seem complicated; we will wait to hear his feelings before saying anything on this subject. Pedrosa returned to the pits and, without consequences, got back on what is his second bike. On the other side, Valentino is starting to be uncomfortable to see so far back. He finished tenth, but that is not the worst of it: for us, the worrying thing is that it is not the first Ducati. He has a lot of work ahead, and each day is one less before the race. We’ll see how his situation develops in the next sessions.

The CRTs are also surprising, with Colin Edwards the fastest. Once again we get another surprise regarding the championship: when we all thought it would be a walk in the park for ART, the Suter BMW is not losing pace and will fight the Aprilias without mercy. Randy De Puniet finished just behind him but almost a second off. If we keep looking back, we find the first of the Avintia bikes, that of Yonny Hernández, who in these sessions managed to beat his teammate.