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Casey Stoner ended the first day of free
practice for the Grand Prix de France as the second fastest rider around the Le
Mans circuit on a cool (19° C) but, most importantly, dry start to the
weekend.
The World Champion ended the day satisfied with the job done by
his crew as he made gradual progress with the setting of his Ducati, after
finding a fast and consistent pace on race tyres.
Marco Melandri has yet
to find the perfect set-up for this track despite finding some impressive pace
through the first two splits. The Italian now hopes to improve around the second
half of the circuit, particularly under braking, and find an optimum set-up for
the race - as he did in China two weeks ago.
CASEY STONER (Ducati
Marlboro Team) 2nd fastest: 1'34.276
"We're struggling a little
bit in T4, as we did last year. We need a little more acceleration coming onto
the straights and it's a bit difficult for us in those tight but long corners.
Tomorrow we'll make some changes to try and improve on that but basically the
idea is to compensate for it by making our strong points even stronger. In any
case today has been a good step for us because we haven't been really
competitive in the last three races and it's good to start a Grand Prix in the
right way again. This morning was going quite well but the setting wasn't quite
right to be able to show what we could really do and then this afternoon we had
a small problem with the engine on one of the bikes. The setting on the second
bike wasn't perfect but the team made a small change that allowed me to go seven
tenths quicker, so I was delighted with that. The weather forecast is a little
all over the show, as it usually is here, and you never quite know what you're
going to get so it's good to get two dry sessions under our belt. I'm happy with
what we've got so far and ready for whatever the clouds throw at us
tomorrow."
MARCO MELANDRI - (Ducati
Marlboro Team) 14th fastest: 1'35.678
"I was hoping to start this
weekend a little better but even though engine performance isn't bad we still
haven't found the right way forward with the set-up of the cycle part. At the
moment I can't brake as hard as I would like. When I'm braking with the bike
upright it's okay but when it's leaned over the problems start. With a lot of
braking areas in the turns at this track it means I'm losing a couple of vital
tenths. We've done some different tyre tests and even though we've found
something I like we're still not getting enough grip. We'll obviously try to
improve that tomorrow because we want to at least be at the same level we
reached two weeks ago in China."
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