Fiat Yamaha Team's Valentino Rossi (Photo: Yamaha Racing)
There are no points or trophies to be had in preseason testing and, unlike prior years, the world financial crisis has taken away the traditional Spring Shoot-Out with its BMW automobile as the prize for the fastest man on two wheels. But whenever the best riders in the world share a track there is ultimately a winner and a pecking order. Anyone who says these tests and these times don't matter doesn’t know motorcycle racers.
After three two-day sessions for the 17 permanent MotoGP riders there was one winner and one very pesky runner-up. Italy’s Valentino Rossi was fastest in five of the six sessions on his FIAT Yamaha M1, but was just edged in the final session at Losail in Qatar by Australian Casey Stoner, who left his best lap until late and took not only honors for the best time on Day 2 but also the best overall time for the two-day (actually two-night) session under the lights.
Stoner’s best time of 1´55.353 with the Ducati Desmosedici was not quite as quick as his fastest lap last year of 1’55.286, set en route to the win of the 2009 opener, nor as fast as Jorge Lorenzo’s absolute Losail lap record of 1´53.927 (on Michelin tires) set back in 2008 when he took his Yamaha to second back of Stoner in the young Spaniard’s MotoGP debut.
Based on each rider’s overall placing at the end of each of the six days of official testing, Rossi and Stoner are exactly where they were expected to be by most observers and fans, and Lorenzo’s slump to fourth can be explained by a training crash on a motocross bike that resulted in a broken thumb and caused him to miss the second Sepang outings.
But the results by the factory Honda riders have been disappointing, and Honda’s leader, Dani Pedrosa, has had a disappointing preseason as reflected in his average placing -- only good enough to put him ninth.
