Casey Stoner marked his return to the Ducati MotoGP team by testing its 2015 bike at Sepang on Saturday.
It was the 2007 and ‘11 world champion’s first run for Ducati since his final race for the team in Valencia in 2010, and his first time on a race bike since suffering injuries in a crash during last year’s Suzuka 8 Hours.
Stoner, who has rejoined the team in a test and ambassadorial role, posted a best time of 2m02.1s on the day, completing 54 laps of the Sepang circuit – which will host next week’s opening pre-season test.
“I honestly didn’t know what to expect, but the whole team was fantastic,” said Stoner.
“I still need a little more time to return to a competitive level and find the right feeling because I haven’t ridden a MotoGP bike for a year and haven’t been on a race bike for six months.
“But it was a positive first day, we immediately found a good feeling with the bikes and tyres, quicker than I would have expected.
“I’m happy and a bit surprised with my lap time and I hope to improve it further.”
Stoner says his focus in the tests is to support factory riders Andrea Dovizioso and Andrea Iannone, with Ducati so far refusing to commit to a wildcard entry for the Australian.
“The Desmosedici GP has great potential and I hope to be able to give the right feedback to Gigi [Dall’Igna] and the Ducati engineers to help the two Andreas get some good results this year,” he said.
While much of the focus was on the returning Stoner, Ducati test rider Michele Pirro was also in action, debuting the team’s new GP16 bike.
“The sensation was good and already on Wednesday we were able to do a good job,” said the Italian.
“Today I only did a few laps because the program was focused on testing electrical components and fuel consumption, once my work was finished the team focused on the debut of Casey.
“I am convinced that we can achieve good results and Iannone and Dovizioso are confident too, despite the track conditions not being optimal.”
Stoner had been scheduled to enjoy a second day of test running on Sunday, but this has been postponed in favour of entering him into the official MotoGP test at Sepang next week.
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