A
ustralian Casey Stoner has
completed an emotional
return to the Ducati factory with
a single day's outing on the
Desmosedici GP16 at Sepang
in Malaysia. Ducati's only world
champion in the MotoGP cat-
egory was elated with being
back on a MotoGP machine,
one he described as a massive
change from his previous Ducati
steed, where he set a best time
of 2:02.1s. That time, in just his
first test as a new Ducati rider
and having not ridden a MotoGP
bike for over a year, was just over
three seconds off Dani Pedrosa's
pole time at the 2015 Malaysian
MotoGP at the same track.
"It's been a really good ex-
perience today with the Ducati
Team," Stoner said at the conclu-
sion of his first day. "I wasn't too
sure what to expect but every-
body has been fantastic, welcom-
ing me and working with me to try
and get the best out of myself and
this bike. I need some time to get
back to speed and get the feeling
back, because I haven't ridden
a MotoGP bike for one year and
any bike at all for six months. It
was a very productive first day;
we got comfortable with the bike
and the tires a lot more quickly
than I thought I would. We've
got a lot of things to test and get
myself a little bit more acquainted
with the bike but generally I'm
very happy. The Desmosedici
GP has a lot of potential, hope-
fully we can give the right input
and help the two Andreas to try
and achieve something great
this year. I'm pretty happy and
surprised with my lap time to be
honest, hopefully the next day we
can be a bit more comfortable af-
ter sleeping on it. It's been fantas-
tic working with Gabriele (Conti)
again and with Marco (Palmerini)
and Gigi (Dall'Igna): everyone has
been really professional. So far,
so good!"
After the tech briefing, it was
decided Stoner would not run
on Sunday as originally planned
and instead will return to the track
for one day during the official
MotoGP test next week, with
Tuesday the most likely option.
That means he'll be on track with
all other MotoGP riders and have
a timing transponder, a mouth-
watering prospect for everyone
who is waiting to see how the
30-year-old Australian measures
up against the current crop of
MotoGP riders. CN
IN
THE
WIND
P28
CASEY STONER
TAKES TO THE TRACK
WITH DUCATI
(Left) Stoner has lost
hardly any of his speed
since his retirement.
(Above) Happy Aussie!
Casey has pledged to
do all he can to help
Ducati.
