Ducati Team riders Casey Stoner and Nicky Hayden benefited from an extended spell of sunny weather at Phillip Island today as they began set-up work on their Desmosedici GP9 machines in the first free practice session for the Australian Grand Prix. Strong winds and heavy overnight rain gave way to largely blue skies this morning, allowing for a crucial opening 45-minutes of dry track time in the afternoon although both riders struggled to find grip on the cool track surface.
The Australian, celebrating his 24th birthday today, led the time sheets in the early stages of the session and stayed firm in second place after being dislodged by Valentino Rossi, closing to within 0.135 seconds of the Italian with an exciting final lap.
"I‰Ûªm not that happy with today‰Ûªs session to be honest," Stoner said.
"The track conditions weren‰Ûªt good at all and we struggled for traction, which is usually a strong point of our bike. We tried a few different settings, one of which gave us better rear grip but compensated in turning, which was otherwise really good. The front end was quite consistent throughout so it‰Ûªs just a case of working on the rear tomorrow and hoping that the track conditions improve so that we can find where the limits are.
"The weather is always a worry here and there was a point in the session this afternoon where it began to spot with rain just as I was heading into turn one and I came back in. I probably had my best setting at that point so the lap time could have been better but I think it has been a difficult day for everybody so we‰Ûªre not too concerned.‰Û
