Moto GP

Casey Stoner set to join official MotoGP test at Sepang

Posted:

Monday, February 1st, 2016

11:39 AM

Casey Stoner sat out day two of Ducati's private test in Sepang but will be back on board when the MotoGP troop hit the circuit tomorrow for day one of official testing.

Michele Pirro took over duties today, resuming the Ducati Team‰Ûªs development programme in preparation for the official IRTA test that gets underway tomorrow.

It was a day off however for Casey Stoner, who spent much of yesterday lapping on the 2015 version of the Desmosedici GP in his new role as test-rider, completing 54 laps.

Last night, after the team‰Ûªs regular technical debrief, it was decided that the Italian should continue with the development work, while Stoner will be back out on track again on one of the next three days of official testing, together with all the other protagonists of the 2016 MotoGP World Championship.

Casey Stoner will be back in action during MotoGP's first official test of 2016. Photo: Ducati Corse

Pirro did almost all of his 43 laps on the 2015 version of the bike, testing several different electronic settings for the unified ‰Û÷spec‰Ûª software introduced this season. A late-afternoon downpour also allowed him to complete a few laps on Michelin rain tyres.

Tomorrow will see the start of IRTA testing and Andrea Iannone and Andrea Dovizioso will be out on track for the first time since the winter break: the two factory Ducati Team riders will have both a 2015-spec and a 2016-spec Desmosedici GP available.

Michele Pirro.

Michele Pirro, who clocked his best time at 2‰Ûª02.4 during his 43 laps, said, ‰ÛÏApart from a quick shakedown this morning on the 2016 bike, today we focused on electronic set-up work using last year‰Ûªs bike. We also got a chance to do six laps in the wet, picking up some more useful data for the software, seeing as we have never lapped in the rain with this configuration. It was a positive day for the information we accumulated and I think that we have reached a good base setting for the start of the tests tomorrow.‰Û