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Casey Stoner and Marco Melandri lapped sixth
and fifteenth fastest respectively on the first day of free practice at Jerez de
la Frontera in Spain. Stoner suffered a small crash in the afternoon but he
escaped injury and was able to return to action shortly
afterwards.
However, the incident was a setback to the World Champion's
set-up work at a circuit that has proved to be one of the most challenging on
the calendar for the Ducati Marlboro Team and his fastest time of the day was
set in the morning practice when he was a close second.
Melandri remains
a long way from the ideal set-up after working with the race setting he found so
effective in Qatar, which has proved to be less so at the Spanish
circuit.
CASEY STONER (Ducati Marlboro
Team) 6th fastest - 1'40.828
"We knew before we started that
this isn't the best circuit for us and we struggled from the first session this
morning to find the ideal setting. During the first practice we were struggling
a lot getting the bike to enter the corner under heavy braking, which we finally
fixed this afternoon, but then we started to get a lot more problems in the rear
- it was pumping and moving around a lot. We went forwards in one area and
backwards in another so we need to sort both things out and come up with a new
gameplan tomorrow. We'll concentrate on the front setting first because that was
giving us the most problems and then we'll try to fix the rear after that. We
really don't know what happened with the crash. There was no reason for it. The
front's been a little bit nervous all day but not terrible and I just tipped it
into the corner, it started to go and there was no way I could save it".
MARCO MELANDRI (Ducati
Marlboro Team) 15th fastest - 1'41.825
"It hasn't been an easy
day because the settings from the race in Qatar, which I'd had a really good
feeling with, haven't worked here. We tried to make only a few modifications to
find some grip and improve the bike under braking but we're still not managing
it. I know this isn't the best circuit for our bike but today I was still hoping
to do a lot better. All we can do is keep working hard and hope that the weather
stays good for tomorrow."
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