Ducati's Carbon Chassis, Stoner's Secret Weapon

Filippo Preziosi, Ducati's technical director, said that Casey Stoner had a major advantage in Qatar thanks to the new carbon fiber-made chassis of his new bike, which made it more stable and easier to handle at high speeds. Stoner dominated the whole weekend in the season opener, with Valentino Rossi finishing 7.771 seconds behind him.

"This carbon fibre chassis has given him [Stoner] an advantage that he didn't have with the GP8," Preziosi was quoted as saying by Autosprint. "I think that with last year's bike Casey would have struggled to maintain the rhythm he had this time. He would have had to force more, or he would have been slower."

Basically, the carbon fiber chassis improves many of the bike's features, making it more stable while reducing the overall weight and thus improving the engine performance figures.

"It's not just at turn entry. In quick sections the bike is more stable and it also has more grip at turn exit. There are also a few more small advantages, but we want to keep those to ourselves for a while longer!" the Ducati technical director added.

"Jerez has always been considered difficult for us, however in the test Casey was very quick," Preziosi added. "He's never gone so well at Jerez before using this bike with carbon fibre chassis. It was a fine result for us."

Casey Stoner won the Qatar Grand Prix with a total time of 42'53.984, followed by Valentino Rossi (+7.771) and Jorge Lorenzo (+16.244). The Australian started the race from pole-position, with Rossi and Lorenzo getting the second and third position in the qualifying stage of Losail.