Stoner then Lorenzo - business as usual, Rossi 5th

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Motorcycling-Stoner ends first MotoGP test of 2012 on top - Reuters - Thu, 02 Feb 12:43:00 2012

MotoGP world champion Casey Stoner threw down the gauntlet with a lap half a second faster than his rivals on the final day of the first pre-season test at Malaysia's Sepang circuit on Thursday.

The Australian, who will be chasing his third title in the top category, had missed Tuesday's first day of testing after straining his back but he returned to top the timing screens on both of the following two days.

The Honda rider set his top time of one minute 59.607, inside Valentino Rossi's circuit record, with only his second lap on Thursday morning on the new 1,000cc machine that has replaced last year's 800cc bike.

He was the only rider under the two minute mark.

Spain's former champion Jorge Lorenzo was second fastest on the Yamaha YZR-M1, 0.59 slower than Stoner in 2:00.198.

"I'm really, really satisfied, I have improved on my best record here in Sepang," said Lorenzo. "We tried a lot of things; some have been a lot better, especially one major improvement. We also know where we have to improve in the future.

"The electronics are not perfect yet, we still need to make it smoother but the bike has so much potential we are very optimistic."

MotoGP great Rossi was fifth, with Ducati satisfied with the initial performance of the bike despite the Italian being more than a second off the pace.

"This test was mainly focused on understanding if this bike is better in the front and I can say that it is," the official motogp.com website quoted Ducati Corse general manager Filippo Preziosi as saying.

Can't wait for the season to start! Can't see anyone coming near Stoner to be honest. I've never seen any rider since Mick Doohan ride so hard.....he just rings the neck of that Honda!

Can't wait for the season to start! Can't see anyone coming near Stoner to be honest. I've never seen any rider since Mick Doohan ride so hard.....he just rings the neck of that Honda!

I have been a Rossi fan for more than a decade but Stoner is something else. Shame the season start so late ie at Easter, when so many other seasons start in late Feb ie World Superbike, NASCAR, F1 mid March, WRC already started and second race next weekend.

There should be a off season but December and January should be enough.

Good luck to Chad Davies in WSB and I hope MotoGP is not too much of a walk in the park for Stoner and I will mis the big guy Marco as someone who is also on the tall side it was great to see a great big gangaly bloke doing the business rather than these pocket sized racers weight less than my dog. Please bring in a minimum bike & rider limit so you can be 70 Kgs or so and still race competively!

Should be a great season....to be fair Casey really has come on over the last few years. You really need to have a top bike and be on your game to come close to him.

Interesting comments on Casey/Ducati success...

http://www.crash.net/motogp/news/175903/1/rossi_2012_ducati_motogp_machine_beautiful.html

"Rossi hinted that MotoGP's use of a single tyre supplier since 2009 - and the limited tyre options that involves - means that there is a narrow margin for design variation.

In other words, Bridgestone naturally provides tyres that best suit the majority of machines on the grid... and the majority of machines use an (unstressed) aluminium twin-spar chassis."

ie. pre 2009 Ducati/Casey were having Bridgestones made specifically for them....so made to work with the old style chasis. I'm not having a go at Casey but may show how he could make it work, when others couldn't.