The Australian rider climbed in the saddle of a 2010 RC212V and scored the best time of the day at Sepang, lapping the Malaysian circuit in 2:01.574, which was more than 4 tenths of a second faster than Lorenzo in the time classification. And to make it even better, Honda sandwiched the Yamaha rider on top of the timing reports, as Dani Pedrosa finished the Day 1 action in 3rd place, merely 0.047 seconds behind Lorenzo.
“At the beginning it took some time to get used to the bike again, but I soon felt comfortable and we had a good day,” said Stoner after the first day of action in 2010.
“We did some work later on with the engine braking to decrease some chattering and looks like we found a good solution. In the next two days we will start testing something new but anyway for me, it was a very good way to come back on track after the winter break,” added the Aussie, who used the same bike setup with which he tackled last year's test in Valencia.
More than 7 tenths of a second off pace was impressive Gresini Honda rider Marco Simoncelli, who managed to pass the second Yamaha rider Ben Spies for 4th place by only 0.037 seconds. At his first official test with a works Yamaha in 2010, the American rider suffered a crash in the early hours of the test, but managed to escape unharmed.
The Top 10 was completed by Suzuki's Alvaro Bautista, Gresini's Hiroshi Aoyama, Honda's Andrea Dovizioso, Tech 3's Colin Edwards and Pramac Ducati's Randy de Puniet. As far as 7-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi goes, the Doctor finished the test in 12th place, almost 1.8 seconds slower than Stoner.
The Italian rider admitted he is still not fully recovered from the operation he sustained on his shoulder, but continued with his adaptation programme with the new Ducati GP11.
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