(Left) Young
Australian
Casey Stoner
was impressive.
The UI-year-old
ended up the
third quickest
on his 250cc
Aprilla.
(Right! Max
Blaggl (2gl rode
John Kocinski's
M1 to the fifth
best time 01 the
test. Here he
leads Daijiro
Katoh's Honda
NSR500.
Second quickest rider was Frenchman Randy De Puniet, but the star of
the show was undoubtedly Casey
details. I'm just concentrating on
making progress, forgetting all
about the other bikes I've ridden.
The Cube's something else - it's
special. "
With cold weather an ever-present
feature of the tests, and only a short
period of full sunshine on the last
day, only Barros and Sunday-morning crasher Nobuatsu Aoki failed to
improve their lap times on the last
afternoon.
In the 250cc league. Fonsi Nieto
scored the fastest lap, a 1:35.680,
which would have put him just outside the top 10 500cc times.
Stoner, who ended up third fastest on
his Aprilia 250. His best of 1:37.046
was well down on the time set by
Nieto, but the rookie was ahead of
such 250 forces as Alex Debon, Franco Battaini, Sebastien Porto, Roberto
Locatelli and even Marco Melandri.
The cold weather at Valencia may
have been an unwelcome factor in
this test, but the pace suffered little.
Some of the top teams now make the
journey to Estoril for the next IRTA
test, but the first real clash of all the
titans, human and mechanical, 500
and four-stroke, will come at
Barcelona on March 9-10.
eN
IIIcIInIo r... Cin:lIIt
v.... s,ma
Ilesldls: FeIIr8ry 15-17. Z-.z
MOTQGP: Garry McCoy (1 :34.070); 2. Shinyo
Nokono (1:34.360); 3. Corlos Checo (1:34.654); 4.
Ooijiro K.toh (1 :34.722); 5. Max Bioggi (1:34.820).
2S0cc GP: Fonsi Nieto (1 :35.680); 2. Randy
DePuniet (1:36.998); 3. Cosey Stone (1:37.046); 4.
Alex Debao (1:37.325); 5. Franco Battaini
(1:37.344).
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auale
n
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s
•
FEBRUARY
27.2002
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